Metal Gear Survive

When it was first announced by Konami and revealed to have not only a survival focus but (gasp!) zombies, a lot of folks, myself included, rolled their eyes at the idea. But after playing and completing Metal Gear Survive, it won me over. It’s an enjoyable, bizarre and flawed creation, and I’m glad it exists.

With a confusing and frustrating jumping-off point, it may be hard to break into Metal Gear Survive. Those that manage to stick around, however, should expect to find something worth surviving for.

No, it is not a good Metal Gear game. Yes it is somewhat difficult to love thanks to a laborious and shonky opening act. Yet Metal Gear Survive is a good survival game underneath the grime of its controversial existence. Whether people will give it the chance to show that is a whole other issue.

Though only marginally linked to the main story, Metal Gear Survive works. Doubts and prejudices aside about the continuation of the brand after the Kojima departure, Survive is a good and entertaining product, with a solid history and valid survival mechanics. Although not revolutionizing the genre, what prevents the title from achieving higher results are microtransitions, which although not excessively invasive, should not be present in a full price game.

Metal Gear Survive is a strange and unique mix. On one hand it’s an interesting survival game, on the other it’s a merge of Sci-Fi elements with a shoehorned political plot and dull characters. The game has some genuinely fun and intense moments, but its mechanics and stiff controls sometimes make the experience unnecessarily difficult. Despite all of this the game can be quite rewarding and keeps you in a state of urgency that can be really fun.

Metal Gear Survive is a good survival and crafting game, but it's fun to play only in the initial hours. Konami has taken a chance with its idea, but fails due to plenty of monotone moments.

Konami takes a chance with Metal Gear Survive and focuses on delivering a game with the same base, but a different type of genre. A risky bet that has its innovative moments, but fails to completely entertain and has plenty of monotone moments.

A decent survival game with a rewarding, if uninspired, grind to its resource collecting and base management.

Survive is a good crafting, management and survival game that delivers a fun and addictive experience even with its obvious narrative and playable shortcomings.

Let's put aside the controversies about the Metal Gear saga, and talk about the game, and what it can really offer. The idea of mixing the gameplay of Metal Gear Solid V with a survival setting could have really worked, but the truth is that the very foundation of the game is pretty weak and messy. There are some fun and challenging moments, but overall it feels like a wasted opportunity.

The major problem of this game is having the name Metal Gear in its title. Seems like It has nothing to do with the franchise and while it has some good ideas as a game, in the end, the final product is disappointing.

Far from the original root of the series, Metal Gear Survive suffers from a very repetitive gameplay be it in solo or in multiplayer, and the not discreet at all micro-transctions don't help. At least the story is worthy and might hold your interest.

Metal Gear Survive has good control and a fun crafting system. However, the game is repetitive and the saving system is a harmful (food/drink as well).

Survive might not compare well to the tactical espionage action that’s defined the Metal Gear series we know and love, but its oddly hit-or-miss combo of some solid old ideas and some clumsy new ones has at least some appeal.

It has lots of meters and things to craft, and an interesting navigation system that challenges the player. It also has a crushing amount of repetition, the slimiest of microtransactions, and it whiffs on anything but tangential connection to the main Metal Gear franchise. This is not Metal Gear Solid 6. If you can accept that fact with an open mind, you may actually like what you find.

Metal Gear Survive is just a mediocre game, and the absence of Kojima has nothing to do with that.

Survive is a much different Metal Gear game than the rest, something that will infuriate many fans of the series. But this game is an acceptable survival game despite a forgettable multiplayer and some poor ideas.

The newest part in the Metal Gear franchise is Survive. While the previous Metal Gear games had a hint of stealth and action, survival plays the biggest role in this game. There's plenty of missions and zombies to slay, but they don’t have much variety.

Survive isn’t the lifeless husk of the Metal Gear series many thought it would be with its creator no longer running the show. When it gets its groove, it’s something very special indeed - its story, world, and freedom for exploration and creativity are all remarkable. The problem is that it'ss difficult to ignore the malingering corporate influence that has filled the gap in Kojima’s absence.

Not your typical Metal Gear, but a bold move for the series. Great controls and visuals, bur the survival aspect is not unique and will not appeal to all fans.

Fans of classic Metal Gear games will probably find little of interest here; their overall impressions of the game ought to be mediocre - Survive simply fails to captivate. The magical atmosphere known from Snake's adventures is nowhere to be found. However, the new MGS should appeal to enthusiasts of survival - there's a lot of it here. If you like exploration, gathering and crafting, give it a shot.

