Left Alive Critic 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. It also does a great job of making that sense of survival as desperate as it should. If only there was the technical competence behind it, to support those great ideas.

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 tough game, hard and even unfair (because of the enemy's AI), with a highly non-responsive control, a questionable checkpoint system and other shortcomings, even from the technical side. Mechas, stealth, action... none of its elements shine completely. But, even given that, it has "something" that can hook you in to keep playing.

Left Alive is a reason to question the reason. A game to question taste and good will among gamers. It is not a superb title, it's clunky, unpolished and can drive you insane, but there is just that one weird part of it that could make it up to you... It's surprisingly cool, for reasons unknown. If you consider yourself a brave man, give it a go. You just may find something worth your while.

Left Alive has many good ideas. Some of them are well-executed and many others are not. It’s a shame that many of these issues are on the gameplay side, but if you really like the concept, you can manage to enjoy it.

Left Alive has an interesting approach, but is defenestrated by so many things: game mechanics, level design, control scheme and execution, AI... that barely manage to lead the player to see what the game has to offer.

The problem is that Left Alive really misses on too many things: it presents itself with clearly limited gameplay, which only in the number and in the diversity of gadgets succeeds in convincing. When it comes to infiltration and shooting the problems are overwhelming, and they concern the responsiveness of the control system, the artificial intelligence, the variety of stealth approaches, the structure of the missions.

Unfortunately, Left Alive ends up being the heir of a period of Japanese development that we thought was extinct. Neither its stealth nor its shootings convince.

Left Alive could have been a fantastic game with a little more work. It has some phenomenal moments, but often drowns in frustrating scenarios.

The only people that will truly enjoy the game are either those that actually love a challenge, or those of you that are more interested in the story aspect of a game than the mechanics, since this is the only department where Left Alive impressed me.

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.

Overall, 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.

Every single positive element is completely squandered on a gameplay foundation which is barely playable and utterly devoid of merit. On a fundamental gameplay level, there's nothing in Left Alive that wasn't done twice as well fifteen years ago.

Left Alive fails to deliver a modern stealth experience. A good story can't save this total mess of a game which sports too many flaws and too many frustrating moments.

Establishing expectations high almost never goes well and unfortunately this game does not meet those expectations.

This was a poor attempt at reviving the franchise, and Front Mission deserves better.

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.

The unique way in which Left Alive approaches the survival theme is easily its most appealing aspect. However, from graphics to enemy AI, there are just way too many issues. And while it’s high difficulty might make sense from a survival standpoint, the lack of stealth kills and hard to utilize weapons make it so hard that for most players it will be beyond simply “challenging”.

Anyone looking to get involved with Left Alive needs patience and tremendous frustration resistance.

I’d stay as far away from Left Alive as possible. For all of you hardcore Front Mission fans hoping for a proper sequel in the series, you can bury those hopes and dreams. With a team consisting of so much talent behind it, I truly wonder what went wrong with Left Alive. I love Square Enix games to death typically but this is frankly unacceptable…and it’s $60.