When Metal Gear Survive was first revealed in 2016 I was left with mixed feelings. While I was never onboard the hate train I was not very excited either. Then once the first footage of gameplay was revealed the month after it was starting to look more appealing to me. At E3 2017 private showcasings were held for the upcoming spinoff and Konami invited me to attend the event. Once I was able to try out the game for myself I had a really good time with it and knew for sure I would be playing it at release.

Much like The Phantom Pain Metal Gear Survive's main focus is on gameplay rather than story. The story content is a bit short and is heavily consisted towards the beginning and towards the end. The game begins with multiple cutscenes at the MSF motherbase where you also create your character between scenes. After creating your character it shows you how you end up getting sent through a wormhole to another dimension. You must use the resources you find on missions to survive in the harsh environment and find your way back home. Survive consists of many good plot twists while maintaining the Metal Gear feel.

Building off of MGSV's core gameplay Metal Gear Survive adds many new mechanics and assets. Added assets include a variety of melee weapons, gear, apparel, and gadgets. In this game you must gather food and water to survive which can be tedious in the beginning of the game. However as you progress through the story it gets easier and easier as you build up your base. Eventually you will reach the point where you never have to hunt for food and water ever again. While the maps reuse assets such as textures and some buildings it still felt like a new environment to explore. On a final note stealth IS relevant in this game. If you sneak behind Detonators to kill them you get more materials and it prevents Bombers from blowing up and causing potential damage to nearby fortifications.

I found microtransactions in Metal Gear Survive to be less intrusive than TPP's. The premium currency is called SV coins which are very similar to MB coins in TPP and can be acquired for free from the daily reward. You can use SV coins to buy temporary resource boosters, extra loadout slots, extra emotes, additional storehouse storage, and additional avatar slots. When you buy an avatar slot your resources such as weapons and materials are shared between your characters. If you were to delete your original character your resources would also still remain from your previous character which makes these avatar slots not truly save slots. In TPP you were locked out of the top equipment if you didn't buy extra FOBs with MB coins which is something Survive does NOT do. In Survive you can acquire all the top gear without using any SV coins at all.

Metal Gear Survive is far from being the best Metal Gear game but I think it's the most enjoyable Metal Gear spinoff and offers more content than Metal Gear Rising ever did. I recommend this game to those who are craving for more Metal Gear content and looking to have a good time with friends. There is even still more to look forward to with a new CO-OP mode arriving in an update this month.