Gamescom is back and gamers around the world shriek in girlish joy as the goodies keep on coming. This year, however, not everything at the convention was gamer gold. In fact there was a toxic sludge that had wormed its slimy body through the convention in hopes of tricking fans of a particular long-running franchise into wasting time and money on a shallow, repulsive game.

The game in question if you haven’t already guessed is of course Metal Gear: Survive and the toxic sludge is indeed the nefarious force known as Konami. The face of the Konami company has been tarnished by what has come to light in recent months over not only the way they treated Hideo Kojima, but the business practice the company stands on altogether. This is the first time that we have seen Metal Gear grace its Hideo Kojima-less touch since the laughable pachinko machine installment. Konami had attempted to try and move away from the console market, however, after their pachinko market hadn’t lived up to what they were expecting it to be, they have decided to try and cash in on what they believed to be a immensely popular IP.

Thus, the birth of Metal Gear Survival. Now, they have claimed that this game will be no more than $30 USD, but even so it’s safe to assume that this pale imitation, which directly spits in the face of everything Hideo Kojima has worked so hard to create, will be just as worthless as the game’s concept. Konami is claiming that the game is set in the Metal Gear Universe and is a new edition to the Metal Gear Solid V experience. The trailer, however, says otherwise as it features Mother Base in flames, sinking into the deep sea while Big Boss and company are flying out via helicopter just as had been done in the beginning hours of Ground Zeros when suddenly we see the main characters sucked into a portal and brought into a zombie-filled dimension.

Everything about this game screams that the people at Konami have no idea what there doing as they basically just sat in a room and thought “what are the kids into now? Oh! I know, zombies! Let’s make the next Metal Gear a zombie survival game, that will surely sell.” Sorry, but no, it won’t. Just thinking about how Konami chooses to run their poorly-constructed ship is sickening as it’s now evident that they treat their employees the people who slave away to bring us these games like utter garbage. This is a company who will turn the lights off on you while you’re working, forcing you to work crazy hours to grind out their half-baked games. Playing through any of their games now makes me feel sick, as I know everyone involved in the process of creating it was probably miserable doing so, which is the opposite of what gaming is all about. Gaming is about fun, entertainment, conveying meaningful messages and most importantly art.

Konami seems to be against everything gaming stands for and now they seek to destroy the vision that Metal Gear Solid had always strived to deliver to its audience with each installment in the series. Sure the story at times could be a bit convoluted and ridiculous, but at its heart it has always tried to say something that speaks to us. For example, Metal Gear Solid 2 is trying to tell us about the effects technology has over us. Nevertheless, Metal Gear: Survival speaks for nothing besides a desperate plea from a corporation feeling the effects of their past mistakes. The fact that this game cost $30 makes it easy to assume that it will be filled with micro-transactions to the brim. There will be loot to scrounge up and EXP bars to fill and pay money to fill them faster. Metal Gear Survival is a slap in the face to fans and a hocking logy in the face to creator and visionary master, Hideo Kojima.