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Death Stranding


DisturbedSwan
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@DANGERMANI honestly don’t think anything I’ve written is spoilers. All of my questions I’m asking is explicitly given to you in the first 30-45 minutes of the game. I’ve edited the BB part because that is a bit further. 
 

I will try to be careful but if you think anything needs to be spoiler tagged then you’re more than welcome to hide it? 

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It’s more just a paranormal delivery guy simulator. Walking sim is too simplistic, no one walks like this. At the same time, there’s too little going on to call it an open world or say it’s really exploration based. It’s all about planning and prepping and mapping, then you walk. 

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24 minutes ago, Maf said:

@DANGERMANI honestly don’t think anything I’ve written is spoilers. All of my questions I’m asking is explicitly given to you in the first 30-45 minutes of the game. I’ve edited the BB part because that is a bit further. 
 

I will try to be careful but if you think anything needs to be spoiler tagged then you’re more than welcome to hide it? 

 

you've spoilered the bit that made me stop ready tbf ?

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Graphics are pretty

 

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Had a great time just walking slowly in a straight line to this prepper guy in this volcanic rock looking place

 

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Want to go to Iceland for some reason now.

 

None of this looks like America at all and it doesnt make sense the way environments are lined up but it looks very lovely

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22 hours ago, Maf said:

My like are 4954, I think.

 

I’m in trouble. My boots are about to die and I haven’t got the ability to fabricate more yet. I did have a spare pair, but I accidentally recycled them when I thought I was recycling the used pair. 
 

I don’t know what’s going to happen now


I’ve no idea what kind of likes I’m on, I’ve put a few signs, ladders etc. down here and there and got a few popping up on my screen from now and then but I’ve not been paying much attention to it.

 

I got the ability to fabricate boots last night at the place before the Wind Farm place. You can use the things that look like corn to put on your feet if your shoes break out in the field.

 

On 08/11/2019 at 22:04, Maf said:

I got to the first BT encounter outside the incinerator and the tool tip pops up “Hold R1 to hold your breath so you’re not found” or something. So I went to check the map and for whatever reason I hit the touchpad and in front of the BT’s Sam just shouts “IS ANYBODY THERE?!” and all the BT’s just started going nuts. Not quite holding your breath. 

 

I made it out without incident but it was funny. 

 

I did exactly the same thing ? I got screwed though and had to reload.

 

16 hours ago, one-armed dwarf said:

It's fair to call this a walking sim, right?

 

Like it is the most earnest attempt at actually making a walking sim. Or hiking or orienteering sim maybe.

 

I feel you could call it this and not have it be a criticism. I dont know what else to call this, certainly not a 'strand' game anyway

 

I think considering the term walking sim has negative connotations and this is most definitely not a ‘walking sim’ it’s not really fair at all to call it one. This doesn’t have anything in common whatsoever with the likes of Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, Dear Esther, Gone Home etc. It’s not really a ‘sim’ of anything, it’s a weird/cool container balancing, encumbrance management, orienteering, rock climbing, building, occasional stealth horror game with social elements. It’s not a ‘strand’ game either but then you can’t really pigeon hole it as any 1 genre. I actually really like that there’s minimal combat so far personally. 
 

As for my own thoughts: 

 

I reached the Wind Farm last night and whilst I have been enjoying it so far it really clicked for me during my last session with it. I just love how relaxing it is, the sense of comradery and kinship there is after you connect an area up to the Chiral network and see everyone’s little signs everywhere warning of things and things like ladders to help you up and around scenery is amazing too, I adore that stuff in Dark Souls when you’re feeling alone and it feels fantastic when you see the same kinds of things here too.

 

Delivering to people has become more poignant than I thought it would too. People are so genuinely elated to see you when you arrive with some important materials that I can’t help but feel me - as Sam - are doing some noble duty connecting all these lonely people together and syncing them up to the network again. It sounds cliched but the more I’ve played it the more I’ve realised I’m not merely a delivery guy. 
 

