Death Stranding - Review Thread (see staff post for discussion guidelines)

[yumms]

This sounds like something I probably would have liked 7-8 years ago, but with a kid and a busy job these games just don't fit in my life anymore. Sounds interesting if not a bit tedious

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This is me, exactly what I was thinking. Kids and people with free time might enjoy the game, but sometimes like me who has two young kids and 8+ hours a day job, I would not have the patience to sit through a game that sounds like another job in hopes of this game becoming enjoyable after 30 hours.

Though if I ever become rich and is no longer working, I would definitely like to try this game.

 

[Traxus]

Death Stranding sounds like it may be better portrayed as a novel than an actual video game. The original trailers looked very exciting but it's a shame there is no actual gameplay to back this up.

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Gameplay being different from the norm is not an absence of gameplay. Jesus.

I've been combing through the old Playstation 1 library for the past month and I've been struck by the amazing diversity and styles of games available for the system. You have everything from Metal Gear Solid to Abe's Odyssey and bizarre shit like Incredible Crisis and No One Can Stop Mr. Domino. It's pretty ridiculous. If the gameplay isn't your style, that's totally fine, but you don't need to rip into it. Now if a developer tries something new they're just bombarded with snarky twitter memes.

 

[Skeeter49]

Death Stranding sounds like it may be better portrayed as a novel than an actual video game. The original trailers looked very exciting but it's a shame there is no actual gameplay to back this up.

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It's a shame that in 2019 we still don't understand what gameplay is. DS has a lot of gameplay. It might not have combat that's interesting to you, and that's fair, but in no way does it have no gameplay, considering most of the game is gameplay focused over story focused.

 

[RingRang]

My biggest question is where is all that stuff from the trailers. Like the squid tank and madds controlling those guys. From everything I've seen it seems like 2 diff games. The delivery stuff and the stuff from the cutscenes

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Alex and Vinny on today's Beastcast talked about finishing the game and wanting to get that payoff at the end. They suggested they got anything but that. They straight up said if you're not having a good time 4 hours into this game, stop playing, because you're not getting much more than that.

 

[Ploid 6.0]

But is it really new? Sure the pieces fit together in an odd way but all of these components have been done better in other games.

weird stories are better in his own metal gear
Traversal is better in AC
async MP was done in Demons Souls

what's new here about a genre?

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AC's traversal is more autopilot than looking at a rock, slippery slope, or a canyon as a risky obstacle. Do you have the gear to go over it, do you want to risk it, or do you want to take your chances with another path that seem close to that camp with the lightning stick guys.

I said it earlier in this thread, but I eat this type of stuff up. I miss the old Rainbow Six games where the majority of the missions was planning and then the big reward was executing that plan with no casualties, all objectives done flawlessly. It felt so good. Now R6 is still tactical but you go in without a plan, and every soldier is controlled by someone. Now that I think about it, this game seem like a old school PC game. The loadout stuff looks like some futuristic Civilization management.

I wonder how they will manage so many people playing the game, will items left behind by other people fill up the game, or will they limit the amount of stuff that show up in your game even if it's year 2 and you're just going in fresh. It feels like early people will have to do a lot of heavy lifting.

 

[srtrestre]

Oh no, the game going from a 84 MC game to a 83 MC game 2 months after it's out.How will Destra survive?

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Oh no, someone is downplaying scores in a 7,000+ post reviews thread.

Euro Truck Simulator released in 2008
Paperboy released on the Atari in 1980

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[Mr. Pointy]

 

[Skeeter49]

I'm glad the game reviewed really well. MGS3 is my favorite game of all time, and I've loved all the other MG games as well. Not sure how I'll like this game, but I'm in there day 1.

Still find it insane this game was made in 3 years.

 

[Moz La Punk]

Lol, the first few hours of the game are not bad. In the first few hours:

- I was amazed at the quality of the character models;
- had my first few hikes through beautiful almost alien like nature;
- was super confused (and enjoying that) about what in the hell was going on in this gameworld:
- was wondering if I was high and watching a Lynch movie;
- added the band Low Roar to my Spotify
- Started to get to grips with the challenging gameplay
- Wondered about the way the online syatem worked;
- laughed out loud multiple times: 'the balls on Kojima for being crazy enough to put this in!'

man, Im jelous of people that can still experience it for the first time.

Death Stranding gives me feelings like normally only movies or music can give me.

 

[ry-dog]

A real shame to hear that the game is a 60hr long walking simulator, the loop doesn't really change and there's no narrative pay off.

stop making games so long!!!

 

[Moz La Punk]

A real shame to hear that the game is 60hrs long, the loop doesn't really change and there's no narrative pay off.

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but its not 60 hours long..... its 35 or so.

 

[Bruceleeroy]

This is me, exactly what I was thinking. Kids and people with free time might enjoy the game, but sometimes like me who has two young kids and 8+ hours a day job, I would not have the patience to sit through a game that sounds like another job in hopes of this game becoming enjoyable after 30 hours.

Though if I ever become rich and is no longer working, I would definitely like to try this game.

Click to shrink...

You are now my favorite poster ever.

 

[John Frost]

Lol, the first few hours of the game are not bad. In the first few hours:

- I was amazed at the quality of the character models;
- had my first few hikes through beautiful almost alien like nature;
- was super confused (and enjoying that) about what in the hell was going on in this gameworld:
- was wondering if I was high and watching a Lynch movie;
- added the band Low Roar to my Spotify
- Started to get to grips with the challenging gameplay
- Wondered about the way the online syatem worked;
- laughed out loud multiple times: 'the balls on Kojima for being crazy enough to put this in!'

man, Im jelous of people that can still experience it for the first time.

Death Stranding gives me feelings like normally only movies or music can give me.

Click to shrink...

Thanks for making the wait even harder..

 

[ry-dog]

but its not 60 hours long..... its 35 or so.

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From the Giant BeastCast and Waypoint, seems like it's 45-60hrs.

 

[John Frost]

From the Giant BeastCast and Waypoint, seems like it's 45-60hrs.

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He/she finished the game.

 

[Moz La Punk]

From the Giant BeastCast and Waypoint, seems like it's 45-60hrs.

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from playing through the game, seems like its 35 or so hours.🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[HStallion]

I love the back and forth between the games negatives being somehow both "there is no gameplay" and "the gameplay is too involved, obtuse and complicated". Has Kojima achieved quantum supremacy with Death Stranding?

 

[Prine]

its the rdr2 of this year.

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Lol no. Need to be universally praised by critics for that. Long long way from 97.

 

[nib95]

Lol, the first few hours of the game are not bad. In the first few hours:

- I was amazed at the quality of the character models;
- had my first few hikes through beautiful almost alien like nature;
- was super confused (and enjoying that) about what in the hell was going on in this gameworld:
- was wondering if I was high and watching a Lynch movie;
- added the band Low Roar to my Spotify
- Started to get to grips with the challenging gameplay
- Wondered about the way the online syatem worked;
- laughed out loud multiple times: 'the balls on Kojima for being crazy enough to put this in!'

man, Im jelous of people that can still experience it for the first time.

Death Stranding gives me feelings like normally only movies or music can give me.

Click to shrink...

To be fair, many of the reviews agree with you. Not everyone found the first few hours tedious or too slow.

 

[stan_marsh]

Lol, the first few hours of the game are not bad. In the first few hours:

- I was amazed at the quality of the character models;
- had my first few hikes through beautiful almost alien like nature;
- was super confused (and enjoying that) about what in the hell was going on in this gameworld:
- was wondering if I was high and watching a Lynch movie;
- added the band Low Roar to my Spotify
- Started to get to grips with the challenging gameplay
- Wondered about the way the online syatem worked;
- laughed out loud multiple times: 'the balls on Kojima for being crazy enough to put this in!'

man, Im jelous of people that can still experience it for the first time.

Death Stranding gives me feelings like normally only movies or music can give me.

Click to shrink...

god damn sounds good

 

[Deleted member 50454]

from playing through the game, seems like its 35 or so hours.🤷🏻‍♂️

Click to shrink...

You could complete 10 good games in that time.

 

[SP.]

From the Giant BeastCast and Waypoint, seems like it's 45-60hrs.

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That's pretty much what every other review mentioning length is saying (At the least).

Gamesradar: 70
Gamespot: 60
Kotaku: 85
The Guardian: 60
EGM: 63
Giant Bomb: 50/60 (Alex/Vinny)

 

[BlueManifest]

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😂

 

[Gunny T Highway]

This was what I was worried about with Death Stranding. Lots of style and production, but little substance to back it up. Seems like a thing that could be better off as a movie or novel rather than a game. But that has been Kojima's dream all along, so I cannot fault him for making this. I will either watch a plot synopsis or read a plot summary to save myself time and money.

 

[Nzyme32]

Can't knock it till you play it I guess, I don't know if the reviewers that are saying it's not that good of a video game have forgetten Kojima is trying to introduce a new experience like never before, a new genre of gaming is what I believe he said.. guess some people ain't ready for that.

