(Disclaimer)
The metal gear series is my favorite series of all time, not just in gaming but in all Entertainment. The themes and concepts touching society, politics and life are one that not many entertainment series reach. Making the in game universe relate to the current state of real world issues make it extra special in my experience I have gained more awareness about society and life. This said It should be clear now that i love the series and will give a deeper look into the series than most writers. I wont make this a straight write-up impressions as I will have tons of content all about the game so I will hope to give story today and Co-op tomorrow. Small details and player focus breakdowns will be my focus. If you want exclusive footage go to the bottom of this page I have a quick preview video breaking down a few details and my gameplay action also. If you are looking for my Co-op breakdown head to maggamer.com/metal-gear-survive-co-op-impressions-and-guide/
Thank you for coming by enjoy my Metal Gear Love fest.
First I would like to state that Metal Gear series aka MGS has 9 original series installments that all tie to the lore of the universe and 9 spin-offs that get to create add-on content to help expand the series out into new adventures. The most noted Metal Gear Spin-off is Metal Gear Rising which recieved mixed reviews but was a well put together hack and slash game with sprinkles of Metal Gear mechanics and or lore. This said its 2018 and we are 30 years into the franichise and they are bringing us a new adventure in a intriguing setup that makes sense in a spin-off format.
Metal Gear survive follows right after the Ground zeroes attack on Mother Base, Soldiers aka the Player survive the destruction of the base and (Spoiler free) some how you get sent into a alternate world by a mysterious organization. For this point you get game-play player control and your in a small base with a AI called virgil and person called Reese. You all are trying to figure out what is this world? how to get out? who is the corporation that was or is in the world? what are these creatures? Are there more people here? So many questions I rather stop there but the most important that players will start off with is How to Survive? The games core game-play focuses on the Survival Elements, The moment you are placed in the world life and stamina start to decrease slowly with makes it a intense feeling to have to scavenge for resources.
There is a whole lot of resources you will need going into the game but the two key parts are the Water and food as they tie directly to your life (Food) and Stamina (water) while this may seem easy enough hunting and farming for these will take your time and effort and this alone really make MGSurvive stand out in its own from the series. While Metal Gear solid 3 players will surely remember needing to eat to keep stamina up this game takes that to another level and was the first thing I notice out of the gate making it a survival game through and through. Being a MGS player I was focus on what’s new and different about Survive compared to previous games and without a doubt there is a lot but funny enough the game brings back a lot of great Game-play mechanics from MGS3, MGS4 and MGSVTPP plus more but it really made me feel they took time and care to veteran players like myself a salute to long time fans. At the same time they brought a lot of brand new elements to the game like the Melee system, I always bragged about how MGS Series has the deepest Close Quarters combat system than any other game. Grabbing a soldier and using him as a shield, interrogating him, Choking him out, slitting his throat, Slamming him to floor and much more has been a staple for the series for years and with Survive we get a switch up and now we get melee weapons and Skills. Using a staff, machete, axes and more are ways this game changed big time and it can be a pretty satisfying feeling using the weapons but the key part is that those actually make the survival focus even more immersive than ever.
To make it clear MGS veteran players will have alot of getting use to when it comes to the new melee weapons and system but after a few hours you will be in the swing of things. Starting off you only have a staff and need to gather resources to craft new weapons and its a real fun time taking on enemies limited to start than slowly building your new weapons and abilities as I started with a staff and a hour or so later I got to craft a machete. These work good together as the staff is better used for when you have enemies stuck in one of your defenses and the machete is better to force any enemy away when swamped. The staff has a precision strike to get some good head shots and the machete has a more wide attack to help fend off a few enemies up close. Three hours in I got enough materials to craft a Bow and Arrow and I have to say its my favorite weapon by far. Not only long range makes you safer from the hordes but you can pick up all the arrows used and ammo and resources are scarce unless you find a Godly Farming system when the game comes out you will have to work for everything you get. This was a welcoming challenge as I played as I am over confident as a veteran player all the gadgets at our disposal often make the players overpowered but with Survive it humbles us spoiled players yet this doesn’t mean there isn’t some great items, gadgets, weapons and defenses. The game is filled with Metal Gear-ish tools at your disposal when you earn them through completing missions and scavenging. I felt really happy with the pacing of the story of the game, it gave me a chance to learn the new mechanics and explore the world a little bit. At the start you are given simple task to recover memory boards for the AI Virgil to use to figure out more about the world, the corporation and itself. The Dialog between you, reese and Virgil at the first hours show a big collision coming in the near future. The questions I had was who is the evil or good guys between them all and how intertwined will these relationships get. There will be others you rescue and maybe others you fight? We shall see, note that I will not get into spoiler heavy impressions. I want to give my thoughts and some tips as I write this so please don’t fear spoilers here.
