METAL GEAR SURVIVE

Game never had a chance at success given the climate at the time of release. Fun game overall, would have been better recieved without the metal gear name frankly.

Intro
(Spoiler-Free Review)
Metal Gear Survive (MGSU) is an experimental open-world action game that blends elements from many different genres. In this spin-off players impersonate "The Captain", one of the survivors of a mysterious incident that transported them into a parallel dimension. Toxic air, harsh climate and dangerous monsters make this alien world extremely dangerous to humans: that's why the Captain along with an AI called Virgil and other survivors, has to find a way to go back in their reality.
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🟩 The Good Side
It just works!
MGSU manages to jam together mechanics belonging to around a dozen different genres and somehow make the whole thing work quite well. From survival-crafting to stealth, passing through base / resource management, tower defense and third person shooter, Survive creates a unique gameplay style thanks to bold design decisions that mostly work out well. The fact new gameplay aspects, enemies and whole mechanics get added as the campaign progresses (and even after), prevents the title from getting stale, as there is always something new to look forward to and experiment with.
Defenders of a broken land
The game focuses much on the defense aspect at all times through both the solo campaign and co-op missions. MGSU delivers a freeform building style where players can place crafted barriers, stationary weapons, traps and more anywhere in the map to create a stronghold against the oncoming waves. Enemy variety during these phases is not great, but it compensates by making each Special enemy unique in behavior and purpose. Be it in solo or with others, building and defending a custom fortress with the hard-earned materials always feels satisfying and plays out well.
Never saw THAT before
Survive is a boon for completionists and collectors. Legendary weapons, rare animals, secret blueprints, tons of hidden cosmetics, secret bosses - all this and more is out there in the wastelands, waiting to be found. Both during the campaign, in the post-endgame and also co-op, there is always something new and exciting popping up between exotic weapons, new enemies and secondary missions. Global events lasting a certain period of time (MMO-style) also feature unique bosses, rewards and modifiers when they happen, adding more variety.
🟥 The Bad Side
Always online? Always stupid.
MGSU requires an active internet connection, even when playing in solo. Any slight disturbance to the net may trigger an error that immediately kicks players to the main menu, with possible progress loss. This is a stupid design decision that will surely penalize many players, as not everyone might happen to have a connection (or a stable one) at all times.
I can't believe it's not a mobile game!
One of MGSU's biggest flaws is found in the quite annoying micro-transaction amount. Want additional character slots (which can give certain advantages)? Pay up. Want to have more than one Expedition Team to send in special missions? Pay up. Want to avoid waiting 20+ hours between base defense waves? Pay up. This kind of mechanics might be okay in a free-to-play game, but have no place in a 40€ title on PC.
I know that I know nothing
This game has the very bad habit of not explaining at all, or poorly, a lot of otherwise essential / important mechanics or nuances that would make any player's lives infinitely better after knowing them. One thing is making a learning process, which is good by all means - another is completely failing to explain how many things work. Unite this factor with a very fiddly, unintuitive interface design and there is a recipe for annoyance.
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Rating: Good
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It took me 38 hours to complete the campaign, taking time to fully explore all areas and secondary missions. After that the co-op and post-endgame contents come into play, which take more than 50-60 hours: in total there are 100+ hours of content. For the price of 40€ I would suggest buying full price only if you have someone to play with, otherwise wait for a discount since a large chunk of content is co-op related.
In-Depth Breakdown
🎮 Gameplay Analysis
Gameplay is divided into Exploration, Base Management, Defense Missions and Combat
Exploration
Is performed on foot or with vehicles which however degrade over time and are rare. Later on, teleports become available to fast-travel. Navigation is provided by a map, which however doesn't indicate player position while in the Mist, a noxious gas permeating most of the world that reduces visibility and limits oxygen. Each area has many secret containers and supply caches to find, each can be marked with Stickers to remember the location, as they will respawn after some time. Animals, plants and of course enemies are also present across all maps, presenting different dangers.
Base Management
Consists in providing food, water and supplies to the Captain's crew. At first this is a difficult manual process, but later support facilities like purifiers or farms are unlocked. Players also need to manage six different teams,h eac with its own purpose, by assigning crew members to them depending on their attitude. Each team's rank increases with better members, and gives out bonuses. Defending the base also becomes necessary in some circumstances, and each of its four sides has a Defense Rating to boost by building specific structures such as guns or barriers.
Defense Missions
Have a Digger to defend as main objective usually and to do this the Captain, alone in the campaign or in Co-Op online, will have to build defenses such as fences, barricades, mortars, traps and more to fend off the incoming waves of monsters. Defenses can be destroyed, the Captain can of course be killed, and each monster deals generally high damage until late game. Enemy paths are usually indicated in tower-defense style, and there is some time between each wave to repair and prepare. Always having what one needs is key to victory.
Combat
Plays out in third-person style, with some weapons able to ADS. The shooting and feeling of guns is good enough, however there is more emphasis on melee combat and special related moves such as each weapon category having unique movesets, special CQC counter-attacks and throws, while also context-based attacks like backstabs or stomps on downed foes. Balance is decent enough, Wanders and specials feel satisfying to fight thanks to good impact weight, balanced challenge and reasonable variety of weapons to try out.
Tech Corner
Specs: RTX 2080Ti, Ryzen 9 3900X, 32GB RAM, SSD
Critical Issues
None.
Performance
- VRAM Usage: 3.6 GB
- GPU Utilization: 43%
- RAM Usage: 2.2 GB
- CPU Usage: 14%
- Settings: All Maxed, 1440p 60Hz
- Optimization Rating: Good
Bugs & Issues
- Alt-Tabbing causes connection problems.
- There is no function to dismiss unwanted Crew members.

