Metal Gear Survive Announced

Metal Gear Survive Announced

At Gamescom 2016, Konami revealed an exclusive look at their first post-Kojima Metal Gear game. Titled, “Metal Gear Survive”, this is the first title in the series that has not had Hideo Kojima at the helm. After watching the first trailer, it’s clear almost immediately that this is not a typical Metal Gear game. It’s unclear if it’s an intentional departure from the series that Kojima helped turn into one of the most beloved franchises when he took over on the original Metal Gear game in the 80s. But I’ll let the video speak for itself. Here’s a link to the first trailer, brought to you exclusively by the people at IGN:

The symbology is strong in this video. I mean it starts with Snake literally abandoning “ship” (in this case, a converted oil rig that acts as headquarters), and leaving a lone soldier in it’s burning wreckage. Maybe it’s just me, but it feels like Konami is trying to paint Kojima as someone who abandoned them, and left them to pick up the pieces of “his” Metal Gear franchise. While not many people may know the whole truth about what happened at Konami to make Kojima leave, Konami’s actions after he left made it very hard for anyone to feel any sympathy for them. Kojima was barred from awards ceremonies for his last Metal Gear game, Phantom Pain, and his name and studio name were removed from all marketing information.

Kojima was also part of the team that brought the infamous game demo/teaser, PT to the PS4. A demo set inside a seemingly haunted house filled with a puzzle that you had to solve to get to the “ending”, the demo eventually ended with a reveal that it is a teaser for the next Silent Hill game. A series that Kojima was vocal about wanting to reboot. Naturally, after his departure, the demo was pulled from the Playstation Store, and the game was cancelled.

All that aside, this video seems nothing like a Metal Gear game to me. In fact, it feels like Konami decided they should make another Metal Gear game, realized they had no one left that knew how to, panicked, and grasped for anything they might be good at. And anymore, their active development seems to be Castlevania (which has been on a drastic decline), Pro Evolution Soccer, Metal Gear, and Silent Hill (which again, hasn’t had a title since 2012). Looking at the video, the only thing that does connect it to Metal Gear is that you see Snake in the opening sequence. After that, it’s portals/wormholes, zombie monsters and survival horror, which I would say describes a Silent Hill game better than a Metal Gear game.

Now, Kojima has reformed his studio and announced a partnership with Sony Computer Entertainment to release their first game, an exclusive to the Playstation 4 titled, Death Stranding. Unsurprisingly, the teaser for their first game features Norman Reedus (of Walking Dead fame), the same actor that was revealed in the ending of the previously cancelled Silent Hill demo, PT.