Death Stranding - Review @ Techraptor
 

Techraptor checked out the genre-mix Death Stranding:

More information.

Sounds interesting I guess, but
Every cutscene was so enthralling that I didn't mind that they were sometimes up to 30 minutes long
30 minute cutscenes…? Don't think this is for me.

One of the pictures in the site says "Yes, there is actual combat in Death Stranding, and the boss fights can get difficult".

The whole article is made from a defensive point of view, trying to convince readers that the game is not about walking around.

Obvious Kokima fanboy.

I'm not touching that game with a 10-meter pole.

I read there's as much as 20 HOURS of cut scenes. I read that some cut scenes are well over one hour long. Combine that with Kojima's usual nonsense writing and his "up-his-own-ass" style?

You'd have to pay me to play this.

I played and enjoyed the game Control. I read there were 2 sections of Kojima-written and directed content. I had never played his games but had read a lot about him, so I was curious and I sought out those optional, side content stories.

All I remember was some nonsense about forklifts and trees, and a lot of walking around in the dark with voiceover and subtitles. Those two side "stories"—or diversions or whatever—were easily the worst part of Control for me. They had nothing to do with the plot, and came across as undergrad creative writing after a lecture about Surrealism. Put simply: it sucked. It was try-hard artsy-ness for the sake of bad art. I found the sections annoying and pure wankery. How anyone could sit through 20 hours of that crap, plus another 60 hours of walking around and delivering packages is beyond me.

I like the idea of shared building and seeing what other players build without seeing the players. There's some very interesting game design in Death Stranding, no doubt. I'm sure there's some interesting gameplay at times and some jaw-dropping surreal visuals. But there's no way I could swallow that much horseshit for 60+ hours.

Plus: there's heavy product placement with Monster® Energy Drink featured prominently throughout the game.

Add all to above comments that the soundtrack is kinda SHT. At best its a 'MEH..'-background noise..

So.. is Konami crying that they let loose Kojima or not?

I have just played the game for 6 hours.
Enough for today.

What I've seen so far - I love it.

Cutscenes can be skipped if you don't want to watch them, but so far I love the horror movie bits you unlock by walking around the map in a fedex sim.
I have no idea what bosses look like in this game. Nor care.
I got caught by monsters and couldn't win the fight - because this opened a sidestory I guess this "fight" cannot be won.
After that I smacked a hostile then robbed his boots and nearby container because quest and those were only two fights I did in my 6 hours. I could engage more but I just stelthed/ran past trashmobs. Yet, I didn't get bored.

I can only say this.
If you want to play yet another Dark Souls game, stay away from this one.
If you want to risk your sanity however, based on earlygame, this game is perfect!
Konami shifted their core business to gambling machines. Why would they cry? No lootboxes in death stranding.

It's a Kojima game that's all I need to know that I wont be playing it.
Pretentious Crap. :p

Pretty much this.
If there was no Kojima behind it, you could easily subtract 3 points from all the ratings.
Ratings such as these are the primary reason nobody sane trusts "professional" reviewers any more, they don't rate games for what matters (gameplay) but for some perceived notion of some important story to tell or agenda to push.
The emperor's new clothes, nothing more.

Just read the author's final words on this:
"transcends what a video game can be"
You couldn't make that crap up - pretentiousness on top of pretentiousness. One gigantic jerk-off of the author's perceived notion of self-importance.
And not a single word about actual gameplay.

There's just no valid gameplay here.
"difficult boss fights" my ass - you can just walk away from them without any consequences whatsoever. Discredits the author right there as either a blind fanboy or completely incompetent at gaming.
Or you lose in them - still no consequences, you just have pick up your stuff again.
Combat exists in theory but is so absurdly easy and the AI so horrendously dumb that it must have been an afterthought when people realized "oh, crap, should we add some gameplay?".

