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Sometimes the AIs offer helpful information, but both of their voices are irritating. Virgil AT-9 is an interfacing machine stationed at your Base Camp, which provides mission information and processes data packets you find, among other tasks. After establishing that he is injured and unable to accompany you on missions, his only purpose seems to be to contend with the Virgil AT-9's dueling AI personalities and the other characters. Take Reeve, for example, a solider you meet within the first hour of gameplay. The in-game cinematics and interactions with characters drive the story along, though neither is very compelling. Still, it doesn't have to be all doom and gloom follow these Metal Gear Survive tips to ensure you have the best possible experience. The game also references the vague and impending threat that the Wanderers may escape Dite and start infecting people in the game's primary universe. You must rescue any survivors and scavenge for resources to have any chance to activate a digger and create a wormhole back home. Kuban Energy, a powerful resource, exists in abundance on Dite and is the reason for the initial Charon Corps mission. Your main goal is to recover data on the Kuban Energy from the Charon Corps, the original military outfit sent into Dite, all of whose members are presumed dead. Your character is also infected by this lifeform, which adds some urgency to your mission.
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This world is unfortunately inhabited by zombie-like creatures (Wanderers) infected by a mysterious and unknown lifeform that turns the hosts into deadly threats, complete with glowing red crystalline structures in place of their heads. Your commander tasks you with traveling through a wormhole to another dimension and carrying out a rescue mission in a hostile land referred to as Dite (pronounced dee- tay). The game is set sometime between the events of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain, after the enemy military unit XOF destroyed Mother Base towards the end of Ground Zeroes. In Metal Gear Survive, you take on the identity of Captain, a character whom you can fully customize. That said, the co-op gameplay is a bright spot and some missions spur enjoyable moments, but those don't do enough to save the experience. In fact, I only made it about 10 hours into the single-player campaign before giving up on it. Still, I came away disappointed with its convoluted mechanics, repetitive gameplay, and bland overall aesthetic. As a complete newcomer to the series, I went into this review with an open mind. Notably, this PC game does not advance or affect the main Metal Gear Solid storyline, so you won't miss anything important if you decide to skip it. Metal Gear Survive is only the latest entry in the storied Metal Gear series, but it's the first after Hideo Kojima's controversial departure.
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