NOT A Hideo Kojima Game
...and that's okay.
I recommend 'Metal Gear Survive' only as an addendum to 'Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes + The Phantom Pain', sorta like 'Metal Gear Online'.
MGSurvive is and that's a good thing. It's just messing around with the mechanics that TPP left behind.
Did you like the Mother Base development but thought it was lacking? It's in Survive.
Did you like resource collection? It's better in Survive.
Did you like utilizing lethal weaponry but wish you weren't "PUNISHED" for it? Survive.
Wish you could parkour over rocks without Snake slipping all the time? Survive.
The game does feel cheaper, a lot of Kojima's flair just isn't there. The boundaries of the world feel inorganic and LOD pop-in is bad sometimes. Lots of recycled assets from TPP.
Yet, we get Masahiro Ito(!), Silent Hill 2-3's creature designer (Pyramid Head, man), to add enough of a layer of interest to keep the game engaging. At times, wandering the Dust feels like MGS and Silent Hill finally crossing over, if only a little. (There are even some 'P. T." sound effects!") Each area feels like a unique place. As far as I can tell so far, no area is copied from the previous games like was reported initially.
The world is less open than TPP, but that's only a good thing in my opinion. More like an open Metroidvania (sorta) with tons of secrets and collectible items for those willing to explore.
Overall, this is still made by real talented people and many of them having worked with Kojima before or other great projects. It's unfortunate that the game didn't get a fair shake upon release, but I understand wholly why that was.
Get the game on sale. I got it for $7.50. Easily worth it. Though for anyone who liked MGSV a lot but are left with something missing, but the pain is still there... yeah, give Survive a shot.
MAIN BIG BAD THING:
I just found out that the game will unceremoniously kick you from the game if your Internet drops. In SINGLE PLAYER. Unacceptable. Cut off my online perks and events, sure, but don't throw me out entirely. No. Bad design.

For a piece of crap? it was pretty good. Seriously though, its only crimes are its awful story, and the fact that it is called "Metal Gear". Otherwise, its a pretty fun survival/crafting/base building game

Shouldn't be called Metal Gear. If Kojima really did have these ideas for this game, I'm glad he made the better version with Death Stranding. I enjoy this game, but it isn't a Metal Gear game, just a guilty pleasure.

Not as bad as people made it out to be. Bought this on sale with a couple of friends and I'd say we got our money's worth.
The story sucks but the gameplay loop is actually fun and the co-op missions and progression is fairly deep.
It's too bad Konami built it like a mobile game with shitty timers. Having 20 hours between each wave is a huge turn off and I stopped playing at that point. But getting there was fun enough and I'm glad I gave it a chance.
At %80 off and some friends you could have a great time.