And yes, the game is very literally a walking simulator. Don't know what else you could call a game in which the act of walking itself is actually simulated and the only existing gameplay (try not to fall over while delivering packages) together with inventory tetris (which is so annoying they even make it optional lol).

I don't doubt the game has a good story or good acting or good graphics or even a good atmosphere at times.
But it has little to nothing to offer when it comes to what games should be about - gameplay that puts the player's skills to the test.
Well, I guess you could say it tests patience…

I don't know anything about the game, but I kind of liked the ad:

I thought the game was a meme… and then I saw Techraptors score :lol:

Im personally glad there are developers trying to do things in different way. Im also not sure if this game is for me and I might never play it myself, but the guy seems to be following his vision he believes in. I can respect that.

I can respect that. Indeed, a case could be made for this game being avant-garde art in a computer game format, and I want to like avant-garde art & music. Which probably means I don't really like them. In this case I haven't formed an opinion besides appreciating the simulacra of Norman Reedus & Lindsay Wagner and the symbolism of the babies and ghosts. Because I haven't played it and thats good enough for me.

Instead of one sentence spam…
No. If there was no Gullermo del Toro in the game, then you could subtract 10.
But he's in and is more creepy than the creepiest person in any existing game. Kojima has nothing to do with that creepyness.

I got the impression Death Stranding is a stealth game. As such, because you can avoid trashmobs by crouching and hiding behind something or in the high grass, I have to say that it's gameplay style is awsome.
On the other hand I can't care less about gameplay, I'm playing a game on PC, not on tetris plastic minigame with a few buttons where a product due to hardware limits has absolutely nothing but gameplay.
In other words, if it's gameplay you want and nothing else, perhaps you should toss your PC in the trashcan and buy stuff like this:

https://sc02.alicdn.com/kf/Hbb6d750e…b0fb4fc89h.jpg

That sentence is plain bs and equals "immersive sim".

There is.

Again, I have no idea what a boss looks like in Death Stranding nor care.
Also again it's a stealth game - it's not RPG.
As it's not RPG and is stealth game, why avoiding combat would have any consequences?

What are you talking about? If you lose an item, and I have no idea how you lost it, I guess it's impossible to lose anything earlygame as I didn't manage to lose anything… Just reload.

I agree with this 100%. Why does combat exist in a stealth game in the first place? It needs to be removed completely.

No it's not.
It's tutorial apparently 15 hours long is. You will however unlock some stuff like a motorbike - is it GTA simulator then?

Hold both left and right mouse buttons while carrying packages - no fall. If that sounds too complicated, make a mod that does it instead.
Death Stranding is not No Man's Sky. There is no inventory tetris as such. There is however rebalancing stuff you're carrying which, thanks to your mousebuttons hold is completely irrelevant.

Well I doubt. Earlygame is one thing, complete game is another.

Games should be about only two things: they need to be fun and they mustn't be boring. Are Visual Novels where all you do is picking different choices and enjoy/suffer consequences games? Of course they are.

Each player however has their different taste, some can't appreciate a game without grinding while some won't buy a game without DLC/lootboxes.
I've posted above. If Dark Souls clone is what you want, Death Stranding is a complete opposite to it. Buy something else.

I have seen some gameplay videos of this game but I have not played it so I don't want to be unfair against it.

However, I have read many reviews that talk about it being a literal walking simulator in barren landscapes and that it's incredibly repetitive but then, 9 or 10/10. What exactly is the deal here? Anyone that has played it can shed some light?

I thought this girl gave quite a good explanation of how some people worked through the tedium, and found a rewarding experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKdv-IeAv2g

It certainly seems to divide opinion, and, without having played it, to me it does smack of rambling pretension. But, I'm somewhat curious to try it, in case I do I actually find what these folks are talking about.

Couple more posts in this thread will reveal this game is not a game at all, but a FEDEX tutorial for 2022, after The Plague devastated Earth.

I did not watch gameplay videos so I can't tell you anything about videos.
In fact I bet if a proper player from this site made a video it'd be completely different from monetized crap.

