- [Brian] Left Alive tries to be many things,
a stealth game, a military thriller, a third-person shooter,
and an urban survival adventure.
It fails on every level, including at performing acceptably
on a PC above the recommended specs.
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 dozens of hours wasted on it.
The story is the only part of Left Alive
that's remotely decent, but even that is mediocre
when compared to prior games in the Front Mission universe.
After the least surprisingly surprise attack ever,
you're dropped into the combat boots
of three different resistance fighters,
all of whom would be easy to empathize with
were they not so poorly written and voice-acted.
- How are we supposed to keep fighting?
- [Reviewer] The main quest mostly consists of
wading through an absolute sea of hostile forces
to reach an area
where they'll inexplicably stop attacking you.
The side missions feature interesting stories,
but it's hard to do many of them
because the rewards are skimpy
and resources are scarce enough
that going off the main path can empty your bag of tricks.
Stealth is the main idea here, and it's a mess.
Enemy AI is inconsistent and unintelligent,
which makes planning your approach a crapshoot,
and a lot of failures feel unfair.
The levels themselves appear open,
but often follow you in certain directions
instead of encouraging different and creative approaches.
When you're forced into action, it's even worse.
You're almost always underarmed and ill-equipped,
which would be fine, if combat weren't sometimes mandatory
and the enemies weren't capable of absorbing more bullets
and explosives than seem reasonable.
When you run out, taking on a platoon
with a trenching shovel is about as much fun as it sounds.
What's more, enemies are incredible marksmen,
rarely missing a moving target.
As for our heroes, they're wildly inaccurate.
Combat is just too frequently a laughable,
broken mismatch, which sucks,
because death can set you back 10 minutes or more
due to sparse checkpoint saves.
Since Left Alive is set in the Front Mission universe,
sometimes you'll encounter a formidable Wanzer,
and if they get a bead on you in the open,
you're all but guaranteed a pretty spectacular death.
They're not interesting to fight,
since they mostly serve as walls
preventing you from going that way.
But every so often, you get to pilot one,
and while the controls for the absurdly overpowered,
yet inaccurate weapons are clumsy,
it's a satisfying turning of the tables
to stomp around and unleash hell on the enemy.
Most of the time though, your destructive tools
are the Molitov cocktails and exploding cans
you craft from supplies you pick up off the street.
These gadgets run the gamut from hurlable explosives,
to mines and traps, to medical items,
and using them to control the battlefield
and thin the enemy herd is absolutely essential to survival.
The crafting menu is easy enough to use,
but it doesn't pause the action, so it's best accessed
in places of cover and complete safety.
It's easy to make a mistake while dive-rolling
in the heat of a firefight
or simply not find the right gadget at all
in time to make use of it.
Plenty of games manage to make being hard endearing,
but Left Alive's difficulty is due to bad controls,
subpar combat, and inconsistent stealth,
instead of the tough but fair challenges
you see in games like Metal Gear Solid or Hitman.
The tedious trial-and-error process
of getting through each chapter becomes a grind
exacerbated by setbacks that feel arbitrary or unfair.
This is compounded by the technical issues,
which include nasty frame rate drops and stutters
when there's a lot of action onscreen.
After two dozen hours played and the end still far away,
it was time to call it quits.
Left Alive falls flat in every way
that it attempts to stand out.
Its story of surviving a technologically advanced invasion
has some interesting ideas
but is delivered with limp dialogue
and voice acting from annoying characters.
Worse, every concept introduced to its gameplay,
stealth, action, crafting, and Wanzer combat,
comes awash with uneven execution
that make it feel difficult for all the wrong reasons.
Left Alive is probably best left unplayed.
For some better stealthy action,
check out our reviews of the Assassin's Creed Odyssey DLC,
Resident Evil 2, and Hitman 2.
And for everything else, stick with IGN.