Metal Gear Survive doesn’t fail due to its baggage or expectations. It blunders entirely on its own merits. Its co-op suite shows promise and could become legitimately great in time, but the rest of Survive is a boring, grind-heavy slog where the biggest reward is simply more stuff. For as many bits of metal, wood, and fabric I had after 70 hours of play, I couldn’t help but think I’d wasted all of my time.

Sadly, its invasive microtransaction structure and otherwise lack of engagement as a Metal Gear/stealth entrant is what will likely stand as its greatest downfall — inevitably cancelling out all the goodwill the game creates in its shorter spells. Metal Gear Survive as a whole isn’t the utter abomination many had suspected it would be, but it doesn’t push itself beyond the still-waning status of being tepidly average.

This Metal Gear spin-off surprisingly sets itself between a hardcore survival and a 3D tower-defense game, which will hardly satisfy most gamers. If you survive the initial ruthless hours, you could realize Metal Gear Survive's true potential, delivering a long and tough survival experience. Unfortunately, Konami's greed for micro-transactions breaks the game's balance and is way too prominent to appear as a minor feature.

“Survive” is a theater of minor irritations made from the disassembled essentials of human survival.

Metal Gear Survive isn't a great game, but it is a fun game. Journeying into the Dust to find resources and survivors is a legitimately tense experience and your progress through the game feels satisfying. Unfortunately, hunger and thirst drop a bit too quickly, leaving you diving into menus for upkeep far too much of the time. With some tweaks and changes, Survive could be great, but as it stands, it's just good.

Metal Gear Survive is just another middling survival game, with a name-drop that doesn’t do it any favors.

The worst part of Metal Gear Survive is its opening hours.

There’s a weird, enjoyable story in Metal Gear Survive for players who make it past the game’s grueling opening hours, and there are flashes of a great survival game. But with a threadbare connection to the 30-year history of Metal Gear and a comparatively shallow game made in the shadow of The Phantom Pain, it’s hard to recommend enduring the whole thing.

The whole existence of Metal Gear Survive closely resembles this of the Wanderers – the game’s zombies. With the story, characters and wit ripped out completely off it’s body, what remains is a lifeless yet standing shell of Metal Gear Solid V. The decent (and borrowed) survival mechanics barely keep this husk walking around aimlessly with no purpose whatsoever. Survive may not be a bad survival game, but the merciless grind required and lack of respect for gamers’ time are inexcusable.

It feels as though Konami channelled Franz Kafka to produce a retelling of the myth of Sisyphus. [May 2018, p.116]

We're all for survival, but when Captain needs to huddle down for a glass of milk and a roasted gerbil in the middle of the final boss battle, you know it's a step too far, and that's without the sodding microtransactions. [Issue#198, p.70]

Metal Gear Survive is alright. It strikes such an almost perfect balance between mind-numbing tedium and rage-tinted fun that if you're willing to let it take you, there's a very compelling experience under all the brown and grey textures - just don't expect it to do justice to the franchise under which it shuffles.

This is a game poorly planned and executed by Konami, and unfortunately, could be the final nail in the coffin for longtime fans of the Metal Gear franchise.

Survive is a serviceable game, but its story and writing lack the one thing that drew fans to the series in the first place: heart.

Metal Gear Survive is a good idea that finds itself crippled by an overwhelming mob of bad ideas. It’s interesting but ultimately handicapped by a ruthless application of unnecessarily brutal constraints that serves to diminish what should have been a fascinating spin-off.

We can imagine a Metal Gear game with zombies that would be a lot of fun, but Metal Gear Survive is not that game. Everything about it, from the thin and uninspiring story and characters to the survival systems and combat, feels tuned to keep you busy, but not entertained. It’s a game that crams in mechanics and ideas without finding a way to make them fun together, while always failing to respect players’ time.

Metal Gear Survive feels oppressive, demanding, and obtuse, and needlessly so. It's a shame because there's actually a good survival game in there, but the pressures it places on you make uncovering and enjoying that unappealing.

Metal Gear Survive is neither a good Metal Gear Solid game nor a good survival game. It feels more like a cynical cash grab due to being not only the most expensive survival game on the market, but also how flagrantly it peppers in the microtransactions.

An uninspired mish-mash of poorly balanced systems that translates to an experience that feels like a chore.

Not the Metal Gear fans will be used to in terms of either quality or action. But despite a few interesting highlights, it’s just too boring to get very angry about.

Metal Gear Survive should have been a free-to-play game just like Grasshopper's Let it Die or an actual Metal Gear release. It doesn't accomplish either aim.

This lack of confidence is the ultimate undoing of Survive’s story. For every unique idea the game presents, it almost immediately backpedals into a generic, played-out conceit.