A new 'Metal Gear' game is coming in 2017, and it's like nothing the series has done before

The "Metal Gear" video game series is taking a hard left turn in its latest iteration, "Metal Gear Survive." As the name implies, this "Metal Gear" game is focused less on espionage and more on survival.

Metal Gear Surive

"Metal Gear Survive" is an alternate take on what happened after the events of "Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes." As seen above, Mother Base is destroyed and, as seen below, Solid Snake and Kazuhira Miller are high-tailing it outta town on a heli:

Metal Gear Survive

Rather than the hulking "Metal Gear" robots of past games, survival in "Metal Gear Survive" is a struggle against what looks to be an army of zombies (for the record, the game's Japanese publisher is referring to the zombies as "living biological threats," whatever that means).

This looks a lot like a zombie if you ask us:

Metal Gear Survive

The game's described as a four-player co-op shooter, and it looks like each of the four players will have a role to play. In the first trailer for "Metal Gear Survive," you can see one character with a bow:

Metal Gear Survive

Another with a shotgun:

Metal Gear Survive

And yet another with what looks to be an improvised weapon (literally just a long metal pipe):

Metal Gear Survive

There are few video game series that draw as much excitement— and expectation — from gaming fans as the "Metal Gear" franchise. Not only is it one of the longest running game series of all time, but it's tied directly to a famous game director in Hideo Kojima.

Notoriously, Kojima left Konami (or was forced out depending on who you ask) after completing the last major entry in the "Metal Gear" series: 2015's magnum opus "Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain." This move embittered many fans toward Konami.

Given that context, the reaction to the announcement of "Metal Gear Surive" is...less than positive. As "Minecraft" creator Markus "Notch" Persson said on Twitter: