Death Stranding (2019)

Wish I could give this a 2 1/2, but this isn't a bad game. It's just a game that's not for me.

FULL DISCLAIMER I DID NOT FINISH THIS GAME

The story starts off convoluted but interesting, and it continues that way. I really do like the theming of the game as well, and its idea of bonds and interconnectivity rejoining humanity in a harmonious way to come back from the brink of annihilation. The gameplay is just too far gone, though. It's a walking sim mixed with a balancing sim, and I just do not have the patience for it. I love Kojima games, but one thing I always noticed was that I never really enjoyed the gameplay. Even the original MGS games, I LOVED the story for, but just couldn't get into the gameplay of (MGRR excluded, of course). That extends to this game, but infinitely more.

The gameplay is just too slow and never really clicked with me. I sunk about 10 hours into the game, and I like the idea of a slow and vast world that takes time to cross. However, having to balance packages that can fall and just shatter to dust and force me to trek my way back in order to redo all of it is just way too out of my depth.

I'll probably watch the rest on YouTube or something because the story really did interest me, but I just don't enjoy the game, and every time I consider opening it up again, it hurts me inside a little. Kojima truly did it again, and I'm mad about it.

I see what it's doing. I like some of what it's doing. I just don't want to do it.

The plot is bat-shit crazy, but i knew that going in. The feel of walking/stumbling felt genuine. The driving around felt okay.

Just don't want to be in such a depressive environment. Not a bad game, just not something I'm going to spend more time in.

~David.

En un mundo post apocalíptico, la sociedad se ha dividido en ciudades subterraneas que viven a expensas de los portadores, individuos que valientemente llevan paquetes y suministros de un refugio a otro batallando y esquivando los peligros del mundo tras el fin de los tiempos. Llevando a uno de esos portadores, Sam, deberemos reconectar a dichas ciudades aisladas afín de presentar batalla e intentar restablecer la sociedad.

Death Stranding se puede describir en una palabra concreta, "original" y sus sinónimos también le hacen justicia, "raro", "inusual", "novedoso". Es un juego que nunca se ha hecho antes, un loop jugable que es totalmente nuevo en la industria y ya solo por eso merece felicitación. Deberemos llevar paquetes a la espalda, caminando o en vehículos, de un sitio a otro mientras por el camino nos defendemos de bandidos, criaturas sobrenaturales, lluvia tóxica, el frio o las inclemencias del tiempo.

El sistema de control hace un magnífico trabajo haciendo que el mero acto de caminar sea algo que requiere tú atención y no un mero pasatiempo de un objetivo a otro. Mantener el equilibrio, asegurar la carga, pisar donde toca, regular la energía que nos queda, saber cuándo podemos correr o cuando debemos ir despacio, intentar no caernos, buscar rutas por donde podemos cruzar sin ser vistos...

Es un sistema de juego que, junto con un amplio abanico de gadgets y objetos, nos ofrece una libertad para afrontar el objetivo de realizar las entregas que se nos requiere. Esto, adornado con una historia interesante, un buen cast de personajes y un villano correcto hacen que sea un juego en cierta manera adictivo.

Otra de las novedades es la colaboración de los jugadores entre ellos, pese a no verse físicamente nunca. Si un jugador restaura una carretera o hace un puente en un lugar, al pasar yo es posible que pueda ver y aprovechar su trabajo, pasando lo mismo con lo que yo haga en mi mundo que se podrá ver reflejado en el de los demás. Este multijugador asíncrono realmente consigue que sientas ganas de devolver la ayuda que se te ha dado y hace que sientas una conexión especial con los que te ayudan.

Sin embargo, el juego adolece de unos menús bastante incómodos, de un sistema de conducción terrible en el que te quedas atascado en cualquier punto y se hace muy incómodo y, sobretodo, de unos personajes muy pesados que repiten lo mismo una y otra vez hasta la extenuación como si el jugador no entiendese lo que tiene que hacer.

Es un juego magnífico en su propuesta, novedoso pero con defectos que hacen que no alcance las cotas a las que podría haber llegado.

Pros:

• Distinctive and likeable characters
• Captures a serene feeling of traveling through nature inside a video game
• A lot of tools given to the player, enabling them to play in a multitude of ways
• Great facial motion capture and acting
• Innovative equipment and travel system
• Visible and meaningful progression system that encourages doing side quests
• Positive message relatable to the contemporary world
• A frightening vision of a climatic disaster and global change in the environment

Cons:

• Overly pretentious at times (Hideo Kojima moment)
• The gameplay isn't that exciting. Not a game for action games lovers.
• Too much raw lore and worldbuilding exposition
• Way too loooong epilogue
• Fighting MULEs is lacklustre at best
• Higgs is a horrible villain with no clear motivation or any significance to the story really
• Most of the tools given to the player aren't needed to finish the game. I wish there was a little more incentive for using certain options.
• The bridge link system seemed a little redundant to me personally. It discouraged me from building my own infrastructure in the world because I assumed that other players have already built the best path to the target. Over all I think it could use some improvements.

