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Lots of Metal Gear Survive single player impressions, footage (45+ min)

signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
40,199
40 minutes of sinple player via Polygon



45 minutes, Japanese


Some impressions:

https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/review/games/metal-gear-survive-preview-hands-on-3670405/

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. If you're a fan of zombie games or metal gear, you really can't go wrong with this one.
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http://www.pcgamer.com/clumsy-brawls-with-dumb-zombies-make-metal-gear-survive-hard-to-get-into/

The zombies—called wanderers in Survive—are way less interesting to sneak around and toy with than MGS5's soldiers. This is likely due to their sheer numbers and hivelike mentality. During an operation in which I had to retrieve some data from a two-story building surrounded by the things, I managed to sneak into the building using cover from storage crates flanking its sides. But when I stepped outside, a zombie spotted me from my second floor position and alerted the dozen or so wandering the lot to my presence within seconds. They huddled on the ground level, scurrying around and screaming at me. I tossed a few crystal chunks (they're distracted by the stuff they're made of) and sprinted to safety.

Moments in the trailer and a quick look at the skill tree hints at bigger combos and much better weapons, but I'm not convinced that slowly progressing into a melee machine is what I want from a game built in the shell of a stealth sandbox masterpiece. It's also possible to lay down obstacles like chain link fences to slow zombie assaults, but fussing around with the item menus before struggling to place an object in a space that the game allows for isn't nearly as fun as outsmarting them would be. (I will admit that poking zombies in the head through a fence with a sharp stick is pretty satisfying though.)
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The moment-to-moment exploration between awkward combat encounters is a different story. Every activity orbits your base, which begins as a patch of debris in the shadow of a Mother Base replica, torn to bits and half submerged in the dunes and rock of the arid alternate dimension. Here you can construct weapons, gadgets, and building materials at a few work benches, or if you're hungry (and you will be) there's a fire for meal prep. If you don't cook your meat or clean your water, you can get some nasty debuffs.

Nearly every object in the world can either be collected or broken down into resource components—iron and wood mostly—which can then be stored at your base for use in building anything from bows to sandbags. Over time you can build up your bases defenses, which will be necessary once the wanderer hordes start showing up. Otherwise, with the right plans and resources, you can build anything from a small garden to a water purifier. You'll also find survivors out in the world that speed up operations, though I had no such luck.
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Whether or not Metal Gear Survive will be worth playing depends on how it steers its survival game systems towards the much more playful sandbox of Metal Gear Solid 5. Maybe the zombie AI is more complex than I know, and stealth plays a much bigger role in the long term. Maybe the melee combat feels better with a few new combos and weapons unlocked. Maybe The Dust is hiding some fascinating secrets beneath all that fog. I hope so, because right now Metal Gear Survive is just a functional survival game built in the shell of one of our favorite stealth games ever. I'm not expecting a sexy vampire villain to show up or any 45-minute monologues on the ethics of private military corporations. I just hope I can destroy the minds of my enemies with more than a blunt object.
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Some Japanese impressions and short videos from 4gamer
http://www.4gamer.net/games/353/G035306/20180115019/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEGBhRe6wZc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MgSEsQUEE0
 
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signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
40,199
Gamespot



We found that crafting fences--which you can construct instantly, provided you have enough resources--are a huge help in corralling zombies for easy slaying with your starter staff. Depending on how to lure zombies in missions areas, you can reach your objectives without having to killing everyone, although it would be in your best interest to craft more efficient weapons like a machete or handgun. That's because vanquished zombies drop kuban, the currency you spend to level up. Given the wide and diverse skills you can unlock in the Survivor class--the first of four classes--there's the potential that your custom soldier can one day be as talented as Big Boss.

This character progression incentive paired with the appeal of the multiplayer mode is what Konami is hoping will keep players interested in the long run, especially since the story takes only 20 hours to complete. Our brief session with the four-player co-op online mode echoed the base defense aspects of Fortnite, while burdening us with the aforementioned stamina and skill limitations from the story mode. Moreover, we discovered that the zombies in the easiest difficulty are at level 10, whereas our team ranged from levels 2 to 4. We didn't last very long.
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For as much as we're not yet convinced of the long term appeal of Metal Gear Survive, we have to give what we've seen so far credit for going all in on its demanding survival-centric gameplay. The level of resource gathering and crafting isn't unusual for an open world zombie game, but in the context of the Metal Gear franchise, it's the biggest design departure since Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. It was also comforting to see this spin-off retain some degree of the series' sense of humor, particularly when you send animals through mini wormholes rather than the Fulton balloon system from The Phantom Pain.
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IGN



