METAL GEAR SURVIVE

Let's begin with the Metal Gear series because, for over three decades, this stealth action game franchise became the hallmark of Konami history as well as the man behind it, Sir Hideo Kojima himself. When Mr. Kojima left Konami for good to start his own development team from scratch, fans are wondering what will the future of the Metal Gear franchise be without him, and turns out, despite Mr. Kojima's departure, the franchise still survives, and as demonstrated by its latest installment.

Metal Gear Survive

This is what they come up with. It's called METAL GEAR SURVIVE and true to its name, the franchise does survive despite Mr. Kojima's departure from Konami, but for the wrong reason because as it implies, MG SURVIVE is a combination of stealth and survival game that takes a lot of wits to survive in a horrifying new world you set foot.

Using the game mechanics from THE PHANTOM PAIN, MG Survive works in both ways, you can either go on a solo campaign to delve deeper into the story of the game or play cooperatively with mates online. Whichever game style you go for, the game gets tougher and tougher but the rewards will get better for your next exploration. 

In solo play, you are assuming the role of a soldier caught up in the fall of Mother Base as seen at the end of Ground Zeroes. Under the hands of a top-secret organization, you've been sent out to a distorted world full of creatures known as Wanderers to find the cure for this infection. 

Before setting off, you can personalize what soldier will you be and when setting off, you need to be familiar with the survival elements you come across. Because this is a survival game, you need to collect items to craft items and weapons. Later on, you will encounter survivors that will be proven to benefit you in your home base. At your home base, you can craft items, check your staff, produce necessities such as food, water, and medicine (of course), fortify with defenses, can customize whatever you want to make your home base unique as long as it is battle-ready in case of a swarm of Wanderers lurking your way.  Oh yeah, as you explore the treacherous environment, you may run into the mist world and because you're equipped with the oxygen tank, surviving the mist world is harsh indeed because battling enemies will deplete your oxygen level so best to be careful while you're out there.

Playing co-op with other players is a great way to experience MG Survive at its best and in this kind of co-op, players need to defend the Wormhole Digger from a wave of creatures. Defend it long enough, the mission is a success and you can keep the rewards such as materials needed for crafting items and equipment as well as other stuff. Goof this off, the mission is a failure. It's important to cooperate with other players and come prepared with the strongest equipment available to make sure missions can go smoothly as planned and if you are enjoying it, it can be very rewarding and addictive.

How to sum this game up? Well, the franchise did survive but in the wrong direction because it's different from the Metal Gear games we're familiar with, and blending stealth action with survival gameplay sounds like a new challenge for seasoned Metal Gear fanatics but since this is a Metal Gear game, it's worth a shot trying it. It can be very unpleasant at first but the more you play MG Survive, the more you're getting the hang of this new kind of Metal Gear gameplay and that is the bottom line. Of course, the Metal Gear saga has been with us for three decades and while the franchise managed to survive without Mr. Kojima, it feels kind of tragic knowing that the franchise shriveled itself to the wrong way around and as demonstrated with MG Survive, it leaves players in a sea of disappointing faces knowing that a Metal Gear game is not a Metal Gear game without Mr. Kojima but since what's done is done, there's no turning back to it so enjoy playing this new Metal Gear game while you can.