Left Alive Review (PS4)

Left Alive comes as a new entry within the Front Mission universe, only with a radical shift in gameplay direction

You know nothing about war

As far as the game premise goes, you have the Republic of Garmoniya which thought it may be a good idea to attack the Republic of Ruthenia, and invade the great city of Novo Slava. The city’s defenses is rapidly defeated and the invading army then proceeds to kill pretty much anyone left alive. Therefore, anyone that didn't manage to get evacuated along with the rest of the city is pretty much left to take care of themselves and find their own way of escaping. That’s where you come into the picture, or better yet the three “yous” you will control throughout the game. The first part of the story focuses on Wanzer pilor  Mikhail Shuvalov, then you move on to police officer Olga Kalinina, and finally escaped convict Leonid Osterman. By the end of the story, all three characters meet and their storylines intertwine in a way that lets you realize the entire conflict was part of a grander scheme fueled by the interest of outside forces and covert powers. While I may not spoil whether the game will have a happy ending or not, one thing is for sure: you’ll have to fight tooth and claw to earn the right to see it.

Say goodbye to your Wanzers

I will admit I’ve never played any of the games from the Front Mission franchise before, so I did a bit of lecturing after I finished playing Left Alive, so that I can have something to compare with it. Everywhere I looked, I would always find the phrase “you pilot massive mechs known as Wanzers". I checked and double-checked, just so that I was sure I was reading about the right game. Left Alive does indeed have mechs, and they are still called Wanzers, but the greatest twist as far as themes go is that in Left alive you are actually on the receiving end of a Wanzer’s punishment, all while being a lowly unarmored human of course. You do get to pilot one near the end of the game, but that experience is so brief and unimpressive, I almost forgot about mentioning it.

Legend says Left Alive has an “Easy” difficulty setting

Because I wanted to get through the game as fast as possible without much of a hassle, it goes without saying that I chose to play it on the easiest of the four available difficulty levels, but that didn't seem to be enough, since I got my pride handed over to me every five minutes. Left Alive is labeled as a stealth game, and it MUST be treated as such, because combat is extremely difficult. Best case scenario, you’ll be fighting Garmoniyan soldiers armed with super suites that make them almost impervious to damage, and worst case scenario is that a Garmoniyan Wanzer gets you in its cross-hairs and turns you into Ruthenian schnitzel. 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.

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Fight, if you can...

The few moments when combat is indeed mandatory are extremely punishing and must be treated with utmost attention. Your bullets are next to worthless, your aim is horrible (which left me wondering whether it was a bug or not, since two of your characters have experience wielding firearms), and even if you do manage to hit your enemies where it hurts, by the time you manage to aim, you would have lost half  of your HP. If that’s not enough, the enemy AI alternates between super-smart and super-silly, as there are times when they will wander in your direction when they hear gunfire, but they also give up easily after not having you in their sights a certain amount of time. Besides, don’t think that if you find any makeshift melee weapon you can perform silent kills on unsuspecting enemies, since that mechanic is non-existent.

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Clunky controls

The game’s UI is quite confusing, and deep down I think the game developers knew this, and that’s why you always have tips displayed on your screen along with the button combinations you would need whenever you try and perform any action. I also had some “what the heck” moments when I realized I could slide over an obstacle just by jumping on it, which is an action that would normally require you to build momentum by running towards it first.

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion