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Death Stranding


DisturbedSwan
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It’s a game that somehow gets to be fun while defying any sense of conventional video game fun. There’s no way to describe this game to someone who hasn’t played it and be able to get across why it’s enjoyable, on top of which there’s no guarantees they will enjoy it. It shouldn’t work, a lot of it doesn’t work, I’m very certain I’ll never play it again, months later I can’t quite work out why I liked it. But I did like it. Maybe I don’t like it and haven’t realised it yet. I am very slow. 

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Yeah I was trying to figure out how to make a pitch here to people who watched the big gameplay blowout and avoided it.

 

That gameplay pitch is exactly what the game ended up being, sans some cool stuff later on where you build highways and a distribution channel for your packages. But at its core it is this super slow and ponderous game about walking around but it does that stuff in a way that makes it really good. It's an interesting take on open world exploration where you're being made to do things really slow at first and then optimising it later on. It's like they bore you on purpose to make you think of ways to skip the boring part of getting around, which sounds like I'm criticizing the game but 'boredom' isn't always a negative reaction. Especially here. It was one of my favourite games last year

 

The stuff that didn't work with DS was funnily enough the stuff people were most hyped from the trailers I feel, all the world building and ghosts and crazy Kojima stuff. I actually don't really remember the story tbh, it was really not good.

 

But yeah buy this game on sale or something and experience one of the most novel games this gen. Or throw it in the bin because it's super boring. I don't think there's anybody out there who can play this game and be neutral on its gameplay, you either love what it's going for or think it's the most tepid garbage. Like RDR2 in a way.

 

edit, here's the video to go with the DF written review

 

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I'm pretty certain if they were to give this away as a PSN+ freebie I still wouldn't play it, everything you pair have said sounds like the complete opposite of what I want when I play a game.

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It is a game that is willing to be the antithesis of all normally accepted fun video game ideas to achieve a specific type of feeling or experience. And somehow the experience it’s going for landed (for me) maybe 3% of the time and the gameplay experience ended up being pretty unique. 
 

You’d be a fool to not try it for free but I honestly couldn’t see you liking this game at all @Nag. Either that or it would end up being one of your favourite games ever. But I would go 85% more likely on the former. 

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Already found one major improvement in the PC version. You can set different speakers for the BB crying, similar to on PS4. So on PC I set the BB to a speaker which isn't even enabled. No BB crying! 

 

I never used the BB mechanic so he can cry himself to death for all I care

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  • 10 months later...

They announced a directors cut of this just now for PS5 (guess PC eventually as well)

 

Now I liked this game quite a bit, despite moaning about the story. But I can't think of a game less in need of a director's cut unless they take the literal meaning and cut stuff out of it, like the second half of the story. If they add new traversal and terrain challenges with new gadgets then that's different, but I don't believe that's what it is just yet. 'Expanded' WRT a Kojima script makes me fear something else

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Here's that new Death Stranding stuff

 

 

IMO it's all just a big trick to make people think it's a super varied open world game when it's largely still going to be a slow paced game about doing boring work (which feels rewarding, the parts where DS feels boring are on purpose and I think the effects of tedium are an underrated and unexplored area of games when it's done on purpose)

 

People should play Death Stranding, but they should set their expectations. Want to see what Death Stranding is about? Watch the very first big gameplay blowout Kojima did where it was a bunch of walking around, cause that's the game essentially. It's not MGS, and if they try and change it to MGS it basically means they are either making the game worse or just changing it completely. But the MGS section looks optional anyway

The bits where DS became an action game I dropped to the easiest difficulty to get through as fast as possible, they suck so bad. The parts that seem boring are actually the good parts, don't get confused.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

It was getting on for midnight when I started this tonight and I wish I’d put it on earlier instead of wasting my time playing spider man. So for (2hrs) I love this game, or at least I do when it lets me play. I don’t hate the cut scenes but as you’d expect from Kojima they do go on a bit and I can’t tell if the story is written terribly or is vague as.

 

Spoiler

Sam doesn’t know his mom is the president? Or he’d forgotten?!? Then he acted like he had a grudge against her even though  a minute ago he didn’t know who his mom was?!? How or why did fragile appear out of nowhere? She wasn’t hurt? Maybe she’s dead?


The controls are real good and I haven’t fallen on my arse yet. Always feel in control.

 

I was worried it wouldn’t look as impressive as it did on Limmy’s stream but nope, it’s gorgeous. It’s the sort of setting I’d love to vacay in. Everything looks as healthy as places do tourism commercials. Filtered to buggery and lush. Not a crisp packet in site.

 

I look forward to digging into this more over the coming weeks and months. 

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It’s certainly a divisive game. I know people that absolutely love it, and fair does. Personally, I found it utterly tedious as fuck to play, and didn’t bother with it for very long. Kojima breaking away from Konami was a good thing. But I dunno, I tried so hard to like this, but just couldn’t.

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Was thinking about this on the 10/10 topic, the first half of this game is a 10 and the second half is like a 5. But the first half can take anywhere from 30-60 hours depending on how you go with it. 

