METAL GEAR SURVIVE

Got better

This is a re-review, as I initially reviewed it negatively after 3 hours. The game felt slow paced, and certain aspects seemed illogical. Well after a few months curiosity got the better of me and I decided to try again, now 32 hours of gameplay later my opinion on the game has completely changed. I judged the game too harshly too early. If you're looking for a typical Metal Gear game, then this isn't it (but neither is Metal Gear Rising). Survive is a fun game in isolation, as a companion to Metal Gear Solid V, but not a proper sequel. To begin with I thought the developers had the lore incorrect in terms of when certain things take place in the timeline, but had I played on a bit further I would have realised that there is some timey wimey fun going on in this game. My other main critique of the game before was the fact that I couldn’t boil water from the start, meaning I had to drink dirty water and kept getting sick, when common sense should have allowed me to boil the water from the start. Two missions later the game gave me this option, kind of out of the blue, so it was a bit stupid, but it did have it in the end. Once I really got into the game I was treated with a fun gameplay loop and an interesting story. Usually I finish a game before I give it a full review, however I am stuck on a late game mission atm, but this is down to my own skill issue. The game never seems to give you cheap deaths, if you die or fail it feels like your fault and not the game screwing you over. This is good game design. Overall, I think this game gets a bad name unfairly. The early game is difficult and could have been done better, and this I believe is where most people (like myself initially) give up on it and call it a bad game. But if you can get through the early stages you are rewarded with a fun, if not quite strange Metal Gear side game. Give it a go and judge for yourself. Also, it ran well on Linux