The story still hasn’t really started yet and some of the little mini cutscenes do get in the way a bit because I just always wanna be out there exploring and delivering packages but it’s just such a nice, relaxing place to exist. I couldn’t tear myself away from it last night.

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Yeah, chapter 3 isnt a walking sim. More of a infrastructure development and logistics/terrain traversal sim.

 

But I'd argue the label, dismissive as it is, is more fitting for a game like this than those other ones. Where here you have to analyse terrain and measure the impact of your load and how it affects your balance. Walking is something you're always conscious of

 

But I think now what this game is is a hot mess of every game design idea Kojima had ruminating the past few years since Phantom Pain. It's both frustrating and rewarding. Terrible yet brilliant. Completely unadulterated and self indulgent trash of the highest order. I really like it.

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I think it’s just an open world game with a different focus. It’s much closer to BotW than it is Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture or Vanishing of Ethan Carter or something. 
 

Like a walking sim is a type of game where you just walk from point to point, and maybe you solve some light puzzles, but it’s a thing where you go from point to point and have a story told to you as you travel. Almost like an interactive slideshow.

 

But this isn’t that. It has way to many things and way too much challenge going on.

 

EDIT: I spent another hour and a half hauling packages between Central Knot and the Wind Farm. Man, I hate going to the Wind Farm. It’s just difficult. For some reason there are no more BT’s in this area anymore so I don’t have to worry about that at all. It’s literally just trying to do the trek. 
 

But Central Knot and West Waypoint are now at 5 stars, West Distribution is almost at 5 stars, and Wind Farm is at 3. I have nearly 10,000 likes and am level 70 something. I didn’t mean to do all this it just kind of happened. But I think now I really need to abandon these extra missions and deliveries and just go west to Port Knot. 
 

Really don’t want to have to deal with BT areas, though. They are so scary. 

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I dont really like chapter 3. It's all about building roads and bridges and less about hiking. I dont know, it seems kind of brain dead to me. Lots of players have already built out the roads so you just drive from waypoint to waypoint without thinking. Sometimes you have to fight mules snd they steal all your cargo

 

As an aside I was arguing with someone on Era whether or not this is a boring game. I think it is and it's on purpose

 

End of chapter 2 spoiler (also on Giantbomb quicklook)

 

Spoiler

If only because a character literally asks you if you are bored of grinding and want to just get to the action bits ?

 

 

But also cause chapter 3 is so much about speeding up and optimising deliveries. Making proper trade routes. Literally the gameplay loop is about investing in infrastructure and different amenities that make things less tedious.

 

Thing is I think I like the slower, more boring game better

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Finally got to Port Knot. Still no BT encounter or even a weapon used. I know I’m going to jinx myself saying this but, the BT’s are really scary but really quite easy to avoid. Now I know next time I put the game on I will get murdered by them like 5005 times but so far that has proven to be true.

 

This game is exhausting, though. Every time you see Sam collapse on the bed I get jealous because I just want to go do the same.

 

EDIT: Maybe it’s just because I still kind of feel like I’m in the tutorial section, but I’m getting quite annoyed with the game that it won’t let me outsmart it (I know what that sounds like). But there are times when you enter a BT zone and I’ve totally managed to just stay on the outskirts and avoid all the trouble. But like the mission I did basically the only way to get there is through a valley which they just smother in BT’s. You can still get through them like I did. But my first plan was to go to the left of the valley and scale all the rocks and stuff. And that just didn’t seem doable at all. And obviously the game knows where I’m going to so the fact there are BT’s there as well is clearly on purpose. 
 

But considering it is an “open world” it so directed and funnelling and, it seems from what I’ve seen, that the game will absolutely not have you think for yourself at all. In story missions you must do exactly what it wants you to and no nonsense. 
 

