Left Alive Reviews
Left Alive is a bundle of genuinely brilliant ideas, let down by frequently shoddy execution. A resoundingly anti-war war game, with a deep understanding of the way that war complicates personal and societal morality, Left Alive asks all the right questions that a game about war should.
I often found myself willing to overlook all the obvious flaws in favor of engaging with what sits at Left Alive’s messy core, a sort of ultra hardcore, Metal Gear-looking-but-not-really, room escape-slash-solo-board game sort of deal that really got my brain juices flowing.
Despite your characters being 3 random people with totally different stories and experience in the field of combat, they all seem like hopeless lambs sent to the slaughter when faced with the opposing forces that could wipe them out in a few seconds.
Left Alive it's a tough game, hard and even unfair (because of the enemy's IA), with a non very responsible control, a questionable checkpoint system and other shortcomings, even from the technical side. Mechas, stealth, action... neither of its elements shine completely. But, even with that, it has "something" that can hook you up to keep playing.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
In this way, I would argue Left Alive is the purest survival game ever: if you can play to the end, you can survive anything.
Left Alive feels like a flawed game in every aspect of the game design, but it is also strangely fascinating. There is just something about it that keeps pulling you in, but the gameplay is definitely not it. The game falls victim to its grand ambition which is a shame since it shows potential amidst all of its flaws.
Unfortunately, Left Alive ends up being the heir of a period of Japanese development that we thought was extinct. Neither in stealth nor in shootings convinces.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
A pity: the tragedy of Novo Slavia and the magnetic traits of Shinkawa's characters would have deserved better.
Review in Italian | Read full review
This isn’t the mech game that most were really hoping for, nor is it really a political war game. It’s just kinda there, never reaching its full potential. Really dear reader, with so much having just released and releasing here soon, I would recommend most buyers give this one a pass. You won’t be missing much.
Left Alive was not a fun game to play. It lacked personality, even though it wanted to be an MGS clone so bad. It lacked complication for a stealth game, as well as comfortable character movement and slow ramp-up of difficulty. I think if the devs could have had more time to smooth out these rough areas, then the game would have been decent, if not good.
In concept, Left Alive could have had the potential to bring about the revival of Front Mission and fill the void left by the absence of Metal Gear at the same time, but none of its elements click to become a cohesive whole.
I really hope Square Enix doesn’t just write Front Mission off after Left Alive. This was a poor attempt at reviving the franchise, and Front Mission deserves better.
If you were hoping you'd get a taste of what could have been, remember that gas station burrito thing? Don't bother – this will only give you stomach troubles.
Square Enix's Left Alive takes us back to the Front Mission universe. Unfortunately, numerous issues hold it back that it might as well be left for dead.
Anyone who like unfairly hard games may enjoy this but everyone else should just skip this game. I waited to see if a patch would maybe make it better but that patch never came. I can’t say it isn’t worth the time or money because I’m sure someone will enjoy it, but there are so many better stealth and action games out there that I refuse to put a price point on any half baked recommendation I could give this. Just don’t pay full price because that is highway robbery.
Left Alive's ambitious ideas are held back by a myriad of design and technical problems.
Left Alive is a title that at the beginning promised a lot - that really delighted - by the people behind the development, namely, having the mythical Yoji Shinkawa for the artistic section, the direction of a large one with a more discreet image As Toshifumi Nabeshima and with the support of Square Enix the ground looked very fertile for something big, but putting the ceiling high almost never goes well and unfortunately this game does not meet the expectation.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Left Alive is surprisingly simple, yet somehow manages to get so much wrong.
Left Alive won't satisfy fans of stealth or of Front Mission. With unengaging gameplay, erratic AI, and a lack of polish across the board, Left Alive won't be remembered in the years to come.
Left Alive fails to deliver a modern stealth experience. A good story can't save the total mess of a game with too many flaws and too many frustrating moments.
Review in Italian | Read full review