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So, no. Summed up in less than a minute


I'm totally up for anything where the essence is"american truck simulator" with a dude and a storyline. Hell yeah. Sadly execution counts.
Obviously not a real narrative, but there's certainly a flavour of that any time playing ridiculous Euro Truck multiplayer with friends and online folk. Some of the most stupid fun I've had with something that I'd never imagined being so enjoyable.

 

[S I C K O]

imagine when millions are playing this game

online will be a meta game i reckon

 

[Moz La Punk]

To be fair, many of the reviews agree with you. Not everyone found the first few hours tedious or too slow.

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there's this point in the game around the 10 hour mark that a bit of fatigue can slip in, thinking 'is this it?'. I had it, colleages I talked to that were reviewing the game had it. From there on, I started to enjoy my time more and more, and the fun for me kept growing. But Id imagine people reviewing the game poorly had the opposite experience after that part.

 

[MegaSackman]

Every review I've read from my country (Argentina) have gave the game a 10 or saying glowing things, read three reviews and they all love it. It seems very genuine, they all praise how different to any AAA it is and the themes it touches.

 

[Phantom]

This feels like No Man's Sky again. "What do you even do in this game?" And gamers are right to ask, because the trailers really didn't tell much. Unfortunate that it's indeed just walking around and doing menial (boring) tasks. I'm all for experimenting, but I feel like Kojima gets a pass because of Metal Gear Solid (of which only the original trilogy is really great). It would have been more interesting to get a horror game than... this.

Also I love how Kojima from his ivory tower thought he would create a new genre. He's full of it.

 

[blitzblake]

Ok so after having a think about it, I think my main issue is that I'm literally too time poor to invest in this game enough for it to become enjoyable.

It's fine that some people have enough time to dedicate 10-30 hours of admittedly boring and repetitive gameplay to receive a satisfying payoff at hour 40-60. But that's not me.

I also refuse to believe that reducing those initial 10/30 hours down to 2-5 hours wouldn't have diminished that payoff.

 

[Guaraná]

man , i just bought the game and now im kinda regreting seeing itbeing compared to america truck simulator with a dude.

=/

thnks I got it for a good price.

 

[JoJo'sDentCo]

lets be honest that sounds amazing

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It does! Day 1.

 

[D i Z]

This feels like No Man's Sky again. "What do you even do in this game?" And gamers are right to ask, because the trailers really didn't tell much. Unfortunate that it's indeed just walking around and doing menial (boring) tasks. I'm all for experimenting, but I feel like Kojima gets a pass because of Metal Gear Solid (of which only the original trilogy is really great). It would have been more interesting to get a horror game than... this.

Also I love how Kojima from his ivory tower thought he would create a new genre. He's full of it.

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Amen.

 

[johncelery]

Based on the reviews I may like this game, and I may not. Being an adult, I will buy it and find out. At worst I don't like it and give it to a friend to play.

 

[Aaron D.]

man , i just bought the game and now im kinda regreting seeing itbeing compared to america truck simulator with a dude.

=/

Click to shrink...

Being compared to ETS makes me jealous I have to wait until next summer to play it on PC. :p

 

[Deleted member 59126]

You could complete 10 good games in that time.

Click to shrink...

I'm tired of playing "good" games, I either want to play something that's amazing or something unique. Seems like this game has amazing moments, and it's definitely unique.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

This feels like No Man's Sky again. "What do you even do in this game?" And gamers are right to ask, because the trailers really didn't tell much. Unfortunate that it's indeed just walking around and doing menial (boring) tasks. I'm all for experimenting, but I feel like Kojima gets a pass because of Metal Gear Solid (of which only the original trilogy is really great). It would have been more interesting to get a horror game than... this.

Also I love how Kojima from his ivory tower thought he would create a new genre. He's full of it.

Click to shrink...

That's an incredibly reductive post. Yes, you deliver packages from A to B.

The toolbox you have to do that is very expensive with interesting online tie ins.

Really very similar in the way that it's focusing on something different compared to something like BOTW where the focus is on exportation.

 

[Guaraná]

Being compared to ETS makes me jealous I have to wait until next summer to play it on PC. :p

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yeah, but that's not what I wanted.
i won't cancel the purchase cause I got for a really good price, around 38 us dollars (150 reais - Brazilian currency)

 

[MrS]

man , i just bought the game and now im kinda regreting seeing itbeing compared to america truck simulator with a dude.

Click to shrink...