... Call it a tentative recommendation.
I picked this up on sale. I wasn't expecting much. But it's not a bad game. The ugly backstory behind the game's creation will overshadow the game itself. However, ignoring all that - I've played much worse games than this.
But let's establish what this game is, at its core: A budget title. It shouldn't be - Konami should be a big publisher, Metal Gear should be a big franchise, the budget should've been expansive. But everyone knows what's happened at Konami, and so the result is that everything about Survive shows the limits of how far they could go.
For example, there are only a few cutscenes, which are notable for lack of dialogue. Actual dialogue takes place with still images and slideshows - clearly, they didn't have the budget to really do full motion-capture cinematics. (I have the unresearched hunch that originally, they were planning full cinematics, as the still images are from the ingame engine - but I think at some point, they must've had to cut that).
However, within those limitations - there are core mechanics and core gameplay loops here which are all actually very well-balanced. The combat is challenging, so even lower-level enemies pose challenge, but skillful play lets you triumph. Melee dominates; ranged weapons exist, but ammo management makes their usage strategic. Stealth isn't necessarily required, but it will definitely save you time, energy, and resources by letting you avoid enemies.
The strategic layer is the exploration. You have a big blank map and you have to uncover it all yourself. You have to explore to obtain resources, find weapons, and locate new areas. The oxygen mechanic makes you weigh the time you're spending out in the "dust" versus the energy it takes to refill. Again, it's all well-balanced - resources are just plentiful enough that you can find what you need, but not so plentiful that exploration is no longer needed. And that ties into the combat loop quite well. Exploring the dust truly does feel like you're launching an expedition into the dangerous and unknown, and you have to weigh the benefits of your decisions out in the dust.
Even the story is pretty decent. Again, the limitations are evident - no intricate subplots or character stories. And the main plot was limited to only what could be told via still images of people's heads over a slideshow. But the plot is decent enough - government conspiracy intrigue, with a few decent twists that I didn't see coming.
My gut instinct is that the team that made Survive consisted of whatever competent game designers still remained at Konami after the purge. And they had enough talent to construct a decent, well-balanced gameplay experience with a decent enough story that had enough originality.
Which makes it more of a shame, because it's wasted here. As I said, it's a budget title, and the budgetary constraints are obvious.
Biggest negative: the visuals are extremely underwhelming. The Fox Engine is a great engine, and the assets they re-use from MGSV look good - but they clearly didn't have much of a team to create new art assets. There are only a few enemy types who suffice you for the full game. (There are other boss monsters that exist in co-op and post-credits play only - which I would guess are casualties of budget cuts. I am certain the original plan was to incorporate these boss monsters into the main story mode, but they ran out of money or time, so they only exist in modes where they don't have to be explained). The environment looks very much the same everywhere - barren desert wasteland with a heavy gray fog. Later on, you open up an area which is somewhat forested wasteland with a heavy gray fog - which made for a very mild change. I guess it's tough to get much more extravagant than that if you're not allowed to create new assets. So it's all very, very dull to look at.
There's an attempt at a RPG skill-building tree, but it's very limited. It unlocks melee abilities, which do incorporate into the main combat loop pretty well - but they're pretty much limited to things that they wouldn't have had to create extensive new animation or coding for.
The ending to the game is ... decent, but it doesn't give you much closure. There's a limit to how much of a denouement you can create when you're not allowed to use cutscenes or hire more than a handful of voice actors. Then it dumps you into sandbox mode - which unlocks extra bosses, new base buildings, new mission types - which I really feel should've been incorporated into the main campaign, but again, they just ran out of time or money or both.
Kojima fans are righteously angry at this game's very existence - and I can't really blame them, but their ire is misplaced. I think this game is actually just another casualty of the tragic decisions made by Konami. There's clearly talent and originality here among this team of devs, but they were on an extremely tight leash for this game and they'll be doing nothing but creating pachinko machines for Konami from now on.
Disclosure - I'm not a Kojima fan. I've enjoyed some of his games, I thought MGSV was really, really good - but I also thought MGS2 was disappointing and that MGS4 was a massive load of dog turds with all the worst tendencies of Hideo Kojima's design and writing (god, his writing) on display. (MGSV, by comparison was all the best tendencies of Kojima's design on display. ) So I didn't quite feel the same deep profound sense of betrayal at Kojima's firing and Survive's creation that all the fanboys did.
On its own merits, I think Survive is a decent enough game, and I might recommend it to a gamer who enjoys this kind of game if it was on sale. In the larger context, it's just a shame that it wasn't allowed to become anything more than it was.
Miscellaneous notes:
- I wasn't too happy about the 'always-online' component of the game, because my internet has a tendency of disconnecting and reconnecting itself randomly, which led to me losing my progress. But always-online has grown more common nowadays than when Survive was first released.
- I had no issue with microtransactions. I never once felt I needed microtransactions to advance. In fact, I am not even certain how to buy ingame currency or what it can be used for. Maybe it was more of a presence at launch.
- If you want to play more than one character, then you do need to pay extra, I believe. I dunno - I was never tempted to do that. I'm not sure what benefit playing more than one character might be. I suppose if you wanted to have another character concurrently, this would be a bugbear for you.