Don’t Ignore Metal Gear: Survive This Weekend

This weekend marks the arrival of Metal Gear: Survive’s second beta (February 16th - February 18th). Last time around we were pleasantly surprised by the game’s deep RPG style systems, combined with addictive base building, strong teamwork and wave survival strategy.

Don’t Ignore Metal Gear: Survive This Weekend
Metal Gear: Survive has suffered its share of controversy, mainly from Kojima purists but it still deserves your attention, regardless of where your gaming allegiances lie. At least give it a go this weekend. After all, it’s free – you might as well. Normally, I would say don’t just take my word for it but in this article, I’m hoping you’re just going to take my word for it. Let’s discuss exactly why it is you shouldn’t ignore Metal Gear: Survive this weekend.

On the odd occasion in the past, we have witnessed a game series get eviscerated after one wrong turn. The death of a franchise that has fallen victim to the latest negative opinion in fashion. The most recent example of this is, of course, Mass Effect: Andromeda. Before you throw your arms up in retort, yes I agree the animation department messed up with their new Frostbite Engine. Indeed, Andromeda had its share of problems. Ultimately, the existing love for Mass Effect put its latest outing under a microscope. Fan expectation was dashed with disappointment as the hype train lost a singular wheel and spun off the tracks as a result. Metaphors aside, the audience-wide hatred for Andromeda (coming largely from people who hadn’t played it – funny how that works) was disproportionate to the game itself. As a result, a majority of Mass Effect fans cannibalised one of their favourite sci-fi franchises in gaming. The developers were relocated to other projects at Bioware and Mass Effect would be left indefinitely in a filing cabinet somewhere. 

Don’t Ignore Metal Gear: Survive This Weekend - Wave survival
Of course, despite what the title would have you believe, Metal Gear: Survive is not part of an established series, like Andromeda. It is tied to Metal Gear in name and mechanics alone, let’s be honest here. Nonetheless, Metal Gear Solid fans en masse, are likely to feel cheated out of a genuine episode of the saga. Bitterness can only be built upon after the disastrous collapse of relations between Konami and Kojima, leading to a messy finish to the decades-old saga and a lack of Chapter 3 in MGS: V. That fact alone does not make Metal Gear: Survive immune to “Andromeda” syndrome. With that in mind, let’s focus on one particular point that should stand Survive in good stead. It is set to release at lower than typical asking price.

It’s news we’ve heard before of course, but its real significance in the case of this game specifically has not been discussed at all. A lot of Metal Gear fans are likely to say “I should bloody well think so too, it’s not a proper Metal Gear game”. That may be so, but let’s get real here. After playing the first beta and being aware of the lower asking price on release, my ears now prick up to listen extra hard for update news on Survive. The first beta displayed wonderfully to me just how good it could really be. It has deeper crafting, armour and weapon systems than most full priced games. The roots of its crafting trees run deep and the branches they grow into require hours and hours of play to discover and use. This is not too dissimilar to Monster Hunter: World which has been praised for its overall inventory system and long term set of discoveries lying in wait for the player. Let that sink in for a moment. 

Don’t Ignore Metal Gear: Survive This Weekend - Barrier crafting
For what Metal Gear: Survive is selling itself as, it would normally fall into what EA would call a “game as a service”. In other words, a game with an addictive grind loop designed to keep players coming back for a long time to come. Of course, that’s why microtransactions will be present in the always-online title when it does release. But, again, playing the beta I felt strongly that I had a fair suite of options and loadouts available to me. It never felt like the absence of my wallet meant I would ever miss out. As a result, unlike EA’s less favoured shooters of today (you know the one I mean) Konami’s marketing plan with Survive doesn’t feel unfair. It doesn’t feel predatory. It doesn’t feel “pay to win”. Let’s hope I’m right.

Konami could have opted for a more “instant gratification” of first week sales of $60 games. THEN lumped microtransaction of top of that. They could have been as greedy as their competitors. But they didn’t and they weren’t. 

Don’t Ignore Metal Gear: Survive This Weekend - Getting dire
My experience of the first beta also gave off a strong sense of community. It gave me the urge to see how well it would play alongside a friend. Something I’ll certainly be doing this time, where I hadn’t last time around. Not only do we get to use genuinely useful emotes and voice commands as a part of a deep system that always encourages teamwork (when used properly and players aren’t dicking around). But we also get a strong sense that players genuinely want to help each other out for a better final outcome to a set of waves. There’s something to be said for a wave survival game that ends up being the sum of all its finer parts and not just a conglomerate of people pressing the “shoot” button. That final sum leading to total strangers wanting to help each other out is a rare thing in online gaming that can’t be denied.

As a game product, to me, Survive is turning into one generous and unique creature. It is certainly no shining bastion among the “how it should be done” crowd like Hellblade or Warframe . After a year, however, and depending on whether gamers elect to give Survive “Andromeda” syndrome – it could be.    

This weekend is the perfect time to download the Metal Gear: Survive beta as the full release is right around the corner on February 20th. The beta will run from February 16th through 18th.

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