Can't wait to see the next game and what Hideo learned from this one!

The game starts quite slow, with many of the most interesting mechanics coming in the second map. I played this game very slow, over multiple years with stopping and starting, but I kept coming back to it. After I learned how to deal with the enemy threats (they aren't that scary once you know a few tricks), the game became quite zen, where I would just spend hours building zipline networks or upgrading roads. The story is a bit convoluted and doesn't really peak until very late in its climax, but it was enough to keep me intrigued and ultimately I did appreciate the game's themes and message.

Perhaps the best part of this game is something that is similar to Nier Automata and Dark Souls mechanics of async multiplayer, where you can leave messages (via signs) as well as structures for other players. This game takes it even further because it keeps track of your connection to other players based on how much you like their structures and how much they like yours. If you build up a lot of mutual likes, you'll start seeing more and more of their stuff. This is great when you find someone who builds well-placed zip lines, though I do wish the game would allow text messaging to further foster these connections.

There is way too much to say about this game, so I'll try to keep it short and summarize my thoughts. The story is a wild and nonsensical ride from start to finish. This was my first Kojima game, and they weren't kidding that he is verbose. The amount of pointless dialogue in this game may sum up to more than any other game I've played combined. The plot points make very little sense, the drive for the plot is insane, the characters are super cringy in general.. but, despite all of that, it comes together as a fun game to play. I can't even really say why, but it simplay had that vibe of something taking itself so seriously that you can laugh at it.

Mostly though I'm here to discuss the gameplay, because I think that's what is truly interesting here. Setting out to make walking your core mechanic is an incredible move Kojima. And the madman succeeded. Part of this, I thought would hold the same appeal as Breath of the Wild, I thought the game would be fun because it would involve traversing a beautiful world and going to interesting places in it. However, it really wasn't much of that. There were moments of it for sure, like getting to the first prepper, or hartman's lake, but mostly, it was about the struggle. And boy did they nail the struggle. This may quise itself as a game about connection, of delivery, or many other things, but to me, it was a game about long hiking, about backpacking. I think there will be some other outdoors enthusiast out there, who also enjoys games like me, and can understand what I'm saying here. The core mechanics of this game really do simulate hiking a long trail over many months. They feel like it.

Specifically, the way they make you do somewhat uncomfortable things with the controller to gain advantages in balance, or to interact with other players, was so innovative and worthwile.

This game will NOT be for everyone. I'm sure many will hate it passionately, but I for one loved the gameplay and would recommend it to anyone else in my strange niche of lover of both the outdoors and video games

I finally returned to this, having taken a long break during the latter part of the game’s campaign (as is my custom, for some reason), and completed the uneven, repetitious, nonsensical, yet curiously engrossing main story, then stuck around for a while longer to bring all of the delivery locations online and max out my connections.

As with other open world games I’ve played over the last few years, Death Stranding drew me into some unhealthily long play sessions, so I'll probably need a little break before I dive into my next one – but the 100+ hours I spent playing it felt worthwhile, overall. It was good fun and unusually satisfying.

10/10

It was totally the strangest experience in my gaming history. In the beggining I thought it is just a game about being courier in some post apocalyptic world with many bizarre features, but in the end I was left with some scar on my mind that keep tells me I want more and more games like that. I never thought I would fall for delivering packages with that much stress and excitment at the same time. The story was out of this world, as I expected from Kojima's work, relation built between characters and main character - Sam also appealed to me because during progress of main plot we can learn much more about our protagonist, and why he have such a characteristic behaviour. The world that surrounds us during our voyages can be really overwhelming and can give us some anxiety but in the end I can say I found charm and fascination in a broken world covered with the beauty of nature.

Also I need to take into account soundtrack made by Low Roar. Album named "Once In a Long, Long Time..." to this day appears on my earphones and I think it fits perfectly to the atmosphere of that game.

Death Stranding es una experiencia única y casi un género en sí mismo... como lo que le gusta hacer a Kojima.

La jugabilidad se resume en superar obstáculos y dar vueltas como un repartidor de Glovo, pero la clave es que el movimiento y la sensación de superación son ambos satisfactorios si tienes la paciencia suficiente. Los combates sobran y a la vez son necesarios para controlar los ritmos (especialmente los EV), aunque parezca paradójico... son un mal menor. Si quieres speedrunear un mapa de mundo abierto o un juego de acción muy directo... mejor que te abstengas.