Maybe that changes later, and maybe there was an option to circumnavigate that situation I just went through. But I don’t know. It kind of seems like bullshit that you have this big open world but I feel entirely chained and not free to do things how I want too

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I think for an open world game its pretty linear as far as approaches go. I'd even say its more linear and restrictive than how you'd approach a mission in a Metal Gear game. Find a chasm, build a bridge. Or use ladders and ropes to get around.

 

Anyway I built this. This is my ladder. Look at my works, ye mighty, and despair

 

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I also built this. If you take nice screenshots here then you better give me likes, you fucking shitheads

 

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As far as when this game is set, based off this codex

 

Spoiler

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Seems like very near future, Death Stranding is happening soon ?

 

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Must be nice. Highest liked thing I’ve built was a ladder that got 7 likes. 
 

I really find that aspect of the game disappointing. Funny, I watched that BBC video today and in it Kojima said the game only gives you positive feedback because nothing you do can be disliked only liked. Yeah but you can also leave shit everywhere and it just gets ignored. Or stuff is already there so there’s no point in doing anything. 
 

Makes me not want to bother and just use and claim everyone else’s stuff instead 

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6 hours ago, one-armed dwarf said:

Yeah, chapter 3 isnt a walking sim. More of a infrastructure development and logistics/terrain traversal sim.

 

But I'd argue the label, dismissive as it is, is more fitting for a game like this than those other ones. Where here you have to analyse terrain and measure the impact of your load and how it affects your balance. Walking is something you're always conscious of

 

But I think now what this game is is a hot mess of every game design idea Kojima had ruminating the past few years since Phantom Pain. It's both frustrating and rewarding. Terrible yet brilliant. Completely unadulterated and self indulgent trash of the highest order. I really like it.


I’m not at Episode 3 yet, I’m still in Episode 2 but I’d still say this is quite far away from the ‘walking sim’ label for me. The label does kind of make sense for games like Dear Esther etc. - as dismissive as it is - as you aren’t doing much else apart from walking about, it’s a very rigid structure. Here it’s much more free form and Sam controls really nicely, running, walking, climbing, wading etc. With the building, crafting etc. Too.
 

I think the reason people call some games ‘walking sims’  - including myself because it’s just an easy distinguisher when describing a game shorthand - is because they don’t see there being much gameplay in that game, not much meat in the pudding so to speak, but with DS there’s plenty of gameplay in this game so it’s not really an apt descriptor for me.

 

6 hours ago, Maf said:

I think it’s just an open world game with a different focus. It’s much closer to BotW than it is Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture or Vanishing of Ethan Carter or something. 
 

Like a walking sim is a type of game where you just walk from point to point, and maybe you solve some light puzzles, but it’s a thing where you go from point to point and have a story told to you as you travel. Almost like an interactive slideshow.

 

But this isn’t that. It has way to many things and way too much challenge going on.


Yeah, completely agree with all this. 

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Not to continuously compare the story to MGS, but I think another key difference with Kojima getting it right and Kojima getting it wrong is that in MGS there are lots of plot twists and big reveals but they come mostly naturally and at the right times and it makes sense why and when they happen and Snake doesn’t know them. 
 

Death Stranding is super confusing and doesn’t make a lot of sense, but unless there’s a reason revealed later, anyone could sit you down and just explain most of this shit any time. But instead they just throw craziness after craziness at you and it’s so obvious it’s trying too hard to keep you guessing. In MGS, for the most part you didn’t even know you were guessing. You thought you knew what was going on and then BAM Foxdie or something. 
 

But here it’s just like “Check this out, weird, right? What does it all mean?” And as an audience member I’m like, well yeah it is weird but it doesn’t mean anything because you don’t give any foundational context. It’s the equivalent of some crazy guy just getting up in your face and being like “Camels and apples plug the hole in the pancake!”. I have the same reaction to the story in this game. Whatever, dude.
 

Maybe it’s trying to just tee it all up and blow your mind at the end, but as of right now I find it very tedious listening to characters talk but don’t really understand what they’re saying. 
 

