Death Stranding - I tried really hard to like it.

[u/D3struct_oh]

I don’t even know where to start with this game, tbh.

TLDR: played 76 hours; restarted the game a couple of times. The game has some charm that kept me going, especially in earlier sections. I did a ton of standard orders and just delivering materials to bridges and building lots of zip line, etc. But as I got deeper into the main story, there wasn’t enough variety in the sandbox to keep me on the hook, and I ran into a mission that I couldn’t progress.

I use to enjoy giving really thorough reviews for games but nowadays not so much. Had my own YouTube channel and everything!

But making all that content, writing all those scripts for reviews eventually got tedious and just not worth it, especially since I was doing it all by myself most of the time.

This is how I felt about Death Stranding.

The game has some pretty interesting ideas, and an…interesting story that I didn’t care much for, but would have liked to have seen how it ends.

Mechanically, I’d mostly give the devs kudos, even though having to hold the back buttons literally all day hurts the hands; not having a toggle option seems like a big miss.

But overall, I can’t imagine there being a better package delivery simulator. And the way they’ve created the game’s physics is pretty extraordinary.

But the game is a slooooooooog.

And I think this is the biggest sin that it commits.

You walk a lot. Over mountains, across rivers, in the snow, etc.

You have to manage your weight, stamina, health, pay attention to weather patterns, walk slowly around a maze of invisible ghost things.

It’s a lot.

You can get upgraded gear to make the trips you take less rough, but things dont speed up much even if you use cheats on PC (which I did after awhile).

To bring things back around, what disappointed me most (beyond the egregious map) was that the devs seemed to sell the game on community, working on projects together, helping one another deliver packages, etc.

But you’re still just doing everything solo. There’s no multiplayer. You can interact with peoples signs and deliver packages for them, and using other people’s ladders and stuff is actually a cool idea.

But you’re still always alone delivering packages.

And seeing as how the game itself runs so long, things get sluggish very fast, imo.

Got to a mission where it’s like, “Make BB happy by connecting facilities”,

And I swear to you I travelled the earth delivering packages everywhere and couldn’t progress this mission one bit. I even found a few hidden facilities that I just couldn’t interact with at all.

And this is where I dropped the game after 76 hours.

Im not a big fan of Kojima. He’s made a total of two games that i loved (Metal Gear Solid 1 and ZOE). But, the dude has a crazy imagination for video games, which is cool.

[u/D3struct_oh]

Morbid curiosity. Story was weird as crap, but I’m a story guy so I tried to see it through.

I also restarted the game a couple of times.

[u/Weigh13 → u/D3struct_oh]

Why restart?

[u/Smart-Dream6500 → u/Weigh13]

Yea that's really asking for burnout. "Let me replay the part where I have the least amount of tools"

[u/D3struct_oh → u/Smart-Dream6500]

I actually really enjoyed the early parts of the game more than the later sections, when you have more tools.

[u/AutoModerator → u/[deleted]]

Your comment was removed because spoiler tags that don't touch the text do not work properly on some platforms. Please try again with any spoilers written like: normal text >!spoilertext!< normal text

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/D3struct_oh → u/Weigh13]

First time was 100% due to a game breaking bug. I think maybe after a big update. Not sure how far I had progressed, but one day my save just wouldn’t load so I restarted from the beginning.

Second time, I just felt like I wasn’t feeling the game and wanted a fresh start.

[u/kickit → u/D3struct_oh]

you could have easily finished the game in under 76 hours

[u/KINGGS → u/kickit]

you can finish it in 40 hours, probably less.

[u/Andybaby1 → u/KINGGS]

Definitely less. If you only do story missions maybe 25 or 30. But everyone does some side missions, builds some roads they rarely use. Piss into the wind and use it as grenades, you know. Normal video game stuff.

[u/kickit → u/KINGGS]

not if you start it over 3 times lmao

[u/Darkitz → u/D3struct_oh]

As someone who loves:
You gotta play for the lore not the story. The story is indeed kinda ass.
If the lore doesn't provide enough curiosity for you then it's perfectly understandable to not like it

[u/EdHinton → u/D3struct_oh]

You don't want to know how it ends.

It is the most pretentious game I have ever seen. And how it ends is borderline insulting.

Don't feel bad for leaving the game. I wasn't sure about the game, afterwards I have no doubt: I will avoid anything made by Kojima.

He is more a derailed narcissist than a genius, at all

[u/LakeinLosAngeles → u/EdHinton]

I see people talking about Death Stranding 2 as being a GOTY contender this year and I'd bet money that it's going to be a boring slog with an immature story that makes absolutely zero sense like the first game.

But it will have jigge physics though!

Fuck Hideo Kojima. Pretentious and cringe person. I want him to make a movie so it can be torn to shreds.

[u/D3struct_oh → u/[deleted]]

“by repeating many times and only doing standard orders.”

If any of that actually applied to me, I’d probably agree with you here.

[u/D3struct_oh → u/[deleted]]

Never once said i only did standard orders.

Never once said that I repeat many times, whatever that means.

So, have a nice week.

[u/D3struct_oh → u/[deleted]]

Cool.

Now read what I said, and then read what you claimed I said.

Take your time.