Left Alive Reviews
This unlikely Front Mission spin-off's occasional charm can't make up for its seriously broken fundamentals.
Left Alive's mix of inconsistent stealth and aggravatingly unbalanced action make it a complete chore to play, and it runs terribly to boot.
A game bursting with interesting ideas but dragged down by a lack of technical competence and some very outdated ideas about game design and controls.
This third-person stealth action game is better left alone.
Any good they might have had are quickly swallowed up by a plethora of issues. The desperate or the gullible may find a glimmer of fun hidden somewhere in the pit.
I really hope Square Enix doesn’t just write Front Mission off after Left Alive. This was a poor attempt at reviving the franchise, and Front Mission deserves better.
Left Alive it's a tough game, hard and even unfair (because of the enemy's IA), with a non very responsible control, a questionable checkpoint system and other shortcomings, even from the technical side. Mechas, stealth, action... neither of its elements shine completely. But, even with that, it has "something" that can hook you up to keep playing.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Left Alive is an ambitious new development from Square Enix. Unfortunately, that ambition is squandered. The gameplay is dreadful, the enemy AI is broken, and the visuals are bland as all hell. Those issues are complemented by a boring story and a slew of audio and gameplay bugs that simply make Left Alive a failure on all fronts.
If you were hoping you'd get a taste of what could have been, remember that gas station burrito thing? Don't bother – this will only give you stomach troubles.
Unfortunately, Left Alive ends up being the heir of a period of Japanese development that we thought was extinct. Neither in stealth nor in shootings convinces.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Square Enix's Left Alive takes us back to the Front Mission universe. Unfortunately, numerous issues hold it back that it might as well be left for dead.
Left Alive categorically fails at everything it sets out to accomplish. Wonky and unreliable AI makes engaging in stealth a frustrating chore, poor gunplay leads to numerous misplaced shots whizzing past the bullet-sponge enemies, and an unfair difficulty means you'll need to repeat those enraging moments over and over again. This game could have filled a gaping hole in the market, but instead it needs to be taken round back and put out of its misery. This is a truly miserable experience for even the most die-hard supporters of the genre.
The sort of crushing disappointment that only comes around once in a while, Left Alive feels like an emaciated, innovation bereft meditation on Metal Gear Solid and in matching up so poorly with its inspiration, provides the Front Mission franchise with arguably its weakest entry in years.
Where did the producers and quality control department look? What do Square Enix investors spend their money on? Why and most importantly for whom? For fans of pain and suffering? You should run away from this game. It's a pure trash.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Throughout my time with the game, I thought about how money someone should spend to buy this game and I eventually decided on an amount: No more than three dollars.
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.
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.
In a few days, once the papers are about to finish it, Left Alive will return to anonymity from the beginning, carrying with it the secret of its existence. Thanks to him, we remembered the charisma of PlayStation's Front Mission years ago and how incredible Metal Gear is on so many aspects. An incomprehensible and catastrophic attempt to survive and infiltrate, bad on all fronts, Left Alive deserves now to rest in peace.
Review in French | Read full review
Left Alive's ambitious ideas are held back by a myriad of design and technical problems.
Left Alive is a tremendously disappointing return to the Front Mission universe.