But I do keep continuing to play it, so there is something to it on the gameplay end of it, I guess 

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One thing I wish they took from Dark Souls is its environmental storytelling. The world looks beautiful but doesnt make any sense. An entire state can be a lush wheat farm just around the corner from a bleak, volcanic landscape.

 

Maybe timefall is the answer. But I wish the world felt more cohesive and didn't feel like it's just an Instagram timeline. Right now I'm trying to ignore everytime someone mentions that the game is set in America cause it's too weird, even for this.

 

Anyway, here is a weapon to surpass Metal Gear

 

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As someone with chronic back problems this game makes me cringe sometimes ?

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I watched Max half dunk on this game for 3 hours

 

 

“You think I should read more?! Have you see how much shit there is to read in this game, chat?! I need an audio book to tell me how to fucking play it!” ?


EDIT: Spoiler/speculation 

 

Spoiler

Sam was a BB that somehow grew up out of the pod and Amelia was his sister in the womb who died. It’s why he can still connect with her, see her in the seam/beach, and why he can come back to life because he was never dead/alive/unalive otherwise. 

 

Also I can’t tell if this game is pro choice, anti abortion or just kind of unintentionally fucked up

 

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Now we're talking. This is how you deal with timefall dudes. No time to be simulating walking around here

 

 

I complained about the road building gameplay, but it does feel good to be the dude built this final link to the distribution centre. Previously it was a broken highway headed into a ravine with a bunch of rocks.

 

Deliveries and infrastructure expansion are going to be so speedy now. #logistics-king

 

@Maf

I'm going to get so many likes from other people on my instance are you jelly

 

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Must be nice.

 

I’m in chapter 3 now and it’s about to give me a mission to build a road for the first time, but I don’t know what the fucking point is because as soon as I hooked up the area to the network the place is littered with roads, bridges and power stations. I feel like there’s literally nothing for me to do. I’ve just been going back and forth the 3 preppers doing all their missions with th no threat or challenge whatsoever because I just ride the roads back and forth.
 

Sigh. It is funny how the like thing is supposed to be this factor of positive reinforcement and I’ve tried leaving and donating and helping build shit everywhere and don’t get any. I don’t even care about the game or the story anymore I just want to build or do one thing that actually feels meaningful. But instead it’s just making me wonder why I’m playing this game because it’s not fun, interesting and now with nothing to contribute not even rewarding 

 

This like stuff is meant to make you feel good but it leaves me feeling really down

 

EDIT: I’m finding this game to share a similarity with MGS5 where you have all of this stuff at your disposal but you don’t really need any of it. But the motivation to actually explore the systems in this game is even less effective because everyone else has already done it all for you

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Tbh, I have the same problem with chapter 3. I built three sections of road and the rest of the highway got built out by some insane grinders. I got that one moment of satisfaction of building the final link to the depot, but everything else was handed to me.

 

I've tried to move on from ch 3 as fast as I can because the trading was beginning to feel like a Ubisoft game due to how easy it became. One exception being the Elder, who's the source of some interesting lore and is up in a hard to reach cliff.

 

Apparently even he can be reached by road eventually though.

 

It's why I prefer chapter 2, which is much more solitary, slow and boring. But has lots of little personal victories when you scale a cliff side or make a delivery.

 

The shared pooling of resources needs to be a bit more intelligent I think. If a player has dont very few missions in an area then maybe locate them on a server shard made up of people who are at comparable level of progress. But it doesnt appear to do this at all.

 

It might become a more interesting game when fewer people are playing it tbh. Like an anti-MMO, too many people take away from the isolation needed to sell this vision of the world. You're supposed to find these little connections impactful but they are happening all the time so it feels more like bustling metropolis even in the most estranged locations

 

I'm still not sure what I think of this. It could well end up on the very top of my GOTY list, or near the bottom. It feels like some weird academic criticism of clicker game design or something with how it starts you off on a slow grind then gives you a way to mitigate it later, but maybe this is too much credit

 

The whole thing is the most out there Kojima has been since MGS2 but the way the algorithm hear works means some will miss out.

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