Death stranding - did the ending diminish the game for you? (open spoilers)

[Jeffram]

Not really, because I wasn't expecting some sci-fi reasoning that would all of a sudden make everything make sense.

It's like the fast and the furious reboot. It kicks off with the team breaking Dom out of a prison bus by driving a passenger car into it. Instead o the the car being absolutely destroyed, the bus flips over and the car drives away. One you reserve yourself to "this is the world this story lives in" and stop thinking about it too much, it doesn't bother you at the end of the movie where two characters fly out oncoming vehicles going at high speeds and they some how land softly in each others arms, and land on a car also going highway speeds which is also somehow a soft impact, and walk away seemingly uninjured by the ordeal.

 

[Deleted member 16876]

Was I the only one who started blasting Amelie until the gun was empty? I didn't even wait or hesitate once I had control.

Please tell me I am not the only one.

 

[Malkier]

I personally like when games try to imitate what a character is going through with gameplay segments like that. Is it "fun" no but it does serve a purpose. Though I do find moments like these do get irritating on replays. In comparison the whole riding the helicopter thing in mgs v is way worse because your forced to do it nearly every mission.

 

[GinoFelino]

The ending is the high point of the game. It's the plodding story between the first act and the ending that I don't want to re-experience. The character-driven chapter structure is too meandering. "Chapter 6: Heartman" or whatever; you're introduced to Heartman's lab and you get cutscenes that, in the end, feel more designed to showcase the characterization of Heartman than it is to use his input to the story to create a bigger ongoing plot, and this issue I felt was true for the majority of the game's cast, including Fragile.

By the end of the game I did feel Deadman and Fragile had a central piece in the story, but it was still diminished by the fact that they... don't actually do anything in the plot, at least not that much that seems to matter in the grand scheme and what little there is is largely off-screen.

Overall Death Stranding I felt hurt itself because as its own story it wastes its time meandering with character vignettes. This isn't at all an issue exclusive to Kojima. This is the same kind of burnt-out-writer's trope that has plagued companies like BioWare who once wrote intricate and grandiose plots but started abandoning that more and more in favor of writing a bunch of endearing companions. I felt Kojima took the short way out of Death Stranding and focused too much on isolated character events with a main-event that mostly ended up feeling like a story that developed in the background to whatever the player was doing.

The biggest events for Sam ended up being hallucinations basically.

Click to shrink...

Here's a well-written perspective on those vignettes you disliked. Maybe it will give you a new perspective on their purpose or value. If it doesn't, it's a fascinating read anyway.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ne88g7/death-strandings-hero-is-just-a-side-character

 

[diablogg]

Mads and Die Hardman make that ending pretty special for me.

 

[TickleMeElbow]

That ending was dope to me because I've always imagined being in "limbo" to be something similar, so it was cool "experiencing" it in some way.

 

[Doctor_Thomas]

No, I really enjoyed the end. Gave more weight to everything I'd just battled through.

 

[____]

Was I the only one who started blasting Amelie until the gun was empty? I didn't even wait or hesitate once I had control.

Please tell me I am not the only one.

Click to shrink...

I shot one good time. My aim was true. She didn't die. I tried again just to make sure and smh.

 

[BizzyBum]

Not at all. In fact I thought the ending was amazing.

Reading that people literally "quit the game" during the beach scene after playing to get to that point is laughable and absurd.

 

[Mexen]

Was worried it would be an incomplete mess. Ended up being a complete mess instead.

 

[Papercuts]

Was I the only one who started blasting Amelie until the gun was empty? I didn't even wait or hesitate once I had control.

Please tell me I am not the only one.

Click to shrink...

I dumped the entire clip into her, got up close to try and punch her and it ended in the hug instead.

That sequence is absolutely horrible from a player perspective. They never should have given you control if it did nothing with it.