 

[TeaToe]

So, no. Summed up in less than a minute


I'm totally up for anything where the essence is"american truck simulator" with a dude and a storyline. Hell yeah. Sadly execution counts.
Obviously not a real narrative, but there's certainly a flavour of that any time playing ridiculous Euro Truck multiplayer with friends and online folk. Some of the most stupid fun I've had with something that I'd never imagined being so enjoyable.

Click to shrink...

oh shit

 

[whatsarobot]

What is the actual call on length, and specifically, length until it gets "better" (not good, but more complex, as many ppl seem to note about 20 hours in is when it starts clicking). I've got two kids, a very full job, and a lot of side stuff going on in life. Probably get 6 hours at most a week to play. The idea of playing this thing for a year doesn't seem appealing if it's just... not very captivating most nights.

 

[Ruu]

I've gone form super excited a month ago, to completely deflated hype a week ago, to kind of unsure but fairly curious now. Most of the critics I follow and agree with are all over the place on it. I think I'll like it? But I'm in no rush, I'm so busy these days and I already have plenty of other games. I'll pick it up when its like $20 on pc or something.

 

[travisbickle]

yeah, but that's not what I wanted.
i won't cancel the purchase cause I got for a really good price, around 38 us dollars (150 reais - Brazilian currency)

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To be fair at this point, just before the reviews, discussion was essentially "how much is Death Stranding going to lean into carrying packages across difficult terrain? A lot or very much so?"

What did you want?

 

[Vinc]

Lol, the first few hours of the game are not bad. In the first few hours:

- I was amazed at the quality of the character models;
- had my first few hikes through beautiful almost alien like nature;
- was super confused (and enjoying that) about what in the hell was going on in this gameworld:
- was wondering if I was high and watching a Lynch movie;
- added the band Low Roar to my Spotify
- Started to get to grips with the challenging gameplay
- Wondered about the way the online syatem worked;
- laughed out loud multiple times: 'the balls on Kojima for being crazy enough to put this in!'

man, Im jelous of people that can still experience it for the first time.

Death Stranding gives me feelings like normally only movies or music can give me.

Click to shrink...

This post makes me excited for next week.

 

[John Frost]

This feels like No Man's Sky again. "What do you even do in this game?" And gamers are right to ask, because the trailers really didn't tell much. Unfortunate that it's indeed just walking around and doing menial (boring) tasks. I'm all for experimenting, but I feel like Kojima gets a pass because of Metal Gear Solid (of which only the original trilogy is really great). It would have been more interesting to get a horror game than... this.

Also I love how Kojima from his ivory tower thought he would create a new genre. He's full of it.

Click to shrink...

T'as pas testé l'jeu? Pauvre toi.

 

[Deleted member 35071]

watching the reviews, it sounds like i would quit this after an hour or 2 and never pick it up again.

the over encumberance of Bethesda games...with the balancing mechanic of Uncharted Golden abyss.

no thanks. 2 things i loathe

 

[Deleted member 46804]

The constant theme across almost all of these reviews is that the gameplay can be tedious, boring, and frustrating yet they are scoring it at an 8 or higher. So I think the real question this game is presenting is does a game have to be fun in order to be good? I would say in any other medium the answer to this question is no but games are different in that they are interactive.

What does ERA think of this? Do games have to be fun to be good?

 

[Betty]

The constant theme across almost all of these reviews is that the gameplay can be tedious, boring, and frustrating yet they are scoring it at an 8 or higher. So I think the real question this game is presenting is does a game have to be fun in order to be good? I would say in any other medium the answer to this question is no but games are different.

What does ERA think of this? Do games have to be fun to be good?

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No.

Most Silent Hill games for example aren't really fun, but they are intriguing and scary, and that makes them good.

 

[AntiMacro]

That's pretty much what every other review mentioning length is saying (At the least).

Gamesradar: 70
Gamespot: 60
Kotaku: 85
The Guardian: 60
EGM: 63
Giant Bomb: 50/60 (Alex/Vinny)

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It's a lot closer to 60 than it is to 35.

 

[Miamiwesker]

So I will ask this here cause review thread is too crowded. It seems like the general consensus says the shared world building is the best part but how does the game delegate how much player contributions enter your game. At some point it would end up making the entire game super easy if it's all highways. I wonder if there is a smart system to pair up players in similar parts of the game together so it's not just a bunch of higher level stuff from people who beat the game.

 

[LordDraven]

The constant theme across almost all of these reviews is that the gameplay can be tedious, boring, and frustrating yet they are scoring it at an 8 or higher. So I think the real question this game is presenting is does a game have to be fun in order to be good? I would say in any other medium the answer to this question is no but games are different in that they are interactive.

What does ERA think of this? Do games have to be fun to be good?

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What kind of question is that dude?