I must preface my thoughts on this game with the fact that I got it for £3 and I have very minimal experience with both Front Mission, which I've played three maps of and enjoyed but haven't had the time to return to, and Armored Core, which I have spent hours on the web page for a used game shop's listing of Armored Core 4 and never actually buying it.
In a certain way this is a predecessor to Balan Wonderworld, another of Square Enix's attempts to use the cache of established creator(s) to sell a game they gave ten bucks and some duct tape to make. Unlike Balan Wonderworld though, there is a certain genius to Left Alive and I cannot bring myself to actually dislike it.
This is a game about running. Running from the past, running in the present, running to the future. It's not a stealth or survival game, ultimately, it's a game about running as bullets rain down on you to the next save point or mission marker. And when it works, it works extremely well. There is an unhinged chaos to the game that absolutely reflects the state of Novo Slava as pure hopelessness accentuates every pacing step Mikhail, Olga and Leo takes. When this unhinged chaos doesn't work, however, the bones of its unpolished systems get stuck in your throat and suffocates any love you would end up growing towards it.
The narrative is sometimes badly and even brokenly told but there is a genuine humanity to some of its characters, even minor characters like Sofia. Ivan, who speaks entirely in baseball metaphors, has a daring last stand against Mikhail, the two of them piloting the Wanzers that are the crux of the narrative, in one of the most exhilarating boss battles I've seen in a game this conventionally "bad". I've heard very good things about the writing in Front Mission, especially Front Mission 2, and I could glimpse that potential in this game's setting and worldbuilding.
Again, I simply cannot bring myself to dislike this game. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who cannot stomach games that aren't polished, or for those offended by Front Mission's corpse being reanimated like this, but for anyone who desires a game that's as chaotically designed as its besieged city in winter setting, Left Alive is an interesting /thing/.
In a certain way this is a predecessor to Balan Wonderworld, another of Square Enix's attempts to use the cache of established creator(s) to sell a game they gave ten bucks and some duct tape to make. Unlike Balan Wonderworld though, there is a certain genius to Left Alive and I cannot bring myself to actually dislike it.
This is a game about running. Running from the past, running in the present, running to the future. It's not a stealth or survival game, ultimately, it's a game about running as bullets rain down on you to the next save point or mission marker. And when it works, it works extremely well. There is an unhinged chaos to the game that absolutely reflects the state of Novo Slava as pure hopelessness accentuates every pacing step Mikhail, Olga and Leo takes. When this unhinged chaos doesn't work, however, the bones of its unpolished systems get stuck in your throat and suffocates any love you would end up growing towards it.
The narrative is sometimes badly and even brokenly told but there is a genuine humanity to some of its characters, even minor characters like Sofia. Ivan, who speaks entirely in baseball metaphors, has a daring last stand against Mikhail, the two of them piloting the Wanzers that are the crux of the narrative, in one of the most exhilarating boss battles I've seen in a game this conventionally "bad". I've heard very good things about the writing in Front Mission, especially Front Mission 2, and I could glimpse that potential in this game's setting and worldbuilding.
Again, I simply cannot bring myself to dislike this game. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who cannot stomach games that aren't polished, or for those offended by Front Mission's corpse being reanimated like this, but for anyone who desires a game that's as chaotically designed as its besieged city in winter setting, Left Alive is an interesting /thing/.