Launching the first Metal Gear game following revered mastermind Hideo Kojima’s departure was always going to be tricky for Konami, so deep was the auteur’s enduring influence on the series he created. Judging by its reveal trailer, Metal Gear Survive is a distinct change of pace from what we’ve become accustomed to—it’s an online co-op stealth ‘em up that takes a “divergent look at familiar Metal Gear themes,” so says Konami.
Which looks something like this:
By virtue of unexplained wormholes, players are planted in a “distorted desert landscape” in an alternate timeline that picks up from the ending of Phantom Pain introductory chapter Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. As can be seen above, the disruption of the space-time continuum appears to have thrown angry hordes of otherworldly foes into the mix, which requires dealing with in order to survive. This translates to four-player online co-op play with new weapons and manipulable environments in-game.
“We are delighted to announce another exciting addition to the Metal Gear franchise,” says Konami’s Tomotada Tashiro. “Metal Gear Survive will offer a fresh take on the series’ famed stealth elements but within a unique co-op setting that is designed for a truly engrossing multiplayer experience.”
At the time of writing, the trailer above has just 2,424 upvotes against 21,811 downvotes on YouTube, which probably suggests a large facet of prospective players aren’t best pleased with the new direction. I’m not overly keen on the supernatural elements flaunted there myself, but the chance to explore a Phantom Pain-type playground in online co-op sounds really interesting. I need to see a wee bit more to be sold, granted, but the prospect definitely excites me.
Although without official confirmation for now, our man on the ground at Gamescom—one Samuel Roberts—understands Metal Gear Survive won’t be full-priced come release, via info gleaned from a presentation. Metal Gear Survive is expected to launch some time in 2017 for PC via Steam.
