![]() 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. However to those that might enjoy those genres I would advise to steer clear until the developers add some much needed performance and gameplay changes.Left Alive tries to be so, so many things: a stealth game, a military thriller, a third-person shooter, and an urban survival adventure. The game itself is not recommended for just anyone as you already would have to enjoy stealth action games like Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid. And 99.99% of the time the player was already fully aware there was an enemy there. The AI companion Koshka will alert you by saying "CAUTION AN ENEMY IS APPROACHING" regardless if you're 3 feet or 30 feet from the enemy, whether you see them or not. However the voice acting itself is really well done and you can feel the emotion behind the character. Sometimes a dialogue choice will be voiced by the actor, sometimes it won't. It simply makes getting through a level a chore. Running the same scenario multiple times usually results in different outcomes even though enemy walk cycles tend to be the same. You will die a lot, but not always to your own stupidity. Basically all the things that should be seamless in a modern game but aren't. Clunky movement, animations, and inventory screen. However I feel it would have made too much sense to include a sort of Basic Training tutorial as the first rookie character as it would fit to develop story and provide context. I suppose not a complete flaw as it could be by design to force the player to experiment and seek their own means on how to navigate and fight in the world. One of the few things that feels like it has a lot of polish and fits with the environment. Watching these behemoths drop into the map creates a feeling of unease and fundamentally changes how you approach objectives. ![]() Wanzers! Basically the only point in the first couple levels that I felt immersed in the world. PROS: - Interesting and believable future world setting. However there are numerous design flaws within the actual gameplay that leave me wondering what the developers were actually doing for 2+ years. Its a believable setting with a lot of potential. The characters you play as are caught in the aftermath of battle and the player has to use their wits to survive, gather resources and outsmart overpowering foes. Left Alive is an unforgiving stealth game set in the Front Mission universe where direct wars have ceased only for neighboring countries to Left Alive is an unforgiving stealth game set in the Front Mission universe where direct wars have ceased only for neighboring countries to engage in proxy wars with each other.
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