In advance of its February 20-22 release date (depending on your region), Konami have released a spirited co-op trailer for Metal Gear Survive. Where the single-player trailer from couple weeks ago aimed to situate the zombie-survival spinoff and its mechanics in the greater Metal Gear world, this one is about pure, clean, bloody fun.
Metal Gear Survive is the first game in the series made since the ousting of series progenitor Hideo Kojima, and fans have roundly criticized Konami for bastardizing the brand in order to make a generic zombie survival game. Even Kojima himself has gone on the record, stating that the premise does not fit in with Metal Gear‘s reliance on “political fiction and espionage.” After this new trailer—set to the cheeky and upbeat “Ballroom Blitz” by Sweet—it’s hard to disagree.
In stark contrast to the stealth action that has defined the series since Metal Gear on the MSX2, Survive appears as some kind of marriage between Dead Rising, Fortnite: Battle Royale, and Call of Duty Zombie modes. Instead of silenced pistols, try a bow and arrow outfitted with spinning razor blades. Instead of a sneaky close-combat kill, swing an electric sledgehammer around, or lure zombies into a chainlink-fence box for any kind of imaginative extermination. Weapons, building materials, and costumes abound, giving players plenty of options for their undead genocide.
No one will confuse Metal Gear Survive for a core Metal Gear title—those that have played the beta are under no illusions about that. And while the Kojima/Konami split continues to be contentious, there is certainly a degree of fun on display that’s hard to ignore. True Metal Gear it is most decidedly not, but it’s hard to say that tearing up hordes of shambling corpses with a giant mech doesn’t sound at entertaining at all.