085REVIEW
INFO
FORMATPS4
ETAOUTNOW
PUBSQUAREENIX
DEVILINX
LEFT ALIVE
In this stealth game everyone’s out for your hide
T
he setting immediately evokes a tense
atmosphere: wrecked cars; blood
splatters on the walls; various fires the
only source of light. You find yourself
in the city of Novo Slava, where everyone
was preparing for Christmas just before the
neighbouring republic of Garmonia attacked,
their giant Wanzer mechs flattening everything
in sight. Now it’s up to you to make it out
alive somehow rather than to save the day.As it turns out, in Left Alive just getting around
the next corner unscathed is almost impossible.
It has clearly been designed to be a difficult
game, in order to escalate your feeling of
powerlessness in the face of an overwhelming foe.
The actual foe, however, is the controls coupled
with completely unpredictable AI behaviour.
You play as three different characters in this
war-torn world, searching for allies, freeing
civilians, and – most importantly – surviving.
The atmosphere established early on doesn’t
last, partly because Left Alive doesn’t look great.
Textures and colours are the streaky grey of a
cloudy afternoon, making it hard to tell items
andenemiesapartata distance.Meanwhile,youropponents seem to be able to
see you from anywhere – turn
the camera towards them while
your character is hidden and
they will spot you and open
fire immediately. If you manage
to get the drop on a lone
enemy there is no quiet way
to dispatch them; instead you
empty an entire magazine of
bullets into them, alerting even
their deaf gran in the process.SQUALID SNAKE
Elsewhere, soldiers helplessly
shoot at the cars in front of
them when they see you,
and if you manage to throw a
Molotov cocktail accurately at
a group of enemies (which, due
to the aforementioned visuals,
feels like throwing with your
eyes closed) they will be drawn
to it like moths to a flame.
Bugs and controls that make
yourDualShockfeellikea
forkliftunderminea sound
concept.Sneakingforyourlife
untilyoufinallymakeit into
thecockpitofa Wanzerfor
someaction-filledcombatis a
greatidea.LeftAlivealsogives
youa widearsenalofitemsto craft, from small explosives
to enemy sensors. Escorting
survivors and making moral
decisions at certain points in
the story are fresh concepts
that would bring some much-
needed realism to the genre if
they weren’t hampered by bugs.
Despite your best efforts,
you end up dying so many
times that survival loses all its
meaning. Instead, Left Alive is
a game about stubbornly going
through the motions. Any
satisfaction is short-lived when
exceedingly rare autosaves
can cost you up to half an
hour of progress. Attached
to the Front Mission series
and prolific talent such as
Metal Gear character designer
Yoji Shinkawa, Left Alive was
slanted to be the next big thing
in stealth since Metal Gear, but
thepromisestayed hidden.BEST LEFT ALONE @yourkyotowife
VERDICT
Uniformly grey, Left
Alive routinely makes it
difficult to see anything
but the giant mechs.Left Alive is most disappointing
because it had such potential
to revitalise the stealth genre.
Instead you get something far
behind even the titles it tries to
emulate. Malindy Hetfeld“TEXTURES AND COLOURS
MAKE IT HARD TO TELL ITEMS
AND ENEMIES APART.”