Holy sh*t Metal Gear Survive is bad. Like, universally considered so bad it’s just sad. Sad because of how much the Metal Gear series is revered. Sad because Hideo Kojima was kicked out of the project. And extremely sad because of just how uninspired and slow Metal Gear Survive is. Metal Gear Solid has always been a respected series. It’s always had a crazy story and hasn’t always been a smooth ride for fans. (Cough, Raiden, Cough.) But in Hideo Kojima we trusted. When Konami decided they didn’t need him and everybody knew it’d be bad. But nobody thought that Metal Gear Survive could be this bad. MG: Survive is so bad people are just sad, confused, and angry. This is as if the class valedictorian wound up as a panhandler. What happened with Metal Gear Survive!?
What Happened with Metal Gear Survive
Top to bottom this whole game is irredeemably bad. The story is so lazy it’s insulting to every generic zombie game built in Unity. The game is just chock full of cardboard bland gameplay. All you do in Metal Gear Survive is run, beat off zombies, craft, and slog through. Every piece of the game is built with frustration and player apathy in mind. Combat is a boring game of poke behind the fence. Crating is uninspired and a chore. The map is a dull and desolate wasteland. All of the creativity and inspiration of Metal Gear V is replaced with corporate deadlines and microtransactions.
This game is the nail in the coffin for Konami reaching EA status. Criticism of the original gaming giant has long persisted. But the legend behind the most famous cheat code is now nothing more than that. A cheat. A lying, wretched, and pitiful game developer. Greedy and hateful corporate stooges behind the time and in fear of innovation. As the anger and derision for Konami continue to pile on, hype for Kojima’s Death Stranding continues to grow. Ironically, this is due to the fact that hype is no longer enough. Atop the corpses of series who have burnt out audiences sit the future of gaming. No longer is the idea of a “more but better” attitude the name of gaming.
The Death of Hype
Games like Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, Far Cry and Assassin’s Creed lived off of the “more but better” only to be burnt to the ground by consumers. These series have either died or may as well be for much of the vitriol pointed towards them. And part of that comes from how many of these series put so much emphasis on more, instead of better. Because now, gamers want their games to be “more and better” for their fix. Consumers seek developers to hit the same notes as the classics yes, but they want to hear something new as well. They seek innovation in presentation, gameplay, and story. Games like Super Mario Odyssey and Dangonronpa. Games that are doing something different from before, but still familiar somehow. These games are the future. And Metal Gear Survive is a shambling corpse of the past.