The latest Metal Gear game is just around the corner and builds on the foundations laid down by Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. We got our hands on the game early, and give you our thoughts.
By
Sean Bradley| 41 mins ago
Price comparison from, and manufacturers
Metal Gear Survive is the latest Metal Gear title being developed and published by Konami, set for release on 22 February this year. This is the first Metal Gear game to be developed following the departure of Hideo Kojima, the legendary Producer and Designer who has worked on the series for over three decades.
The game is set just after the events of Ground Zeroes, and is a spin off from the timeline of The Phantom Pain. A wormhole appears in the sky and promptly sucks Motherbase into its churning maw, and then into another dimension. If you’ve played a Metal Gear game before you probably won’t be batting an eyelid at any of this.
As a nameless soldier, you must survive in this new and hostile world that has been overrun with a parasite that turns humans into ‘Wanderers’, aka zombies. The game features the familiar Metal Gear feel of action stealth, mixed with a heavy dose of scavenging, crafting, base building and survival.
The game runs on the Fox Engine and is built from the foundations of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. This also comes across in the performance, which is very solid on the PS4 with no noticeable frame drops even in the more crowded areas.
Once you complete the introduction you are left standing in the middle of a ruined base. You’ve got a couple of AI companions who will guide you through the mechanics of the game, teaching you what you need to know and giving you objectives.
The most immediate change you’ll notice from Phantom Pain is the introduction of a hunger and thirst system. These are displayed as a percentage at the bottom left of your screen, which slowly ticks down over time. To make these values recover you must scavenge food and water from the landscape – ideally cooking things first at your campfire.
Your hunger and thirst have a large effect on your maximum health and stamina, so you’ll want to make sure you’re bringing some snacks if you’re heading out into the world.
Your base provides access to several of crafting stations, where you can create an ever increasing array of gadgets, weapons, armour and buildings from items you scavenge throughout the world.
I did feel that between the need to feed and water yourself, and having to scavenge through the map to find the materials necessary to craft items and upgrades, I was doing a lot of running around looking for things just so I could have a chance of completing the next mission.
The combat in the game is true to the Metal Gear formula, as stealth being the advised way forward and combat being the fall back. The zombies hurt. A lot. If you get too close they will slap you for a good chunk of your health, and that’s just one of them. Getting overrun is a very real possibility, and that’s something I really enjoyed.
Clever use of your crafted gadgets is crucial for the times you have to defend a point from the hordes. Watching zombies start to slowly climb the fence in front of you, only to have it topple over under their weight is a very nice touch and really adds to their relentless feel.
The controls felt slightly clunky to me, but that might be because you start the game with access to only melee weapons, and every time I play a third person action game with a melee weapon I can’t help but compare it to Dark Souls which gives you fantastic moment to moment control over your character. However, that style of combat certainly wouldn’t suit this game. The longer animations and slower pace means you have to take a more tactical approach, and combined with how much damage the zombies do, makes the game rather challenging.
You will find crates out in the world that contain recipes for new weapons and gadgets. These are a welcome sight when you’re sneaking through a compound with zombies stumbling into walls everywhere, knowing you’re one slip away from re-enacting a scene from War Z. However, if you make a mistake in the mini-game that opens them up you will alert every zombie within a three mile radius to your position, so try not to do that too often.
The multiplayer was a highlight for me. The game mode I played was 4 player co-op, and had us defending a point from waves of wanderers. We deployed our defences and did our best to hold back the hordes. Our gear was fairly limited, but we were told of all sorts of fun weapons that we could eventually find in the single player and bring into multiplayer – there was mention of a particular defensive structure that featured spinning helicopter blades. I think I’ll be heavily investing in that.
Between these waves, we had side-missions pop up on the map that would reward us with some tasty loot – providing we could get back to defend the base fast enough after doing them. One of them was to collect some Metal Gears, which were rather effective at dealing with any zombie related issues we had. They did make my primary weapon, a pointy stick, feel a bit redundant next to the armoured death machines that my partners were piloting – but someone needs to be the distraction for the zombies, right?
The game is very solid and has a lot of available content. Your character levels up and unlocks new talents as you progress through the game. There were a few mechanics I didn’t get to see, such as farming and the personnel management at the base which provides even more things to get your teeth into.
While some of these activities are certainly enjoyable, I can’t help but feel there is a lot of busy work required before you can progress through the story. Perhaps this gets better later, but finding food on top of scavenging for materials so you can actually play the game gets a lot less interesting after you’ve done it for the fifth time.
Despite that, fans of Metal Gear V will feel right at home here with the game’s tone and feel. The wanderers being dangerous up close, and a need to be more tactical makes a nice difference to other zombie titles that encourage you to hack and slash.
