Enemy soldiers absorb more bullets than seems reasonable, explosives do so much less damage than you’d expect that it’s jarring, and trying to kill three or four soldiers with spot-crafted IEDs and a few gunshots (more than a few, since Garmoniyans are able to withstand multiple headshots) often generates enough noise to bring down an army on your head. Several chapters climaxed with hordes of enemies or boss fights right when I found myself low on ammo and supplies, and taking on platoons of ill-mannered soldiers with a trenching shovel is about as much fun as it sounds.
You’re almost always under-armed and ill-equipped, even though firefights are sometimes mandatory. “Stealth is bad, but the action is worse. Our three heroes must go full 1984 Red Dawn to save civilians, thwart the bad guy, and maybe make it out in one piece. After the nation of Garmonia invades the neighboring Ruthenian border city of Novo Slava in what should have been the least-surprising surprise attack ever, you’re dropped into the combat boots of three different people over the course of its broken, slow adventure, all of whom would be easy to empathize with were they not so poorly written and voice-acted: A whiny Wanzer (mech) pilot with a stunning lack of common sense, a competent cop with not even an ounce of luck, and a gruff revolutionary with lots of scars both physical and mental. When the Metal Gear pastiche falls apart, what’s left is technical shortcomings, wonky controls, poor balance, and so much frustration it wasn’t worth suffering all the way to the end after I’d already wasted dozens of hours on it.The military story is the only part of Left Alive I found remotely decent, thanks to a couple of surprising techno-thriller twists, but even that is mediocre when compared to Metal Gear Solid or prior games in the Front Mission world. And yet it fails on every level, including at performing acceptably on a PC above the recommended specs. Left Alive tries to be so, so many things: a stealth game, a military thriller, a third-person shooter, and an urban survival adventure.
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