History VideoGame / MetalGearSurvive

''Metal Gear Survive'' is a survival action game that was released on February 21, 2018 for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and PC. It is a {{spinoff}} of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidV''.

* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: [[spoiler:Happens to the Captain in the "Home" ending. He succeeds in getting back home to Earth, but at the cost of his sanity, now reduced to a Wandering Mother Base soldier that we see in The Phantom Pain.]]

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: The Captain has the option to leave his team behind in the final battle using the same wormhole [[spoiler:Chris entered where the Captain becomes another Wandering Mother Base Soldier similar to those whom appeared in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain''.]]

* GeniusBonus: The full name of Section is Wardenclyffe Section. A Wardenclyffe Tower was Nikola Tesla's attempt at sending wireless signals, whereby Tesla hoped wireless telephone technology would become possible. In addition Tesla was hoping that an early form of faxing images would result from his tower, but sadly for him it didn't receive much funding. The portal towers are not dissimilar in design to what Tesla made (give or take a few details) and they do indeed send wireless signals, across dimensions through the portals they create. True long distance communication (can't get much '''further''' than another dimension) just like what Tesla wanted. Given how Section is characterized as a highly secretive research department in the Pentagon, it wouldn't be surprising if they used Tesla's research to make the portals to Dite possible in the first place.
** Goodluck's superior Gruen has a name that is pretty relevant to the plot thematically. Victor Gruen was a famous Austrian architect responsible for the creation of shopping malls in the United States, but came to hate how Americans bastardized his work. He claimed that consumers would enter a shopping mall surrounded by intentionally bad layouts designed to confuse them. This confusion makes the customer lose track of their original intended purpose, thus making them more susceptible to make impulse buys. [[spoiler:Not that Goodluck himself gives the Charon Corps much reason to trust him, but when the equally shady Gruen comes along he tells them that Goodluck is in over his head and hurting every party involved in this case. He even lies to you at one point about Goodluck committing suicide so as to force you to have reason to only trust him (as he'd be their only way out without Goodluck). The confusion on whether to trust Gruen or Goodluck's advice leads the Captain to make several impulse decisions.]]

** Goodluck's superior Gruen has a name that is pretty relevant to the plot thematically. Victor Gruen was a famous Austrian architect responsible for the creation of shopping malls in the United States, but came to hate how Americans bastardized his work. He claimed that consumes would enter a shopping mall surrounded by intentionally bad layouts designed to confuse them. This confusion makes the customer lose track of their original intended purpose, thus making them more susceptible to make impulse buys. [[spoiler:Not that Goodluck himself gives the Charon Corps much reason to trust him, but when the equally shady Gruen comes along he tells them that Goodluck is in over his head and hurting every party involved in this case. He even lies to you at one point about Goodluck committing suicide so as to force you to have reason to only trust him (as he'd be their only way out without Goodluck). The confusion on whether to trust Gruen or Goodluck's advice leads the Captain to make several impulse decisions.]]

* MadeOfIron: Actually shows up a clever continuity nod to Peace Walker. [[spoiler:When Captain uses Sahelantropus' railgun to kill off the Lord of Dust, Virgil gets caught in the crossfire (as he/she needed to run signal interference so the monster could be killed for good). However as the AI unit lampshades, their design was built to endure a nuclear war so the worst Virgil gets is a dent in its armor.]]

In shopping mall design, the Gruen transfer (also known as the Gruen effect) is the moment when consumers enter a shopping mall or store and, surrounded by an intentionally confusing layout, lose track of their original intentions, making consumers more susceptible to make impulse buys.

** The name of the Section official Gruen is significant. Victor Gruen was an Austrian architect responsible for initial designs of some of the first shopping malls in America. He would later come to detest American officials for bastardizing his work. He also claimed that shopping malls instead of being elegant, organized creations had stores slapped together with very little rhyme or reason, which created a confusing atmosphere for shoppers. Shoppers would start their quest for something, only to get distracted by a million other things and completely forget why they came there in the first place. This is a fairly accurate summary of the plot because the Charon Corps led by Captain are strung along, losing sight of what their original mission was as they get increasingly confusing orders.