Managing your food and water in Metal Gear Survive, at least initially, is little more than tedious. Your unforgiving metabolism mandates a "hunting" side mission in between almost every activity in the early game. While water replenishes your maximum stamina, I found no way to reliably craft clean water, instead just hoping to come across it randomly in the open world. Dirty water, which was much easier to find, inflicted an annoying status effect that could either be cured with consumable medicine in the pause menu (which doesn't pause the game) or ignored at the cost of the occasional barf. None of this is fun, and while I'm sure you'll progress past these petty trifles later, I question their prevalence all the same.
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The resource management is pretty consistently unforgiving overall, too, with my progress being immediately halted at one point because I couldn't find the stainless steel I needed to make a gas mask. I retraced my steps, explored seemingly every part of the map that I could without needing said gas mask, and couldn't find the steel. Every step I took was depleting the resources I needed to survive, with seemingly no means of progression. In the meantime, though, I was farming the game's Kuban Crystals – red crystals that can be found in the environment, but are also embedded in the heads of the zombie-style enemies.

Kuban Crystals are the currency you spend to level up, and, at least initially, it was so easy to farm that it didn't feel particularly impactful. Enemies respawn and are easy to kill by just standing on something slightly higher than they are and stabbing at them. When they die, you essentially 'rip' crystals out of them. This is a bit of a slow process, especially since there's no 'take all' option for any kind of resource in Survive, and I had essentially found an easy exploit within the first hour of the game, but the upgrade system had a fair amount of depth.
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Admittedly, the co-op probably isn't catered to low-level players. Some of the best gear in the game is only available via multiplayer, and we had jumped in at a place where we were so inexperienced with the single player that our defence had to be the classic 'put up fence, poke enemy with stick', rinse and repeat. There is potential here, though, and even with our limited resources, strategizing was necessary. Co-op introduced higher level enemies, and a second enemy type - one that explodes, but can be one-hit killed if you attack it from behind. Multiplayer will have custom conditions available too, like maps where headshots do 100% damage, for example.

While I am interested to try more of that multiplayer, see more of the crafting system, and experience Metal Gear Survive's survival elements a few more hours in, from what I've played so far, it mostly feels tedious. The early hours of the game try to imitate the primal rush of survival games like Don't Starve, 7 Days to Die, and Minecraft, but, ultimately, its linear waypoint based missions leave no room for the kind of experimentation that makes the genre fun.
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Dreamboum

Dreamboum

Member
Oct 28, 2017
22,865
PCGamer reads a little hung-up on the controversy. I feel the FOX Engine has too much potential to only be a shell of a former game
 
Alandrus Sun

Alandrus Sun

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
390
I really like how you can see a drastic difference in the cinematic direction of the game without Kojima. It's also weird there is an MGS game with "bad" AI. The zombies just pile up on that fence as he sticks them over and over again. I kinda feel bad for the developers of this. Everyone is kinda hoping this game blows up in Konami's face.
 
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signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
40,199
GamesRadar



Perhaps this is the time to move away from Metal Gear entirely. It feels like Metal Gear Survive could be a game that stood on its own two feet as a brilliant tactical survival game, with a heavy focus on stealth tactics, but the fact it's Metal Gear branded seems nothing more than a marketing ploy. This survival game sits firmly in the cold shadow of The Phantom Pain, and while the whole wormhole thing and the crystal monsters isn't the strangest thing to happen in Metal Gear canon, it is perhaps a little too bizarre here.
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KillLaCam

KillLaCam

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,388
Seoul
Nooo my fears were confirmed. They needed to add a lot of actual human enemies. Zombie AI couldn't be nearly as interesting in this type of game, especially as the main enemies.

This was such a random route to go with the game.

Co-op looks better than single player though

Edit : im already tired of the battle music and I haven't even played the game
 
DHR54

DHR54

Oh well.
Member
Oct 26, 2017
686
Canada
I am interested in the title from my previous experience from its engine, unfortunately for Konami I will not buy this game as nothing about it seems like an actual metal gear to me. it's nothing to do with Kohima leaving more so just the series has just removed itself so far from the roots I loved. It literally feels like a zombie at this point, a lifeless husk of its former self.

I refuse to buy a game just because they call it metal gear. Especially a zombie game. There are so many of them. Just my take on this, I am a little relieved the reviews are so so, I won't be missing too much.
 
