Yesterday, Konami unveiled its first Metal Gear game since the departure of series creator Hideo Kojima. Named Survive, it’s to be a four-player online co-op endeavour that takes place in an alternate timeline following the events of Ground Zeroes, and so far doesn’t really resemble Metal Gear as we’ve come to know it.
We understand it won’t be full-priced whenever it does arrive—much similar to how Phantom Pain’s introductory chapter Ground Zeroes was marketed—however Survive’s distinct change in direction appears to have upset a sizeable chunk of potential players (if the comments on yesterday's post are anything to go by). Speaking in Cologne, Konami’s brand manager, Richard Jones, has since tried to better explain what the newest addition is all about, beyond that all-action trailer.
“When your soldier wakes up, they are in a desert landscape," Jones tells Eurogamer, explaining that a wormhole has sucked fleeing Mother Base staff into a foreign dimension (Snake and Miller have bunked off to take part in Phantom Pain's timeline, you see). "A very forbidding, foreboding, alien-looking landscape with lots of twisted wreckage and lots of things that have fallen through this wormhole. This is where the co-op comes into this game. You're not alone; there are other people there, and in order for you to survive and in order to be successful, you need to work as a team.
"Co-op is only one of the gameplay mechanics. Obviously Metal Gear is well-known for its stealth, that is, primarily, what makes Metal Gear. There is stealth in it, I know when you're watching the trailer it's all very action-packed and it doesn't really elicit that feeling, but there will be stealth and one of the really interesting things that we will be exploring and playing with is how stealth and co-op can actually co-exist. We've formed gameplay that that kind of allows and enhances that.”
Speaking to the supernatural elements present in the trailer—which I have my personal reservations with at this early stage—Jones says these “massive biological threats” are but a teaser of what’s to come, and that success is hinged upon a reliance on “new and alternative weapons.” Judging by yesterday’s short, that appears to be heavy artillery and futuristic bows that shoot fire arrows- which of course doesn’t exactly imply stealth tactics, although it is very early days yet.
Again, we understand Metal Gear Survive will be more of an offshoot and won’t be full-priced come released. Echoing this point, VG24/7 quotes Jones as saying: “It’s a side-story, a spin-off if you will, that takes place in an alternate timeline. We’re going to incorporate the whole theme of survival.”
