Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsWorth a shot
Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2018
What's funny is when MG:R came out, everyone hated it. Now everyone seems to love it.
I'm a hard core MGS fan. I did give this game a chance, not because of the MG name, but because it seemed interesting. It's not the best game I've played by far, but is quite enjoyable. I do 100% agree it is not MGS, and probably would have been received a lot better if it were just called "Survive", or maybe as DLC for MGSVPP.
All of that said, I beat the main story today and will write an honest review, something I haven't seen much of...
STORY: I wasn't satisfied with it's story. All of it besides the ending twist was pretty predictable (even then, I probably would've saw it coming if I just thought about it for a minute.) The characters weren't developed at all. Without giving away much of the plot; your MB soldier says maybe 5 words the whole game. Nicholas literally has the depth of a piece of construction paper. Miranda was annoying, Dan could've been so much more...Virgil, Chris, and Reeves probably has the most interesting characters. Reeves actually kind of had a character arc, and I won't get much into the former two to avoid spoilers. Your soldier ends the game with a lot of questions that were set up that were never answered...and that is really disappointing...But now that I finished the main story, I feel like the game JUST NOW opened up. So maybe in this post game content will the game answer those gaping plot issues.
GAMEPLAY: I'm a bit conflicted with this one. The game starts out really hard. It did a really good job at making me feel vulnerable. I wasn't the legendary Big Boss, or the super solder Solid Snake, I was some no name, and the game makes sure you know that. You can't run forever, you get winded, you get hungry and thirsty. It's not until you start building your base that the fear of starving to death finally begins to wane. Even then, you'll still scavenge for scraps of food and get sick off of dirty water. As you progress, you get stronger, you get abilities, and the sluggish feeling of melee combat grows on you. You get better as a player, as well as your in game avatar. Once you get used to it and get a few choice abilities, the gameplay is actually pretty fun. The base building /is/ a bit overwhelming at first, to be honest. But that might not be a bad thing. I bet no two bases you will see on reviews or walkthroughs will look exactly alike.
GRAPHICS: It actually somehow feels they turned down the graphics a notch from the MGSV. Thinking about it, it kind of makes sense. This game has a lot of little pieces not present in V (the craftable material and swarms of zombies). Everything looks like it was made of plastic, kind of like the early PS3 games - even then, some of them were still better.
SOUNDS: Meh. No memorable sound track, and most sounds are taken straight from V.
CO-OP: The multiplayer isn't anywhere close to what I thought it could be. It would be cool to have been able to play the story with a friend as opposed to just those side missions that all in all feel kind of pointless. The resources you collect during those missions are not taken back into single player, which I was under the impression that I would keep. You do keep the rewards you get, though. And It was fun to play with a friend!
LASTING IMPRESSION/FINAL THOUGHTS: It's not the most memorable game, and I don't think I'll be playing this game for months to come. It's not the worse game I've played, and definitely is fun. I've found myself losing hours into it without even trying. Even at it's $40 price tag, I would probably say wait for a price drop before picking it up - I don't think it is worth the $40, but some people might. I mean, I did buy ground zeroes for $40 when it first came out... Back to the point, I came in with an open mind, and I wasn't entirely disappointed. I think it's worth a try and not a complete flop. Even with about 21 hours in, the game JUST opened up all of it's base building mechanics...which is kind of a bummer it took this long, but to each their own. It is not a metal gear game, though, so don't come in expecting it. If you do that, you might just have fun with it.
3/5.
Edit: The archives cassettes didn't have much extra story, nothing important at least.
Also, to clear up a few misconceptions.
Reused Assets: The game reuses the models of objects from MGSV - but that was never a secret or hidden. That being said, the claims that it used the same maps from MGSV are false. Afghanistan and Africa in this game are completely unique from MGSV.
Micro transactions: Yes this game has them, as most AAA games do now. I do not agree with the business practice. I have not spent a cent more than the buying price, and did not have any problem getting through the story mode or hard difficulty on Co-op. That being said, this game can't be classified as "pay-to-win" because there is no competitive aspect to this game. MGSV actually treated MT worse than this game.
Hunger/Thirst Mechanics: At the beginning of the game, it's hard to maintain yourself. Your soldier gets hungry and thirst in what feels fast, but it really isn't if you put it into perspective. How often do you eat and drink a day? How much more do you eat and drink if you're running and exerting yourself? Now compare that to your soldier, and the in game clock...
This is something I hope they don't cut back on. I'm tired of "survival games" where surviving day to day life isn't a challenge. Please see the "Gameplay" portion of my review.
The "Save Slot" Controversy: This one is another one of those things that I do not agree with. But the more I think about it, the more I feel this has been blown out of proportion with misinformation.
There are no save slots to this game. When you choose your soldier, you can't go back to a previous save, nor is it ever really needed. This isn't really a common practice, but makes since for an always online game. When you play any online game, do you have save slots you can revert back to? If you're playing destiny and don't like the exotic weapon you got from an Ingram, can you reload a save and try again? No. Back to the point, they aren't any save slots, what's being charged are for extra characters. So if you wanted to make a brand new character and go through the story again on the same account, while maintaining your current character you would potentially have to pay. But the premium currency in this game is given daily, and in decent amounts. If you casually play this game, you'll have enough of the SVCOINS to buy a new character slots before you finish the game, or soon after. Once again, though, I do NOT agree with this practice.
Empty Open World: To those who say that this game has an empty open world...have you even played MGSV? Honestly, have you? This open world has so much more to do that MGSV. And if you're comparing it to things like the Witcher, Skyrim, or AC, then you're comparing apples to oranges.
Cash grab: I wouldn't classify this game as a cash grab. Matter of fact, I haven't heard that term popularized until the hate for this game. The team who put this together put time into it, and it shows. The melee mechanics had to be created in the engine. All of the different weapons had to be created. The environments that were brand new assets had to be created. Etc etc. If it were the same game as MGSV, rereleased as a mainline game, it would be a cash grab. This game said up front that it's a spin off, and was very honest the entire time.
Please read honest reviews like this instead of getting your information from the hate train that's been making it's stops. People are blindly repeating the same things other people are saying without even playing the game or accurate information.
