Metal Gear Survive / Konami

by Felipe Parada

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Lately all I've been playing is Metal Gear Survive and it doesn't seem like I'm stopping any time soon. Not bad for a game that still revieves a good amount of hatred from the Metal Gear community. I'm currently working on the Metal Gear Survive Final Review but for the meantime you can check the updated review-in-progress here. 

I've slowly been creeping up on the endgame content, which didn't take as long as I thought I would. I'm currently at level 40 and I still don't know what the level cap is (Highest level player I saw was 55). Although I'm having a really good time playing the game, it seems that the end gate is a little bit thin. Konami just recently released a new game mode called "Rescue" which brings the total amount of modes up to a whopping 2. So as it stands you can only play "Co-Op Salvage" and "Rescue" Mode. There are a couple of map variations and you are able to bump up the difficulty once you hit lvl 40, so there's still stuff to do. 

I recently took a little bit of a break from playing Metal Gear Survive and was channel surfing for a bit just to clear my headwhen I came across the movie "Battle Royale." If you haven't seen it, I'm sure you heard of the movie. Adapted from the 1999 Koushun Yakami novel of the same name, Battle Royale is set in 2000 Dystopian Japan where a group of junior high students are forced to fight to the death by the Japanese government. Highly controversial at the time, the movie has highly influenced the modern "Battle Royal" mode. 

Many games have been introducing their version of "Battle Royale" mode with moderate success. Two games currently sit at the top of the "Battle Royale" Genre, Playerunknowns Battlegrounds and Epic Games' Fortnite. Even Tom Clancys The Division has their own Survival Mode but it hasn't reached the popularity of the other 2 juggernauts. I've never played Playerunknowns Battlegrounds but I have played a couple of matches in Fortnite. I understand why the mode is trending as of late but there's just something about it that doesn't appeal to me. Maybe it's the pacing, but I tried to let the game grow on me but to no success.  

So I began thinking, what if Konami introduced their version of "Battle Royale"? It wouldn't be that difficult to implement it,  would it? The Battle Royale mode seems to be one of the top trending streams on YouTube and switch. Why wouldn't Konami jump on the bandwagon and get a peice of the Battle Royale Pie.

I mean think about it, given how the mechanics of metal gear survive work, Battle Royale mode could possibly be very successful in Metal Gear Survive. Instead of calling it Battle Royale mode they can call the "Pure Survival" mode. Prayers are teleported onto the map at random with no gear and no weapons. All they would start off with is 1 ration and just an air tank. It is up to the player hto Traverse the map and look for crafting materials, weapons and gear in order to survive until the very end. To add to the intensity, not only are other players a danger but so are wanderers, crawlers, bombers, mortars and a whole slew of baddies that are also traversing the map. Ever player would start on even ground with a limited amount of Kubon energy that they can use for crafting, brepairing and keeping their air tank replenished. 

Still think it won't work? How about adding pure stealth into the mix? Any loud noise would attract nearby wanderers making any encounter a chess match. Do you use the wanderers to your advantage or do you go in for the kill yourself? Do you work together or do you risk yourself for the kill? It's these small minute to minute decisions that can lead to an intense survival experience. 

It's highly possible that Konami will skip out on the "Battle Royale" Mode all together. They'll probably just stick to their current objective of trying to charge for every little aspect of the game. Konami has the opportunity to really add a sense of variety to it's online portion of Metal Gear Survive. If they are truley sticking to the "games as a service" model for Metal Gear Survive then they can have a steady stream of content that will keep players coming back on a regular basis. 

The ability to keep offering better gear and weapons as an incentive is one of the driving forces for longevity in any game. It's one of the main reasons why games like Diablo 3, Tom Clancy's The Division and Destiny still have a large player base. But if you are able to add variety in how you secure that sweet loot, then you have a formula for players to keep playing. At this point who knows what Konami will add to it's newest spin-off. If they keep up with the new content and modes, Metal Gear just might be able to get into the battle royale scene.