Metal Gear Survive tarnishes the reputation of a once great franchise, a visionary game developer, and most importantly, the very company that produced it. Konami have gone to great lengths to craft a video game that would win back the hearts of Metal Gear fans, but the only thing it seems to get right is stir more animosity. The backbone of the Metal Gear series is lost in this slog of an experience, riddled with all the problems that hinder the survival horror genre. Furthermore, it takes the applauded stealth mechanics from Metal Gear Solid and tosses it in a grinder with a handful of other unnecessary garble before spitting out the shell of what could've been a decent survival shooter.

The game takes place in some alternate universe shortly after the events of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. Instead of taking control of Snake, however, players are given the freedom to create their own character and journey into a world infested with the undead (for some reason). Players then have to traverse the open world while collecting food, weapons, and components to craft to ensure your survival. Somewhere along the line, you’ll also be tasked with setting up a base camp, which includes recruiting new members, creating farms to harvest food so you don’t starve, and vital resource centers that give you the upper hand in a fight.



Unfortunately, none of this is nearly as interesting as Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. You only get to manage a base camp a little later into the game, but by then, many players would’ve checked out because of how excruciatingly painful the first few hours are to play. The thing you’ll be battling with most is the poorly implemented starvation mechanics. Players have to constantly maintain their food supply, otherwise they’ll run the risk of literally starving to death. It could’ve been an interesting gameplay mechanic if done right, but you starve to death so frequently, that scavenging for animals or fruits to harvest becomes a frustrating chore. It isn’t helped by the fact that these vital resources are so scarce within the world, that you’ll spend most of the time dying just looking for them.

When you do get to the meat of the combat and zombie action, there really isn’t much to see or do. The zombies sport dull, uninteresting designs and have the attention span of a goldfish. You’re hardly pressed for performing stealth takedowns because the zombie AI is so incredibly broken, you can hide behind them while they turn looking for you like a Tom & Jerry cartoon. Clipping issues are also abundant, especially when zombies find themselves stuck in odd places that the player can’t reach, dragging out certain mission objectives even longer than usual because a zombie walked through a wall and disappeared into oblivion.



Most of the combat revolves around you prodding at zombies with a trusty assortment of melee weapons that aren’t fun to use. None of the melee weapons actually have weight to their swing, so it feels like taking a jab at air while zombies are caught in the crosswind. There’s no satisfaction in the way these weapons feel, so it boils down to you searching each area for something that packs more of a punch. Unfortunately, you’ll be looking forever because there is no weapon to use that doesn’t feel like a plastic lid. When you do get to use bows and firearms, they can be entertaining for a while, but you’ll still be fighting the same hordes of zombies while carrying out familiar objectives. Tedium sets in very quickly, and you’ll be begging for something different every time you accept a new mission.

Metal Gear Survive relies heavily on the Fox Engine to keep it afloat, but it’s clear that without the visionary direction that Kojima always brought to his series, the game simply crumbles when trying to replicate that. However, it does run smoothly and the amount of enemies that can be present on screen at once is pretty astounding. There’s no strength in numbers, though, as the zombie hordes operate with a beehive mentality. They’re either charging at you with everything they’ve got, or idiotically tackling a fence that you put up in the middle of an open area, drawn to it like a magnet (it’s hilarious, actually).



In the graphics and sound department, Metal Gear Survive doesn’t present very compelling visuals or a captivating soundtrack like prior games. The graphics come off as unpolished and rough around the edges, especially the various textures on environments which are non-existent for the most part. It can be a disappointingly ugly sight, especially considering how visually spectacular The Phantom Pain was. Konami clearly had little experience in creating a believable world, and it’s evident that there’s a lot of reused assets in the character models and overall style of the landscape, just nowhere near as interesting to look at.

The soundtrack consists of bits of atmospheric, repetitive droning noises during gameplay, saving the actual compositions for big narrative moments, but even then, it still feels like a greatest hits compilation rather than something unique to the experience.

Metal Gear Survive is Kojima’s true phantom pain. It’s a boring grind of repetitive missions, cardboard characters, and shockingly bad AI. It may get by on the strength of its association to the Metal Gear series alone, but die-hard fans will be very disappointed with how shallow of an experience it really is. When the game finally kicks into high gear and becomes mildly interesting towards the second half, it’s still bogged down by a lot of tedious gameplay to really forgive it. It’s a pity that the game has to rely on the Metal Gear brand to sell it, but even without it, it’s still a terrible survival shooter that buckles under the weight of its numerous flaws. The only thing you’ll really have to survive is the game itself.