A quick look at the final evaluation reveals an unpleasant fact. The reason why Left Alive simply failed is prosaic: the game has fallen asleep, and what theoretically should work, somehow automatically creaks and crooks. This is particularly surprising because Square Enix is ​​behind the game, who is not uncommon to dispense such desperate waste. Left Alive also draws on the well-known world of Front Mission. So it could work. The result is below average and the title loses its breath at the outset and gaming becomes a cruel punishment.

First of all, let's smash it with at least a dozen plots that are plain, greasy-unsolicited, uninteresting - just average, but at least not enough to turn off the game right from the start, even though you don't resist smirking animations. Set in a distant future, in 2127 in the fictional country of Novo Slava, there was - as otherwise - a war. A conflict resembling a futuristic cold war with mosses and new technologies, however, does not have the necessary juice, it does not draw. Whoever attacked, who holds the right flag, is initially presented by who you play for. The characters will alternate while playing, and the story, which initially spears one naughty cliché after another, will not get the necessary kick from the atmosphere and engulfment. Heroes are flat, cumbersome, it is impossible to empathize with artificial protagonists.

On the other hand, at least the plot doesn't offend, but without hesitation, you can pour out dozens of other action games that make it better. War conflict hides many atrocities, so you will see murder of civilians or public executions, which you can prevent and bring civilians to safety. But the tempting options, along with the relatively open levels, let the enthusiasm fade too quickly. Left Alive wants to be a stealth game. Rough, unforgiving, absorbing. The result is chaos, frustration, idiotic AI, stupid game principles and despair of the goulash as a whole. Nothing works in Left Alive as you would expect, but it is not the original approach. For example, you can control rescued civilians only in close proximity by issuing go or stop commands. Calmly walk into the enemy's arms and get blasted.

Let's take it from the beginning. A stealth game in which you can not kill quietly, defuse enemy soldiers is… how to say ... it has an interesting approach. You can shoot enemies with one of dozens of weapons in which you constantly have a huge lack of ammunition, so you do not shoot ahead. And not quietly. Or you can make cocktails or explosive grenades, EMF jammers from the collected molotov objects - but again, you will cause noise and interest to those around you. Silent stealing is even more entertaining: without any indicator of visibility to the enemy or their reach when they see you, this might seem like hardcore. Until you realize that sometimes they don't see you at ten meters, sometimes they will aim at a hundred, even though you are hiding behind an obstacle and shot you through it.

As soon as you raise an alarm and have no chance of escaping quickly, it is better to record the position from the last checkpoint. You don't even outnumber yourself, even because of the animation, when a volley of rifles throws you away for a few meters, and you continue to buy it during the animation of the fall and lift, with the chaos of enemy control, aiming and mortality. Ordinary drones can be destroyed in just one shot. Most of the time, sometimes it fails. The other enemies - once again and laugh at it together - in stealth game you can not kill quietly, stealing behind the back of the enemy and his "slack" on the skull - you have to dispose of the old one. and they fall like rotten pears. You can just say that there is no stealth killing or headshots. You have to get so much lead to the enemy.

Everything is hampered by unnatural aiming, which seems to be dilapidated, flies incredibly after approaching. In addition, the adversaries behave as foolishly as possible. Their movement and behavior cannot be predicted in advance. Often, they ran across to look around, shout, shoot, run back, and jump the obstacle back and forth. That's one of my flies. Maybe he surrenders, the river will stop firing, they'll still shut me up in a few seconds. He runs past me, hides behind an obstacle behind me, peeks, artificial intelligence announces to me: "Beware, enemy in range!" He shouts, fires at me, paradoxically, he misses me from three meters and runs back screaming to get me from a distance with a blow to my right eye.

Your opponents are strange, not stupid, just stupidly programmed. You have no idea what they do, why they do it. They don't use any tactical options to surround you or search for you. You can hide from them in a trash can, wait a minute (no, of course, don't think you can look out of it and see if it's clear, you can't see it, you can only see darkness) and by the music that stopped playing, you know nobody's after you. You get out, the bogey stares into the wall, suddenly turns around because he probably smelled you after visiting a dumpster, so you try to beat him with a shovel, but it doesn't give any damage because you have beaten her up . Stealth and fun as it should be.

So stealing behind the obstacle remains so that no one can see you, but that doesn't work too much. You don't see what others see, and that's the problem. Take a look at any of the stealth games: Dishonored, Thief, Deus Ex, Hitman - it's no escape and you always have to keep track of what's going on around you. You can't count on anything in Left Alive. The camera also does not offer the best options and sometimes strikes, after tilting you see a blurry texture. It is best if you have an opponent on the sight, whatever you see on the screen, you should hit him, but you do not know that you are still heading to the obstacle, behind which you are hidden. You have to completely lean out, but that's what everyone will see. However, it is not possible. This is stealth in Left Alive. To make matters worse, you will repeat the same sections often until you fade to move to the next checkpoint.

Left Alive gameplay can be described simply: with the hero you have to get from point A to point B, where there is a save point, where everyone will give you peace or animation, or the mission is finally over. That is all. Here is a country, richly thoughtlessly chopped mixture of buildings, obstacles, roadblocks, vehicles, buildings and other junk. Best of all, offering freedom is just a good idea and the developers are laughing to get players into the crotch kick. On a map that is not exactly clear, you plan a trip to avoid enemy patrols (use sewer systems in towns), but after dozens of attempts, you will find that this is not possible and you must follow the route suggested by the developers. Because there are obstacles, roadblocks, and I guess you don't want the soldier to skip that box that reaches to his shoulders. Or he climbed over the garbage and smeared his uniform. Unless it is otherwise, we put fire there and whatever it burns is not going. And as for just, the optimal route leads through patrolling patrols. Coincidence?

But that's not all, dear teleshopping fans. Position can only be saved in selected locations. You arrive at the terminal and save the procedure. You have two or three of them on the map and your only goal is to get to this, because the story mission icon is near. After dozens of reboots and attempts, you will succeed, it all goes wrong and you have to run to the other end of the map. Look at the most optimal route, half an hour of endless dying, because the optimal route is through enemy territory and nicely cross, so you try to run it, after all, it is the best stealth. And sometimes it works. Clap-clap-clap.

Left Alive does not overwhelm either graphics, sounds, music or user interface. Everything is miserable, the level design so desperately pathetic, boring and stupid that every other feature of this review drains the author's life in small, invisible drops. Left Alive is like a punishment. Reverses the principles of the game genre he claims to make a player fool laughing at his face. What can it interest? Maybe by fighting mosses, but don't buy the game for that. Developers' dreams of a great stealth game from a war environment have not come true. Why? Dreams are not fulfilled, pepper is filling. And if I want to do proper stealth, just look at the competition.