La historia tiene varios temas de fondo y tiene la ambición propia de Kojima, siendo innecesariamente enrevesado a veces y volcando una cantidad de información que puede ser difícil de digerir. Aunque en el fondo la historia es mucho más sencilla de lo que puede parecer tiene algo muy interesante ya que la trama principal se intercala con temas como lo necesario que es conectar con otras personas, depender de ellas y a la vez ayudarlas, sobre tejer lazos... tender puentes.

En general el juego merece mucho la pena por lo novedoso que es y por tener una historia que (aunque abusa de las cinemáticas al principio) resulta llamativa. Ahora que se ha confirmado la segunda entrega, espero que se mejoren las partes más tediosas y se haga (aun más) placentero moverse por el mapa.

My favourite mini story in the game was Peter Englert, a weird guy who ordered increasingly elaborate pizzas. He would sent you these emails written in pompous prose about the people who were visiting and whom the pizza was for. And then he would never be there to meet you and would also send similarly pompous emails describing the unlikely scenarios that prevented him from receiving the order personally.

I liked it because it left a lot to the imagination and had a lot of charm. His was one of the few characters with an actual personality shining through the writing and you were left wondering if he was actually having these pizza parties with his family and friends or he was just a loner who didn't want you to know he was dining pizza every day (something I can relate as a avid pizza orderer myself!).

He was also the only character that seemed to have a life beside the main plot.

But of course, Kojima gota kojima and by the end it's revealed that Peter Englert was Higgs all along, ordering pizzas just to fuck with you or something. And with that, Kojima ruins the only good piece of writing and subtle storytelling in the whole game.

OH MY FUCKING GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS GAME.

Now the game forces me to run around doing nothing but watching the credits. Then Sam tires himself and I get an unskippable terrible exposition dialogue about some bullshit. You need to do this SEVERAL FUCKING TIMES.

This absolute bullshit and complete lack of respect to the player's time and enjoyment is completely inexcusable and retroactively ruins the whole game. It also convinces me that Kojima has no idea what a game is and how it works.

(Oh, and I've read on the internet that you then get a second unskippable credit sequence.)

kojima plz, between guillermo del toro as (the model for) Deadman and Lea Seydoux as Fragile he had already got me gal but YALL

I initially dismissed this when it came out, it looked boring, walking simulator blah blah. It seemed like a manifestation of everything I hate about current AAA titles that are padded with meaningless open worlds and dumb busywork but o how wrong I was.

Artsy:

first i gotta say that the direction of the game is delicious. Like, the framing of every shot, the mise-en-scene, the composition yada yada yada, it is simply beautifully done and Kojima's auteurist approach to game-making really shows its benefits here.

Gameplay:

so a lot of the reviews I've seen on YT have the person falling over CONSTANTLY or trying to move unmanageable amounts of cargo on their back... then complaining the game makes it difficult to do this. What they leave out is that the game equips you with a variety of tools to use for these situations, you can balance yourself easily with the grip buttons and exo-skeleton equipment and they litrally give u a floating platform to carry heavy cargo loads on (if vehicles aren't available). basically most complaints I've seen seem to be wholly on the user being incompetent at using the systems the game has given them but I digress. While monotony could set in, considering the reptitious nature of 'deliver x to y', the game changes up locations and introduces new tools and obstacles regularly enough that I always wanted to push on and complete the next delivery.

story:

humanity is dying whatever you know the score and I'm not gonna rehash it here. I will say that the smaller arcs revolving around the characters you encounter are great, I loved Mama's in particular. I feel like the game held enough of its cards close to its chest to still deliver some release in its ending episodes, but I saw some things coming. To me, certain things are so heavily hinted at that I have to assume we are supposed to question them. (particularly: Amelie being a villain, I knew ms girl could not be trusted oh at all from the start) but even in this case, the game still had some curveballs. also BB is so damn cute I wanna have a kid now, this game renders the BBs so lovingly? they are such fragile delicate models and act as an excellent contrast to the dying world

score/soundtrack:

this slappeddddd. no more to say.

simply connect:

I think Death Stranding's message is pretty overt, and reductively yes it is about building bridges and creating a nation to bring together people (the question of nationalism is sort of addressed but not as overtly or critically as I wld like) and yes the asynchronous multiplayer compounds this narrative component with the gameplay in a perfect marriage of narratology and ludology that will leave games studies scholars quaking. BUT beyond this surface level meaning, this game oozes with symbolism and motifs like the layers upon layers of liminal spaces, sacrifices, ablutions, religious references it is insaneeeee and maybe i'll write a proper academic account of it someday. but anyways for now, take a break from murdering ppl and come deliver some packages, I prom it's all worth it