While I was playing I loved how my stamina was a key factor in my actions, just like Metal Gear Online your weight affects your stamina so equipping the need items is key to your abilities to fight and or run. Every strike takes stamina and if your out of it you will be unable to strike or run and this adds to the tense survival base gameplay. Same goes with injuries there is no regeneration of health if your injured. You have to heal yourself and its deeper than just one button, you got to gather the resources needed for the certain medicine. Let’s say I eat something that is rotten I can get food poison and will need the right medicine to fix it or your health will continue to deplete. I really like these small details as outside of combat you have a lot to make sure you are prepared for any situation and encourages me to farm for resources. After gathering a few memory boards I found a Oxygen tank and got send to find a wormhole device that works as the games fast travel device. Which opens up the dialog about escaping this alternate world but that device is only for that world so we will have to find a way to create the real world wormhole device in the future? The story kept building forward with an event where a helicopter came from a wormhole and crash landed. We went to go see what happens next and… I cannot say what’s next until the game is released. Forgive me but I like to leave the story for you to discover. The morale is that there is a story and it builds as you move forward.
Time to pick out a few things that stood out for me, They put in things like The Healing, stamina, eating and exhaustion from MGS3, the threat Ring from MGS4 which detects enemies, the weight system from MGO3 effecting players speed, they took alot of MGSVTPP overall on all fronts. Just a lot of little things like this for hardcore players like me to recognize makes me feel that put in time for us players to fully enjoy this game. In MGSVTPP it was a huge base so large you had to drive or fast drive just to get to other Struts and while it is amazing it was over sized a bit but with SurviVe you get your base and it feels like a how feeling, in the sense that everything is close together and tangible feeling, plus add the ability to customize the base and add reinforcement defenses. It will be interesting to see the whole process and defending my base also will be Key. I got a feeling the story will drive the base building as a focus that will change depending on the players actions. Also in the base you get your Skill trainer which is the skill tree for your new Melee system. From boosting your attacks to adding combos or new moves it really is something I would like to see how good all the new abilities work. This is a new thing in the MGS games to select your own abilities with a Point system. What players use that is best for situations has me ready to spend time experimenting with these skills. With the Dust aka Cloud mysterious areas having some really intriguing things waiting for us keeps building my imagination to what will be there maybe a Metal Gear? Some characters we know and love? Or all new enemies. I will gladly explore for hours once I get the full game in February 20th.
My impressions are this is a Fox Engine game that plays like MGSVTPP but has so many new elements it will take time to get use to all the survival elements. The story makes me want to know more as there is a lot of mystery so far in my first 5 hours. I am not surprised how good the potential of this game can be as Metal Gear tends to always have great installments but the fact that I can say I will surely play this more than I did the last Spin off Metal Gear Rising says a lot about how much details they added to this game. I haven’t even talked about the Co-op which will take up a lot of time as it is a really great add-on to the game but isn’t a stand alone as all the rewards you gain transfer over to the story which make it even more re-playable. While many might choose the story or Co-op the fact they benefit from both makes it more exciting for me. I will not speak on Co-op as my Co-op article will be release during the beta Jan 18th. All this said there will be a lot of content i am putting out about my coverage of MGSurvive. I say try the beta out and see how you like the core game-play but know that the story is there waiting for you on the release date.
Pre-Order is Live for METAL GEAR SURVIVE on all platforms!
XBOX: https://t.co/G9LSI6qubD
PS4: https://t.co/QkwW9uSC18
PC: https://t.co/USsRS7wPSw
Last notes as I feel it’s important to talk with the community of Metal gear fans, We have made it 30 years with the greatest Franchise in video-game history. The innovation, impact and influence the Metal Gear Series is rarely matched by any other and for that I hope fans can come together, weather you a story driven fan who will discover all the mystery in this Spin-off or you will team up on Co-op. Let’s all support this installment and hope for another 30 years of great Metal Gear games. With that said the Beta is out Jan 18th on PS4 and XB1 go try the Coop out for yourself. This is my call to you all, I thank you for all the love and support you have shown throughout the years. I will continue to provide the community content, giveaways, esports events and more. Stay tuned right here at MagGamer.com for all your Metal Gear Series Content.
Just a quick overview of the experience and game with some good footage. A real review will come once I get the full game, for now I have tons of videos for everyone to enjoy stay with me.
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