Left Alive Reviews
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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 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
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.
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.
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.
This unlikely Front Mission spin-off's occasional charm can't make up for its seriously broken fundamentals.