There are some game modes where players can hide (Stealth), collect material and resources in order to build new pieces of equipment, new weapons and new camps (CRAFT), and sometimes they also has to cooperate with other players to get their hands on powerful equipment (COOP) or to fight against the waves of Wanderers attacking the camp (DEFENCE).

* AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler:Happens to the player character Captain when he tries to rescue a fellow Mother Base soldier from going through the worm hole. He reaches through the worm hole to grab said comrade, only for it to close on him and sever his left arm. Thanks to the advances in technology Section has gained from the other dimension Dite, they succeed in regenerating his left arm but at the cost of infecting the Captain.]]

* AssimilationPlot: [[spoiler:The motive of The Lord of Dust. It views its corruption of humanity into wanderers as the true path to peace. However, it has hit a stand still in its thinking as nanomachines are designed to continue replicating and yet it has no more organic life to assimilate into its collective. It is the lack of organic life to control which has made it create worm holes as a pet project to have other worlds it can assimilate.]]

* BigDamnHeroes: Also doubles as a HeroicSacrifice. As Morpho's helicopter was taking off from the sinking Mother Base during the climatic battle, XOF commandos we're about to shoot down Big Boss, and all the survivors. Cue to the PlayerCharacter icing them with a bullet to the head from their sniper rifle, relinquishing their chance of escape to save [[UndyingLoyalty their boss.]]

* EnemyMine: One of the major allies in the single player campaign turns out to be a ''[[SociopathicSoldier XOF commando]]'' [[spoiler:named Reeve, who becomes your base manager later on.]] Though it's possible he's a TokenGoodTeammate to XOF's otherwise sinister motives. To be fair to both parties, the Captain and the XOF commando in question both realize that they have a better chance at survival and getting back home to Earth if they work together. [[spoiler:Reeve does mention to Miranda, the nurse, that he has no intention of sticking together with the Captain when they get home, showing that he hasn't forgotten his animosity towards Mother Base.]]
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The player character is never given a name (other than what the player chooses for them, and it briefly shows up on a clip board Goodluck looks at) and instead everyone follows Goodluck's suggestion and calls him Captain. Ironically, Goodluck calls Captain and his allies "heroes with no names" (despite some of them having very clear cut names). [[spoiler:There's actually a very good reason for why Goodluck insists on the player character having the code name Captain, it's because when he was a little boy Chris that's what he remembers everyone calling the player character.]]

* {{Hell}}: A heavy part of the story's theme is that the world beyond the worm hole, Dite, can be compared to hell. This is referenced ''[[Literature/TheDivineComedy Dante's Inferno]]'' a few times (with the biggest one being an AI named [[http://metalgear.wikia.com/wiki/Virgil_AT-9 Virgil]]). In addition, Section's (the group who sent the player character) special forces unit is known as the Charon Corps, invoking the imagery of the boat man of the underworld from Greek mythology.
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: [[spoiler:This is Chris', otherwise known as Goodluck's, situation. Happened to him twice no less. Apparently he's a child soldier who comes from the 80s, sent back in time to Survive's 1975 setting (some AfterTheEnd revelations imply it might be the 22nd century relative to Dite's framework). Then at the end of the game he gets sent back in time to 1943 so he can grow up to be Goodluck by 1975.]] Time travel is confusing.
* GrandfatherParadox: Subtle but it's there. [[spoiler:If Goodluck gave the player character the idea to use the code name Captain, then how did the player character come to use that code name in the first place? As the current time loop shows, Goodluck remembers as a child everyone calling your character Captain, but if he gave them the idea to call him Captain then where did the original idea for the designation come from? This is especially relevant to Reeve, since he's characterized as very begrudging of the Captain and only agrees to call him that because Goodluck, who is obviously in a position of authority above his pay grade, orders him to do so. So how did the Captain convince Reeve to call him that in the 'original time line'?]]

