Left Alive

I can understand why this game has mostly negative reviews. It is a low-budget title that doesn't fit neatly into any particular game genre. You might say it has an "identity crisis," but I would argue that Left Alive knows exactly what its identity is and it fairly succeeds at achieving it. Is it a stealth game like Metal Gear? Is it a mech game like Front Mission Evolved or Armored Core? Is it a third person shooter? Is it a survival/crafting game? Games like this that don't fit neatly into any box always tend to get mixed reactions from audiences. And if they are janky and low-budget on top of that, you have a recipe for a "Mostly Negative" rating. All that said, Left Alive is one of the finest and most refreshing gaming experiences I've had in a while. It is a game about surviving a war. Of course, in this war you'll be moving across war-torn sections of the city amidst futuristic soldiers, drones, and giant mechs. The game has many unique mechanics that make all this interesting, first off, I love a game that doesn't hold your hand, and apart from the occasional tutorial. The game will give you objectives, but not tell you how to approach them or achieve them. Missions can play out in different ways and objectives can be even be skipped or failed. In the second mission for example, I got spotted when I was near where I was supposed to meet some survivors to help them evacuate, as I ran away enemy soldiers flooded the area searching for me and found the survivors and executed them before I could even meet them, meaning I got an "objective failed" notification when I discovered the bullet riddled corpses. Because save points are few and far between and because combat is so dangerous and resources (like ammunition, explosives, and crafting items to make improvised weapons) are limited, the game requires you to be very methodical. Often, you'll want to establish a "home base" in an area of a mission map near a save point (save points often have healing stations with limited heals and an item storage box) where you can go to save, craft, store excess loot, and refresh yourself safely before heading out to gather loot, scout enemy positions, thin their numbers through stealthy ambushes, or make your way to an objective. Another neat feature is that you can leave items in storage boxes and the storage boxes don't share inventory, but since you play as three different characters, another character can come through and take items you left behind as another character. Enemies also respond to the player's actions. When they spot you or fight you on the map, they'll send reinforcements to the area and step up patrols making those areas more dangerous to traverse. You really have to think like an insurgent by using improvised weapons like IEDs and improvised turrets and combat avoidance, only meeting the enemy on your terms. But, also you tend to get no reward for actually killing enemies (you'll almost always expend more ammo than you'll get back), so combat is best avoided whenever possible. But, yeah, the game is very janky and low-budget. Animations are stiff and limited. Graphics are dated. Sound design is bare bones. Combat is half baked. The camera and controls will get in your way from time to time. Aesthetically the game looks good, great futuristic military vibe, and the snow covered war-torn city with Christmas decorations still up really does look quite beautiful at times. But, many areas and environments are reused heavily and/or copy/pasted. The mech designs are really cool (Takayuki Yanase is a great mech designer). The story is interesting and having 3 different perspectives on it is cool, even if the voice acting and script may be a bit cringe at times. Overall, I adore this game. To me, many of its cons are minor or endearing. And its innovations, unique gameplay, vibes, slow pace, and story are intoxicating. But, if you are looking for a polished, well crafted, carefully curated, and non-stop action or pure stealth oriented experience, you'll be disappointed.

I really enjoyed this game.
I played through the whole game on Casual difficulty and it was pretty fun. On Casual, stealth is optional, and you can gun through every situation. The enemy AI is hilarious. They RUN AWAY FROM YOU! Their behavior is funnier than guys in Tenchu Z. I like the characters, story, mecha, and the many documents that give me world info.
The game isn't perfect however.
-There should have been at least twice as much mech combat.
-The enemy has SILENT HELICOPTERS. Silent... Helicopters... They have some amazing stealth tech to make helicopters completely silent.
-The crosshairs are bad in close quarters.
-World of Tanks is extremely out of place.
My response to other negative perspectives:
-"The game is too hard!" Play on a difficulty you can play at. You're a casual gamer, so play on Casual difficulty like me.
-"The framerate is bad." Not for me. I have an RTX 3070 and playing on Ultra graphics with a perfect 60fps.
-"Crashes" I didn't experience any crashes on Windows 11.
-"Bugs" I didn't see any.
All other negative reviews are opinionated about some things, or don't list any reasoning for how they don't like it.

Left Alive has its flaws, but I'm going to give it a recommended. If you enjoy the world of Front Mission and are not locked into its turn based tactics gameplay, I think you can enjoy this game. The atmosphere is terrific (assuming you turn off the ridiculous World of Tanks DLC ads). Wanzers feel quite imposing when on foot, which you don't get in the mainline games.

After reading about the difficulty I decided to play on an easier setting and it felt a bit too easy, but I could easily imagine it quickly becoming too hard. Late game Wanzer combat, which is similar to Front Mission Evolved, is the only time I had a slight bit of trouble on the easier difficulty.

Enemy combat reactions are a bit goofy, and it does have some crashing issues, but I enjoyed my time in Left Alive. Maybe wait for a sale though.

Is this worth $60? Absolutely not!
But I will say, that this game feels like a game that came out at the wrong time in history. This game would have been great released in the Xbox 360 era. This is a game with a mixture of elements that doesn't quite get it right.. It's like randomly throwing ingredients into a soup hoping it will turn out good, and it doesn't overall. However, when you start to get some pieces out of it, you can start to taste what Square Enix was trying to cook with this. It's like that one festival in Stardew Valley where everyone throws in ingredients hoping to make the dish tasty... even though you threw in great 5 star quality ingredients, others threw in something that came out of the sea. A little bit of RPG, choices matters, third person action game, stealth mechanics, and large mechs... Some elements of this game taste good, while others still need to be cooked more. Like rendering out the fat on a steak.
Don't buy this full price, but check it out on sale around $5 or $6 dollars if you want a throw-back to a 360 era game that feels lost in time.
This is my positive review on a mostly negative game.

Its not bad when bought at a discount, but this game is designed to be difficult, will take few map runs to get familiar with each chapters.

I just finished the first chapter and honestly I’m enjoying this game a lot. I don’t really understand why it got so much hate back then. I actually bought it around 2020 but never played it because I had other games on my list.
People should accept that there is no such thing as a perfect game. I know Square Enix rushed this game to launch, but if you’re a Front Mission fan you’ll probably enjoy playing it just to experience the universe.
The game does have some cons. For example, there’s no takedown feature even though many missions rely on stealth. Also, the Koshka voice constantly saying “caution, enemy approaching” can become annoying after a while.
About performance: many people said it runs badly, but for me it’s been perfect. I’m playing at over 100 FPS on ultra settings and haven’t experienced any bugs or glitches so far. The aiming, gameplay, and crafting systems aren’t the best, but they’re not awful either. I actually like the UI and the graphics.
I think when people get overly hyped for a game, they end up hating it more when it doesn’t meet their expectations. That happens with a lot of games. You shouldn’t judge a game only by what people say you should try it yourself.
So far I like the game and I’m going to keep playing it. There’s also a feature where your decisions matter, and some NPCs can live or die depending on your choices. The game has its pros too, so it’s definitely not all bad. It’s better to listen to feedback, but also try the game yourself before judging it.

As Front Mission game Fan this game is quite Bad
Story (too many skipped part)
Gameplay enemy too hard to kill (casual mode is the way for 1st play)
Wanzer Battle (nothing special)

The thing got me play till end is Olga Sergeevna Kalinina