METAL GEAR SURVIVE

Good survival game. If you ignore the 'Metal Gear' in the title it's not half bad.

Wormhole Detected
Metal Gear Survive gets a bad rap, and honestly, I get it. As a Metal Gear game, it’s terrible. But as a weird, janky survival game built on the bones of The Phantom Pain, it’s surprisingly fun and addictive once you stop comparing it to Kojima’s work.
The story is a mess. The presentation is all over the place, and the tone lands somewhere between “cheap sci-fi spinoff” and “fan mod gone wrong.” You’ll go from a proper cutscene to static character portraits with voice-over and text boxes because the team probably didn’t have the time or budget to animate full scenes. It’s jarring and weird. The writing tries to mimic Kojima’s style without any of the nuance, and the result is mostly forgettable. The AI companion, Virgil, is annoying as hell, and the cast doesn’t leave much of an impression.
But once you stop thinking of it as a Metal Gear game, it starts to click. The survival loop is actually fun. You’ll manage hunger, thirst, oxygen, and gear durability while scavenging supplies in hostile environments filled with crystalline zombie-like creatures called Wanderers. Base building is satisfying and meaningful. You’ll craft fences, farms, workstations, and water purifiers, then assign rescued survivors to jobs to keep your camp running. Scavenging runs are tense and rewarding, and the crafting and upgrade systems give you a steady stream of new toys to chase. Early on you’re poking zombies through fences with a spear (which is goofy as hell), but as your arsenal expands, you’ll be setting traps, upgrading gear, and building defenses.
The core gameplay is solid because it uses the Fox Engine, the same one from Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain. Movement, aiming, and stealth all feel tight and responsive. Combat is simple but satisfying, and exploring “The Dust” (low-visibility areas where your oxygen slowly drains) adds a sense of tension and danger that works surprisingly well. The game even throws in tower defense-style horde sequences that can be chaotic but exciting.
The always-online requirement is pointless and frustrating for a primarily single-player experience. The microtransactions are downright offensive. Charging players for extra save slots is abhorrent and inexcusable. The early game can be a grind, and the story never really recovers from its half-baked presentation.
Still, once the systems and mechanics open up, Metal Gear Survive is genuinely fun. It scratches an itch I wasn’t expecting, and the Fox Engine makes everything feel great to play. It’s unique, oddly charming, and unlike any other survival game out there.
Metal Gear Survive:
As a Metal Gear game, you suck.
As a survival game, you’re pretty good.
Recommended, if you go in with the right expectations.

Not at all a Metal Gear game but a great Survival game. Really fun up until the post game. Then it got wayyy to grindy. But no where near bad as people mad it out to be. All because some some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ youtuber like dunky made the game have a bad rep. Content creators ruin gaming.

I spent the longest time not playing this one because it looked like a lazy attempt at making money but g*ddamn, this was fun. It does get grindy and repetitive, but I enjoyed most of it.
You gather resources while avoiding zombies to craft equipment, upgrade it, improve your base, recruit survivors. There are skills to learn, blueprints to obtain, clothes with attachments; a lot of things that are new to the game. Then you defend your base against hordes of zombies, which can be really hard. Losing so many times made me change my approach and use more of the secondary weapons, which I normally don't even touch on a Metal Gear game, and that gave me a sense of satisfaction I was not expecting.
I like the fact that they do try to link the story to the Metal Gear canon. In the end I was very glad I gave it a try

No where near as bad as people say. its not a good mgs game but its a great zombie survival game

Honestly, the game is really fun. I love the whole base building aspect as well as the combat survival system. The only thing that I dislike about this game is that it's roughly a decade old now. You will not find anyone playing the game on multiplayer, making it extremely hard and less fun to progress by yourself on once you beat the story. I'd only recommend buying this game if you have nothing else to do, and like this type of game play (and if you can convince some friends to play the game with you).

Spoiler-free review
Metal Gear Survive is an amazing game but it’s not a “Metal Gear” game. Unlike the core Metal Gear games, this game doesn’t have a captivating story with movie-like presentation. Its ties with the Metal Gear saga are anecdotal. Metal Gear Survive’s short story and handful of characters are “bland”, especially the generic main player character.
What elevates this game for me is … it’s multiplayer co-op mode : Salvage.
Salvage can be played solo but it requires preparation and knowledge of the game’s mechanics. Playing Salvage with a team (or just one more player) is an amazing experience. With a limited amount of gadgets and ammo of your choosing, you get to challenge your loadout, trap layout and techniques against increasingly bigger waves of Wanderers (Metal Gear Survive’s zombies). Figuring out efficient trap placement is a long term goal that’s really rewarding.
The best experiences I’ve had are on the hardest difficulty setting : Extreme. It takes some time to reach the requirements to play Extreme Salvage but it’s worth it for the sheer intensity of the last waves. There are daily and weekly Salvage missions that have different modifiers. Everyday, you get a “new” challenge !
The single player game can be seen as a tutorial for the multiplayer mode as well as a relaxing and active way to farm materials to maintain your character's efficiency in Salvage mode. You also get to passively farm materials with your single player base layout and crew. Once the initial grind is over, it only requires you to login some minutes every day to get a worthy payoff !
Improving my arsenal, my knowledge of the game and my bases’ productivity are my main motivations to continue playing after beating the story.
Issues
Now the sad part … the game doesn’t have a big player base … It’s hard to rely on the QuickMatch function to find teammates. It’s better to join the Metal Gear Survive Discord and play when others are actively playing the co-op mode. Add the people you see to your Friend List and it’s easier to join their games in the future (through an in-game menu) ! The community is great and helpful. New players join all the time ! The game is still active at the right times.
The game is online only. Your character data is stored on Konami’s servers. Multiplayer is not fully server based (one player is the host and the others are the clients). Depending on your connection with the host, you can experience some delays (lags).
If Konami’s servers are busy for maintenance, you cannot play the game (not even the single player).
There are some small bugs left but nothing truly bothersome or game breaking.
The game received criticism for its in-game shop (using real money to purchase Survive Coins). I’d like to add that :
you don’t need to purchase more character slots (story missions can be replayed) → character slots (up to 3 extra) are worth it if you want to have multiple bases passively generating resources at the same time
you don’t need to buy any Kuban or BattlePoint time limited boosters → these boosters are worth it to unlock the higher tier cosmetics nameplates during time limited events
With enough patience, you can also acquire Survive Coins for free (from weekend daily login rewards and the event shop).
Should you buy it ?
Metal Gear Survive is definitely worth it during a sale ! Don’t think of it as a Metal Gear game but as a multiplayer Tower Defense game with Survival elements (durability, hunger, thirst). If you join the game’s Discord, you’ll get into online games pretty fast. Check out some gameplay videos of Co-op Salvage to see if you like it !