* {{Nanomachines}}: [[spoiler: The Dust are an evolved sentinent form of nanomachines.]]

* TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: The group, known as Section, who sent the player character to the world beyond the worm hole Dite counts as this. [[spoiler:Section is characterized as separate from the manipulations and schemes of the Philosophers and Cipher, and are focused more on scientific endeavors that will benefit mankind rather than pursuits of political dominance. To some degree it's implied that they're secretive enough that not even Cipher knows about them, or if they do that they know very little. This is supported by the fact that Reeve, a XOF operative, had no clue what Section was before Goodluck, the Captain's handler told him about them. We are not told what grand plan they have for humanity, besides a general passion for ForScience as a guiding principle to their actions.]]

** [[spoiler: These same worm holes also act as portals to different timelines, and take objects from those timelines and puts them smack dab in the middle of Dite. For example Sahelanthropus shows up in ruined form near the end of the story.]]

* RagtagBandOfMisfits: The [[BadassCrew Charon Corps]] consist of an [[BadassArmy MSF Sniper]], a [[SociopathicSoldier XOF Commando]], a ChildSoldier, a FairCop, a UN Scientist, several sentient AI's, and a bunch of other oddballs. It's brought up multiple times that there are other Charon Corps members, but the vast majority of the ones sent to Dite have either died or gotten lost -- it's just your party in particular which stands out as a rag tag bunch. [[spoiler:In fact your handler Good Luck intended this group to get together since he remembers meeting them as a child. Yes that's right, your handler is the African boy in the wheelchair, Chris.]]

* StableTimeLoop: [[spoiler:There are two. The first is the Lord of Dust sending wanderers back in time, exposing the Kuban and Iris energy to Section therefore ensuring that they invest incredible research dollars into figuring out how that energy and the portals work. This makes the journey to the world of Dite possible in the first place, otherwise Section would never know to go there. The second is Goodluck's behavior towards the Captain. If he didn't send the Captain through the worm hole to Dite, then the Captain would not have been able to rescue his child self and send him through the time portal to 1943. If that doesn't happen then Chris can't grow up to be Goodluck and send the Captain through the worm hole.]]
* SuperCellReception: Averted. Section can't magically talk to the players without an active worm hole, otherwise no signal they send gets through to Dite.

* TimeTravel:[[spoiler:The monster The Lord of Dust has the power to open up portals to different worlds containing alternate timelines of Earth. In an example of a stable time loop the Captain's Handler Good Luck is actually a grown up Chris who went through one such portal. Afterward Chris landed on a US Navy ship in 1943 and was taken into Section custody. He's spent the last 32 years thinking of the day he'd see the two men he admired for saving him -- Captain and Reeve. He's been racked with guilt over going home to Earth without them, and wants to make sure they get home successfully this time.]]

* WorldWarII: The war itself isn't shown, but a character has a significant thing happen to them during its height, circa 1943. [[spoiler:Chris, a younger Goodluck, was sent through the worm hole and fell on a US Navy ship. Not a war time ship however, as it's noted that Chris fell out of a portal over Philadelphia. Afterward, through Pentagon channels, Section got a hold of Chris and raised him to be a researcher in their group.]]

There are some game modes where players can hide (Stealth), collect material and resources in order to build new pieces of equipment, new weapons and new camps (CRAFT), and sometimes they also has to cooperate with other players to get their hands on powerful equipment (COOP) or to fight against the waves of creatures attacking the camp (DEFENCE).

* BackStab: Creatures have weak points on their backs. If you sneak up on them, you can knife them in the back for a OneHitKill.

* ItemCrafting: One of the game's new features, and a huge part of the game's mechanics. By collecting resources through the environment, extracting Creatures, or acquiring Supply Drops sent in by Diamond Dogs, you can create emplacements by accessing a Crafting Table. Said emplacements are vital to defending the Transmitter in the Defense Phase, with items such as Barbed Wire Fences to stop and harm Creatures, and manned turrets that enable players to dish out a lot of damage over a short period of time.