Hero of Winds

Hero of Winds

Member
Oct 28, 2017
882
KillLaCam said:
Nooo my fears were confirmed. They needed to add a lot of actual human enemies. Zombie AI couldn't be nearly as interesting in this type of game, especially as the main enemies.

This was such a random route to go with the game.
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Agreed. Human enemies + co-op would've been so good, but they decided to go all in on zombies instead. They even could've done a mix of zombie and human enemies and I would've been satisfied tbh

I'm still gonna give the beta a chance. Co-op still seems like fun, and I've been itching for more MGSV gameplay.
 
Macs

Macs

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
266
Looks pretty interesting, but i'll Wait to know how much content the game really has before deciding to get it or not.
 
Death Stranding

Death Stranding

Member
Dec 3, 2017
422
Wait... Did they really not add any new player avatar customization options to the ones from MGSV? There's no way that's true, right? Tell me I'm wrong, please. Caught up to the customization bit in the Japanese demo and see the same four hairstyles...
 
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signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
40,199
Death Stranding said:
Wait... Did they really not add any new player avatar customization options to the ones from MGSV? There's no way that's true, right? Tell me I'm wrong, please. Caught up to the customization bit in the Japanese demo and see the same four hairstyles...
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Well they are just mother base soldiers, it wouldn't make sense otherwise! Have to stick to the lore ~
 
Ghost Slayer

Ghost Slayer

Member
Oct 30, 2017
1,407
Pagoto93 said:
Because people don't like seeing a beloved narrative driven stealth series transformed into a zombie shooter?
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It's more than this though. Konami itself is a very shitty company, not because of Kojima quitting but they way they treat ex-employee after they quit the company. There was a thread about this in old forum, Konami basically use their power to block ex-employee having health benefits or finding jobs.
 
Nesther

Nesther

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,056
Switzerland
The videos and impressions make it seem like a lot of mindless fun. I loved the gameplay in MGSV, I just might bite if I enjoy the beta.
 
Loakum

Loakum

Member
Oct 27, 2017
472
If Konami was smart, they would release remakes of the Metal Gear Solid trilogy using the Fox Engine. It will sell.
 
Alienous

Alienous

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,605
This gameplay footage is doing nothing for me so far. The enemies just seem too dumb - they even walk into fences you put up when they can be walked around. Maybe there'll be smarter enemy types, but I assume the dumber zombies are main ones.

The music seems good, but that's about the extent of positive things I have to say about this.

I would've been all over a CO-OP based MGSV, with or without Kojima, but this seems like a weak Dead Rising -like horde game.
 
Katsyo

Katsyo

Member
Oct 27, 2017
621
I don't know... the main thing seems to be poking at zombies with a stick which I got bored of just by watching this footage. Reminds me a bit too much of Dead Island which was fun for about 10 minutes before it got boring.
 
Bansai

Bansai

Teyvat Traveler
Member
Oct 28, 2017
11,295
This really looks pretty good to me, I love survival zombie games but most of them are clunky as fuck and riddled with bugs, this on the other hand actually looks like a proper polished game with base building to boot, not to mention the smoothness of FOX engine and coop. If the beta won't be a colossal fuck-up I'm in day one.
 
Dust

Dust

C H A O S
Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,288
Jesus that is like nightmare version of worst parts of MGSV.
Collect shit, manage useless shit and build stupid crap.

Ground Zeroes remains the best MGSV thing.
 

Skulldead

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,452
Loook kind of cool, i guess been totally blind about this, any preview mention any scaling on levelling ? Thing like that ? About local co-op too?
 
rhn94

rhn94

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
645
This actually looks kinda cool as a base building & survival game, i actually wish some of these base building aspects were in MGS V because mother base felt kinda empty and the just buying different platforms aspect was shallow

also I love how people are unable to objectively judge this game and let their emotional feelings about mgsv game get in the way, i love kojima and all that but you guys need to let it go

is it kinda weird that they attached the 'Metal Gear' name to it? Yeah if you can't think outside the box of 'video game story continuity', but you should just accept at this point that MG was done with the 5th one and let it go; this one has some connections to metal gear but they try to keep it as seperate from the main cannon as they can from what I can tell

it's not weird outside of that context because Konami spent how much time & money developing the fox engine and the mg brand that they want to recuperate some of that money

also I don't really care about micro-transactions as long as they don't interfere with singleplayer aspect of this game
 
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