Reviews

Metal Gear Survive Xbox One Review

Posted on: 2018-02-27

Metal Gear Survive is a cash in to try and capitalise on the name, besides the introduction it has nothing to do with Metal Gear Solid or Metal Gear in general. The gameplay is by the numbers, boring and repetitive..

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The internet can be a forum for debate and conversation, on the over hand it can resemble a child throwing a tantrum in the sweet isle of the supermarket because their mother refused them cola cubes. This was the initial reaction when Metal Gear Survive was announced back in 2016 due to the whole debacle between Hideo Kojima and Konami back in 2015. This is the first Metal Gear project without the series creator Hideo Kojima, which ruffled a few feathers, but is it the spawn of Satan as some will let you believe? Well to be honest this is not a great game.

Metal Gear Survive takes place after the events of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, where Big Boss was sent to Cuba to rescue characters of interest from a POW camp. When he is gone his base of operations Mother Base is attack by the XOF unit under the disguise of a UN nuclear inspection team. It’s after this event you assume control of a random soldier form the Militaries San Frontières, who has been brought back from the dead. You’re placed in an alternate dimension called Dite, but everything is not as it seems as it is infested with creatures called Wanderers and yes you guessed it zombies. The story is not the best as it has a 20 minute introduction with no gameplay at all, yes Metal Gear is known for long cinematics, but the Solid series was interesting. This game’s story is boring with voice acting that is all over the place, with some competent performances to terrible delivery.

The gameplay is cashing in on a fad that was popular nearly a decade ago which Minecraft of all things started back in 2010/11, where you craft, survive (no pun intended) and fight zombies with limited resources. You have to maintain your stamina and hunger, which as I said in my Kingdom Come: Deliverance review it’s fine if it does not get in the way, but it gets in the way in this game as you’re thirsty and starving within minutes when you sprint or engage in combat.  The game has a patronising tutorial that drags on for far too long, and keeps nagging at you like a mother trying to get her teenage son to clean their room every time you don’t feed or heal yourself.

Let’s talk about the combat, unlike Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain it does not have the variation of stealth and action, instead it mostly consists of putting up fences and poking zombies in the face with a stick, I wish I was joking. You craft weapons which deteriorate over time, your primary weapon is a spear like weapon which you have to aim like a firearm and poke, and you can’t swing it which I found to be a missed opportunity. There are guns, which they do give you at the start of the game, but game goes “No that is far too efficient to kill zombies here is a piece of sharp metal taped to a pole”. The combat is repetitive and not enjoyable to engage in; it lacks creativity and caused me to slip into a coma of boredom.

Is there anything good about Metal Gear Survive? Well the presentation is beautiful but that is to be expected as the game runs on the Fox Engine, which has fantastic lighting coupled with detailed landscapes and character models. The game also runs really well with a smooth frame rate of 60 frames per second, which is the only good thing about the game.

Metal Gear Survive is a cash in to try and capitalise on the name, besides the introduction it has nothing to do with Metal Gear Solid or Metal Gear in general with nothing resembling the universe. The gameplay is by the numbers, boring and repetitive it looks nice but graphics alone don’t make a game.

Scores : 2 out of 5

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