Metal Gear Survive- Konami Survives Kojima

Konami takes the Kojima controversy and shuts you the hell up with a combination of Metal Gear, Resident Evil, Fortnite, and State-of-Decay? Holy Shit!

Take whichever side you’d like over the bad PR that Konami received. The company that published all of the games from the lead creator of the Metal Gear series, Hideo Kojima, and then ditched him a couple of years ago, have laid low for some time. However, the Metal Gear spin-off was no secret that it has been in production.

With close to a month of the game’s actual release, I’ve personally have heard zero news about this game, no advertising, no positive opinions expressed, nothing…Despite the Kojima break-up, the negative reception from the fans of the Metal Gear community, and that the game isn’t innovative or correlative to the main story, it’s still going to turn heads and impress a lot of people. Here’s why:

• Base building-There’s a number of types of gameplay being introduced into this “alternate reality” that has been criticized for its irrelevancy to the main theme of MGS, which is tactical espionage, but we cannot deny that large fan-bases in games like Fortnite and Minecraft exist because of the ability to creatively build your own cover, area, and dwelling within the game. Survive implements traps, barriers, and various defenses such as Fortnite while harboring NPCs and developing an internal functioning community like you see in games like State-of-Decay and Fallout 4 that provide multiple hours of game-play alone.

• Co-op- If I had it my way this feature would be an industry standard. This is important to note that four player cooperative gameplay is an excellent feature as well as you can play and direct three CPU characters when playing alone.

• Zombies- Ok so they’re not exactly Zombies..more like a crystalline humanoid with basic attack functions that are drawn by sound? We’ve had our fair share of zombie games, especially in the last few years, but only a few to name are from bigger developers like Konami. If the hordes were done correctly, this should be a temporary fix while waiting for highly anticipated titles like Days Gone. And come on, you can stab zombies through a fence just like Walking Dead! How was that not a strategy in zombie games yet?

• Survival mode-This idea seems to grow more mainstream by adding the challenge of sustainability to include the collection of food, water and similar necessities, hence the name, Metal Gear Survive. Although not favored by all, it does emphasize team-work and a system where everyone pitches in numerous tasks to keep your crew alive.

• Open-Beta- What is most exciting is that you’ll be able to decide for yourself what you think of Survive by playing the open-beta this weekend and it already started Jan. 18th. Tell us what you think @custodiexitus on Twitter.

Konami has utilized minimal advertising for this game but they’ll let the open-beta do the talking, and sure enough, there will be plenty talking about it. It will no-doubtingly receive criticism that may be seen in a biased light due to zombie meddling with the Metal Gear Solid universe, the Hideo Kojima controversy, and the shear fact that a few games put together with a Metal Gear Skin isn’t the most innovative game Konami has done.

Rest assured this game releases at $39.99 but the reliance on micro-transactions could help the price of the game drop quickly to $30 after a month or so depending on its initial player-base. However it’s not certain how annoying and in-your-face the selling points for loot crates and bullshit DLC will become, but that being said, Metal Gear Survive still looks like a lot of fun and CE will go in open-minded.

-M.