What I can tell you is that I was walking, running, crouching and climbing for the first 6 hours of the game.
And then I've unlocked a motorbike.

I still had to climb an area not accessible with it, but that's less than 5 mins per sidequest leading there. Everything else - I'm GTA driving. Because you can put some packages on the bike it helps against being overburden and you're zooming all over the place.
A hint for those who just started and did not unlock it - make sure you repair the bike if caught by ghosts next time you hit a facility with a garage (circular elevator)!

About repetitiveness, initial main quests and so far all sidequests are delivering something from a point A to point B. Those that aren't fedex delivery are different: looting something from hostiles, constructing something or killing ghosts.

I'm not collecting random lost packages nor am clearing a map (bugs, crystals, sandalweed) - all of that looks like grind for mmo lovers so I refuse to do it. Unless a quest to gather some of course.

A note for those who played MGS5, the quest structure is similar to that game. Main quests are numbered 001-099, sidequests are numbered with 100+.

This game is a game.
Tutorial? It does have a long tutorial, just as I've explained above.

I had to roll my eyes. Suffering and giving and humanity … No idiot you are playing a video game. You want to really help others? Suffer for others? Give to people? Get off your ass and go into the real world and make real sacrifices for others.

Giving someone a hand in a video game so they can let their character do something is not suffering or helping humanity :P

Apologies but I found the whole article so annoying. One of those armchair preachers.

Play games and have fun but don't think you're really helping make the world a better place because of it. Oh nothing wrong with spreading some good emotions and happiness around … I get that. Just that it was so … well extreme in my mind the way the article was written. Like they thought they were actually saving humanity :P

It just is more of what I call a cultural narcissism that seems to afflict (some) younger generations today. Everything they do, even now apparently including playing a video game, has to have some greater meaning and power, as if they are doing some noble act, or something. :p

I don't know - I think that's a bit unfair to the younglings. I think a game could potentially try to create immersion through charitable feeling, rather than through, say, conflict. I don't think that makes the person playing it believe that they're actually doing something worthy, any more than someone who plays a shooter thinks they're doing actual violence

It's not all young people, of course, but a big chunk. But I dunno, read Wolfgrim's excellent post, and then read what that game reviewer had to say about the game. To me, wolfgrim's post hit the bullseye.

Yes, I did read them, I just didn't really see that in the article. It just seemed to me to be describing the feelings the game produced, in the same way another review might talk about the thrill of ripping enemies limb from limb, and feeling the chaos of battle. I didn't think it was so much claiming they had done real good by playing the game, just that it had encouraged that experience in them, and they kind of felt good about it.

So the PC version apparently includes some crossover content from Half-Life. Almost makes me curious enough to want to play it. Almost.


https://d2skuhm0vrry40.cloudfront.ne…/75/format/jpg

I got it on steam, and one thing you have to give it to them, at least initially, is that it's a wonderful pc port. Runs beautifully. Looks great.

I did come off as a bit pretentious at the start, but if you give yourself to it it's developing quite an interesting world and lore. But they do, at least so far as I've progressed, through a lot of mumbojumbo jargon and acronyms at you. It's hard to keep up. I'm guess you get used to it the more you play.

The gameplay part does feel quite light, it's basically terrain management while you walk around, trying to not to lose balance. I've seen that later on you also get other traversal tools like ladders and ropes.

The cinematics though, some are pretty good, but for some you do feel the length. And they also take their time with them. Similar to how a slow movie would feel. But I'm not sure I mind that much. Once you accept that this is a movie/game hybrid (more than any other cinematic game tries to be) you'll get involved.

I'll see where it takes me. So far so good. But Ghost of Tsushima is coming out on friday so I'm not sure how much longer I'll play Death Stranding compared to that, and that one is getting really glowing reviews from the fanbase.

Exactly :-) I am sort of curious about Death Stranding and Im sure I will eventually get to play it. But Ghost of Tsushima preorder is in place and thats what I look forward to play right now.

On one hand I kinda agree with what you are saying. But lets not pretend we have monopoly on the way how video games should be enjoyed. If other people find enjoyment and immersion in video game through suffering, sharing, giving and giving, etc. who are we to say its pretentious or wrong in any other way. Who says that people enjoying sharing and giving in video game are not sharing and giving in real life? Things that are alien to one might make perfect sense to someone else.
Just saying.

Well I am giving it a try and while I have never been a big fan of Kojima I am getting hooked on this one.

Thanks and wanted to clarify as you appear to have misunderstood my post and are lumping different things together.

I never pretended to have a monopoly on how people play games … not sure where you got that impression. Nor did I ever say it was wrong for the person to be enjoying that style of game play.

I can certainly say that I personally felt the way the article was written was pretentious. It feels that way to me when I read it. Its a subjective feeling. Maybe it isn't to other people but I don't speak for how others feel I was writing on how I viewed it.

Nor did I ever say someone sharing in a video game is not sharing in real life. Maybe they are. That is unrelated. I don't know anything about the person beyond what they wrote, which I won't echo here again as it would be the same thing.

I am pretty sure I also mentioned that there was nothing wrong with spreading good emotions. It was the over the top feeling of the writing and gushing that put me off. A personal view point. Yet no where in that did I state they had no right to enjoy playing it as they wanted or any of the other things you wrote in your reply.

Just saying.

EDIT: Whether or not doing good things in a game could lead to people doing good things in real life is perhaps open to some debate. I know I studied some of that in college in my psychology seminars - how role playing in a game can lead to changes in real life behavior.

I also admit over the top stuff tends to push the wrong buttons with me in general. If it had been less intense, gushy, and so full of dramatic catchphrases I wouldn't have even bothered commenting.

Lastly it really isn't anything against the person playing but just the tone of the article itself. I simply found it annoying.

The game itself I can't speak about as I haven't played it. Two friends on discord are playing it and sharing images and the game looks beautiful. Based on their comments about game play, however, definitely not my kind of game … although not because of the helping aspects or the good-vibe but more about the walking simulator and simply the style of play doesn't appeal to me.

It's a Sony game, we all saw how they bought all 10's from their reviewers (Last of Us 2 in particular). This gives me pause on any review for any Sony game as all I saw here was the same thing. Not a 10 game imho, but then I also don't believe any game is ever perfect.

It's just easter eggs and unlockables through sidequests that are not in the log (for example do something received via e-mail and you get a valve).
Don't play the game just for that.
Who cares about Sony's console reviews? :)
I seriously doubt this game can get 10 on PC that easy.
It has only one thing that deserves 10 and that's the creepyness factor. But as a whole package… Nah. It's too hard to avoid grind in it. Grind of different types to be precise.
If we cut away cutscenes, 90% of the game is driving simulator. For a few quests you have to walk, sure. But the rest of it? Get a bike or truck then hit the road. Oh, yeah, you have to build the road over rocky areas first or you'll be forced to walk over those… And I guess people are lazy to build so to them the game definetly is a walking simulator. :)

This game is different. I mean REALLY different. I don't know what else it's like.
For the first few hours of gameplay, I would describe it as a 'falling down simulator'.

It takes a while to get used to it, during which time you will want to rage quit, especially after you've seemingly walked and climbed over an impossible landscape while holding onto your valuable cargo for what seems like hours, and then 3 minutes from your destination, you get off balance, slip and then fall down a steep incline, ruining all your equipment and probably killing yourself.

And lots of cut scenes, many, and the major ones cannot be skipped as far as I know. Someone told me you can, but I swear I hit every key on my keyboard and it's not possible.

And the game is creepy, especially the BBs.

If that's sounds like something you will enjoy, go for it. I've only played maybe 3 hours, but I sort of like it now.