** Requesting bombardment support from the wormhole mining machine [[spoiler: summons [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty Metal Gear RAY]] to obliterate Creatures using its hydraulic cutter]].

* NotUsingTheZWord: The game makes it explicit that the enemies inhabiting the alternate world are known as "Creatures".
* OminousFog: During certain times, Creatures will spawn from a fog. It is referred to as "The Mist World" [[ShoutOut similar]] to ''Franchise/SilentHill''.

* PortalNetwork: Wormholes seem to function as this, capable of transporting anything under the sun from the standard ''Metal Gear'' world into a strange alternate universe inhabited by vicious Creatures.

* UselessUsefulStealth: Downplayed. Due to the enemies being, well, not human, players are free to go in loud and mow down their enemies with heavy fire. However, they also take massive damage from {{Back Stab}}s, so while stealth still serves a purpose, it's simply one of many routes you can take in terms of handling opposition. [[MetalSlime Detonator Creatures]], in particular, can ''only'' be approached via stealth, as trying to engage them in any other way means they blow themselves up, taking the rare resources they're carrying with them.

* CallForward: In the story trailer, there's a scene of MSF soldiers giving their fallen comrades a funeral, which is ''highly'' reminiscent of the Diamond Dogs funeral in ''The Phantom Pain''.

* WorfHadTheFlu: The surviving MSF and XOF soldiers, some of the most skilled BadassNormal units in the entire series, get ''slaughtered'' as soon as they find themselves in the hellish alternate reality. In their defense, they are up against super powerful monsters and an incredible lack of supplies -- even your player character barely survives the opening segment of the game, despite being depicted as an ace sniper in Big Boss's army.

* EnemyMine: One of the major allies in the single player campaign turns out to be a ''[[SociopathicSoldier XOF commando]]'' named Reeve. Though it's possible he's a TokenGoodTeammate to XOF's otherwise sinister motives.

* ThisIsReality: Said by Reeve to the wheel disabled African boy Chris when he comes through the portal to Dite, assuring him that this is not a dream and he did not die and go to heaven. For his part the boy lampshades why there would be monsters in heaven, so it must be real.

* ChildSoldier: [[spoiler:Chris is revealed to be a child soldier. Apparently he suffered some sort of war injury which has left him wheelchair bound.]] Reeve for his part expresses disgust at the concept, pointing out that the average America child should be worrying about more basic problems, like reading comic books and going to school. He even says that adults like them have paid justly for their sins, but kids like the one they just found don't deserve to be sent to a hellish place like Dite.
* ColdSniper: The PlayerCharacter is an MSF Sniper part of Mother Base's combat team.

* ContinuityPorn: The game continues a ''massive'' amount of references to past ''Metal Gear'' games, even the non-Kojima titles such as ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengence''.

* ContinuityPorn: The game continues a ''massive'' amount of references to past ''Metal Gear'' games, even the non-Kojima titles such as ''VideoGame/MetalGearRevengence''.

* AfterTheEnd: Appears to be the case for the alternate dimension Dite. [[spoiler:Eventually revealed to be an alternate timeline Earth set in the 2100s which has undergone a Class 4 extinction due to a self-replicating nano-plague. Said nano-plague has consumed most of the life on the planet, and is trying to open portals to other worlds so it can repeat the process.]]

* WorfHadTheFlu: The surviving MSF and XOF soldiers, some of the most skilled BadassNormal units in the entire series, get ''slaughtered'' as soon as they find themselves in hte hellish alternate reality.

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The player character is never given a name (other than what the player chooses for them, and it briefly shows up on a cliff board) and instead everyone follows Goodluck's suggestion and calls him Captain. Ironically, Goodluck calls Captain and his allies "heroes with no names" (despite some of them having very clear cut names). [[spoiler:There's actually a very good reason for why Goodluck insists on the player character having the code name Captain, it's because when he was a little boy Chris that's what he remembers everyone calling the player character.]]