 

Really weird to think something like this is apparently getting a sequel. I hope they stick to their guns with it, and don't put loads of guns in it. Keep it the same weird slightly boring but unique thing it is

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  • 10 months later...

Ok… I know this question has probably been answered but there’s a lot of guff in this thread I’d rather not wade through. 
 

Basically I’ve made a start on this with the PS+ extra thing. I’m really intrigued by the world and lore - I love that side of it - but holy shit I detest the actual gameplay. I’ve only done the

Spoiler

dead president cargo

and got back. I hated it so much, got to be one of the most tedious things I’ve ever done in a game. Some people say this is relaxing, not for me it wasn’t. It was boring to the point I got angry. Is it worth persevering with - as in does the gameplay change at all or is it simply just not for me? May just watch the story on YT if not. 

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It’s been 2-3 years since I played this game and I still don’t really know what I think about it, mind about try make suggestions for someone else.

 

I can say that the more you progress the more stuff opens up. I won’t go in to details but i’ll say it’s more than just walking. But it’s the same thing. Go back’ & forth, back & forth, don’t kick the baby.

 

I actually like the first bit of the game the most though. I suppose some of that is because it’s the beginning so I was more open to what the game was, but what it’s trying to do did kind of work for me. There’s a real push and pull to the systems and when achieving things I felt like I earned it. Which is why the later part of the game doesn’t work as much.

 

I’ll say for me I wouldn’t say I found the game relaxing, more almost meditative. The gameplay hits this middle ground where you have to concentrate enough but still leaves lots of room to think.
 

Kind of like real life work. I got that kind of zoned in, satisfaction out of it.

 

But I also hated the story from minute 1 and that never changed. That was the part of the game that made me angry.

 

I dunno. It sort of defies everything you think a good video game would be and still managed to be good/interesting on some level. 
 

I don’t know if this helps at all but I’m always up for talking about how I don’t know what to say when it comes to Death Stranding 

 

I think is one of those games where each player will really have to play it to see what they think. It really isn’t like anything else, so it’s hard to recommend or say if it gets “better” or not.

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The story is the worst part of it, you will find that infinitely more tedious than actually playing the game. It's very self serious without even the vaguest hint of irony that even something like MGS would gesture at from time to time. I love MGS and have lots of patience for Kojima, but this is a game that I eventually ended up skipping some of the cutscenes for. Guilermo Del Toro's character is maybe the worst I've seen in a game for a while, and the moments that are supposed to be all high emotion are terribly overacted

 

The game itself is actually quite good though once you accept what it's about. It's actually kinda got a similar thing to Morrowind now I realise it where it's about doing a whole bunch of things in a very slow and manual way then finding ways to streamline the work of getting from A to B and even finding ways to borderline automate it. It's got a great power curve in it, where the power is all about moving boxes faster. Basically you optimise out the hard labour of very mundane tasks, and in this process is where the 'gameplay' happens. It's a lot cooler than it sounds.

 

I think it's excellent at this stuff, it's a very intelligently put together bit of open world game design and one of the best games of the past couple years, but they also put a very shit game in it as well which is the story bits and the more MGS style action bits. So it's a bit odd, but I think though you can get a lot out of this game if you just play the first 3 chapters or so and try to just give it the benefit of the doubt for a while and accept that it's going to be kind of boring at times, but that even when it pops into the boring parts of the spectrum there are stretches of it that can feel invigorating. Whether it's seeing a new view or reaching a new base for the first time or finding a way to make a route 20 percent more efficient for the next time you do it. 

 

It's a sci fi parable of a gig delivery worker becoming a manager of logistics and a mountain climber, and surrogate father but that bit is a bit weird.

 

edit I agree with what Maf says about the push pull in its game systems, that it's a cool feeling but that they also stop being rewarding in the 2nd half of the game (which is why I say to play the first 3 chapters). It's a game that hits a plateau in its systems before the game story even begins, which is why I wonder if the DC makes this work better or worse with its changes (I don't know, but I'm curious to know)

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48 minutes ago, Maf said:

won’t go in to details but i’ll say it’s more than just walking. But it’s the same thing. Go back’ & forth, back & forth,

Happy to hear it’s more than just walking around but the back and forth but puts me off a lot. 
 

13 minutes ago, one-armed dwarf said:

just play the first 3 chapters

Challenge accepted. I’ll give it that time and see if I gel with it anymore. 
 

Doesn’t bode well when people are telling me the story is shit (the part I’m enjoying so far, or more so the lore) but the gameplay is good (the part I actively dislike). So we’ll see. 

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I should point out the first 3 chapters can take you anywhere from 20-50 hours.

 

But your accepted challenge has been noted, and consequences for you if you fail to complete are very severe and punishing so good luck

 

I'll point out tho, if you do trudge through the waffle in this thread you'll also find that I did not enjoy this game at the part you are at either, I took some convincing and I'm glad I played the good part of it at least (probably should have stopped before finishing however)

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