Metal Gear Survive‘s announcement was surely a controversial one- after all, Metal Gear fans who were still willing to give Konami a chance (especially after some recent comments made by Konami personnel) were probably not expecting a budget priced, multiplayer, co-op zombie horde shooter as the next Metal Gear game.
But once the shock of the announcement wears off, I guess people can at least come around to trying to assess and maybe even appreciate Metal Gear Survive for what it is, rather than what they hoped it would be- and what it is, or seems to be, at least, is a fun looking co-op shooter, based on the mechanics of one of the best playing games of this generation.
Taking to Reddit to put out some of the fires they had started with their fans, Ben from Konami US, using Konami US’s social media account, answered some questions some fans may have had- and ended up revealing some new information in the process. For instance, they discussed why they had decided to use the Metal Gear branding for the game, noting that in their opinion, Metal Gear fit the spirit and vision for the game that the development team had.
“The devs are really aiming for fun gameplay,” he said on Reddit. “Here is the PR answer: METAL GEAR SURVIVE is an action game based on the action sequences of Metal Gear Solid 5 : The Phantom Pain. It also reuses some of the assets and models made for Metal Gear Solid 5 : The Phantom Pain. We chose METAL GEAR SURVIVE because the dev team think it reflects perfectly the spirit of the game.”
In fact, there may even be multiple elements of the game that remind the player of The Phantom Pain. “The story takes place directly after Ground Zeroes and some elements may remind you of Ground Zeroes and Phantom Pain, but the story should be considered as a parallel story, like the side missions in Ground Zeroes.”
A lot of these similarities probably owe themselves to the fact that Survive is, in fact, largely being made by the same team that gave us The Phantom Pain. “Yes, the same team that made MGSV is working on it,” Konami noted on Reddit.
However, Survive will not just be a retread as is- it will at least have some substantial new gameplay mechanics of its own. “The game is playable from 1 to 4 players. In order to survive, players will have to hide (Stealth), collect material and resources in order to build new pieces of equipment, new weapons and new camps (CRAFT), and sometimes he also has to cooperate with other players to get his hands on powerful equipment (COOP) or to fight against the waves of creatures attacking the camp (DEFENSE).”
That said, there are some gameplay mechanics that Konami are not yet ready to talk about. These include the open world from The Phantom Pain, which he hinted would be in the game, at any rate. “We will talk more about the environment / Open world a bit later. TPP was a game where you face other soldiers. The development team had already in mind the idea to make a stealth game where the player would have to face non-human enemies with different abilities and behavior, and where the cooperation between the players to complete difficult missions would be an important element. The development team is really hoping to deliver a new experience, different from TPP, to the MGS fans.”
Another Phantom Pain gameplay mechanic that may make it into this game would be the fulton. For now, Konami are not willing to talk about it. “Gameplay systems like Fulton to be discussed later,” he said.
What they did confirm, however, was a single player mode for the game. “It will have a solo and/or co-op experience. That is up to the player. As we roll out more, we will dive deeper into game mechanics etc,” they said.
All in all, I am hearing enough that I am willing to give this game a chance, and go into it with an open mind. Of course, given how immediately alienating its premise is, the game may still end up being disappointing. Metal Gear Survive launches on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
