Metal Gear Survive Beta Impressions – Not Bad At All

The Metal Gear Survive Beta is here and to answer that burning question, no, it’s nothing compared to Hideo Kojima’s masterpiece we’ve experience throughout the Metal Gear franchise. It’s fair to say when the creator walked away so did core content, and the title Metal Gear appears to be slapped on and used to seek attention. But as it does, is it worth it?

You begin by creating and customizing your character, which MGS allows some detail customization with. The player setup reminded me of Tom Clancy’s: The Division how every type of clothing matters as different items offered leveled protection. Your health, what you eat and drink also matters, again reminding of Ubisoft’s survival RPG. In Metal Gear Survive you’re able to carry food and health spray to try outlasting and cheat death.

Before jumping into action your able to travel around a staging area where you change your weapon layout at a Repository, which is also available in-game as well. Inside of the storehouse there is a plethora of items to choose from, however on the bottom right of the screen, keep an eye out for the amount of items you’re packing as the more baggage you carry the faster you’ll lose stamina in-game. Once equipped with the weapons and gear of choice you’re able to train before deploying (which is necessary for understanding controls and how to best utilize them).

The demo allows you to play salvage missions where you try to survive multiple waves of enemies, and depending on how well you do and the amount of IRIS energy you manage to extract, you can unlock sweet rewards and crates, the most coming from Ranking A or S.

Beginning the mission, you have 5 minutes to gather as much items and get to the objective where you begin trying to extract as much information as possible through 3 waves, hoping to collect plenty of the IRIS energy.  In route there are items that you will find to help make and repair items, craft and upgrade weapons. There are also opportunities to upgrade the wormhole digger allowing you to increase the speed.

My first run I found myself helpless with the weapons that I started off with: a handgun, a knife and an arrow. Though manageable during the first wave, the struggle increased by round two with the bombers that exploded the closer they managed to get to the digger.

Metal Gear Survive is a game intended for co-op. It’s like playing Call of Duty Zombies, yes you can do it yourself, but you probably won’t last long in the fight for survival. You can place gates and barricades around yourself and the equipment, but it must be done strategically. And just as in COD, communication is key to survival.

Upon completing the first attempt I was rewarded with an automatic rifle and a shotgun, extra handgun bullets and more. But it also helped me understand the learning curve to, well, survive. It from there it gets better.

As for the most important question, yes Metal Gear Survive is decent for what it is. Keep in mind that this is only a beta and represents only a portion of the full game. In hopes that it gets better from here MGS may have a chance come February 20, 2018.