 

[unholyFarmer]

I finished death stranding last night. I have generally enjoyed the game. If you had asked me a couple of days ago, I would have been fairly effusive. I was surprised to find that the general gameplay really clicked with me and I found it very addictive, in particular the traversal /exploration and the road/zip line building.
I have found the wider story completely nonsensical, but kind of amusing. None of it had any emotional resonance for me - I don't know if it does for anyone else? For example the mama/lockne story arch made me laugh, because it is so ridiculous. Similarly deadman is kind of a tragic character, but is also amusing because what happens to him is so absurd. However despite much of an emotional connection, I had been enjoying the weirdness of the story - I was "entertained"!
The turning point for me was the final battle with troy Baker. The game takes the piss after this, and really didn't respect my time. The ridiculous part on the beach being an example. You run (in any direction) for a minute, stop from exhaustion, get reset in the same place, run again next time when your get tired you get a bit of story. Repeat many times - how is that fun?
The dreadful ending brings the game down in my estimation, if I were to put a number on it, it went from a 9 to a 10.
If anyone thinks I should have known to expect this from kojima, will the list game of his I have played is mgs2, and the cut scenes in 1&2 were nowhere near this bad.

Click to shrink...

I'm not 100% with you OP, but I kind of agree.

The game for me was a 10/10 GOTG material up to Edge Knot City. What a wonderful journey I had up to reaching the Tar Belt, a point where you really feel how long and hopeless all that mission has been. Crossing the Tar Belt is a superb act of desperation, I loved it so much. Chapter 9 is also great, I even enjoyed the crazy battle against the giant Higgs-Amelie BT.

While I think the Tar Belt is when the game peaks, it still an amazing game up to Vietnam and the very touching reunion with Mads once you beat him. Getting back to Capital Knot City is all fine, but from there on the game falls for me. While I enjoyed the story entirely, from that part it does feel a bit like a slow drag, and it just becomes lots of exposition in a way that wasn't the most exciting for me. All that made that world so mysterious, cruel and mesmerizing to me is kind of gone at that point, and as a 'player' it just felt like there was not much else to do. There are still some amazing cutscenes waiting for you, and a 'twist' which does a very good job in tying many of the loose knots, but I wasn't enjoying the game as much as before.

 

[cabelhigh]

The ending destroyed the game for me.

I LOVED everything through the mountain area, loved the core gameplay loop, though the story was 100% trash but in a sort of enjoyable way. But then you leave the mountains and the next 6/7 hours undo everything good the game had done before it.

Everything was so long and so bad and so boring, god damn. Literally some of the worst writing I've ever seen. Some of the worst boss battles, gunplay, levels...just a complete nosedive in quality.

 

[closer]

I feel like the beach part is pretty emblemic of the experience as a whole, like youll have a camp that appreciates what it's going for with it's repetition and length, a camp where that kind of experience is unforgiveable in a paid video game, a camp who privileges that metaness of it, etc., all in all a good decision imo that is not primarily satisfying and does not reconcile itself neatly.

 

[Transistor]

Tommie Earl Jenkins needs a god damn oscar for that performance at the end.

 

[Nali]

It didn't make the game worse for me, but I already hated the plot and almost everyone in it by the time I got there. Kojima's sense of pacing has been shot to hell, and he's still trying to do his trademark shocking twists without any of the misdirection and character development throughout the rest of the story that's necessary to make them work.

 

[CosmicRomancer]

All I'm saying is thank god for chapter 14.

 

[Kaguya]

It did, the long exposition made me lose interest before the interesting parts of the ending. But watching videos about the ending later, the core story is actually way better than the way it was told in the game. Kojima's long exposition style really hurt the ending about as much as the poor dialogue writing did.

 

[chrominance]

Not really. The Sam/Cliff/BB stuff was interesting, I liked those parts. Everything involving the extinction, on the other hand, I basically let wash over me without trying to think particularly hard about any of it. But by that point I'd largely divorced my view of the story from the gameplay, which I absolutely loved.

That's a big reason why I think I can enjoy podcasts that basically shit all over the story from a great height (the Giant Bomb GOTY podcast where they talk about DS, and the Waypoint spoilercast with Heather Alexandra and Rob Zacny), despite loving the game. The story was something that provided some context during the game, but mostly feels like a lightly traumatic event we endured once you get some distance from the game.

 

[nomemorial]

Absolutely loved the ending. Made the entire game for me. Amelie's beach with the distant catastrophe unfolding is maybe one of my favorite setpieces/moments of imagery in gaming. Left me stunned.

The credits sequence on the beach was a bit much, I will agree, and dragged, but the moments after it were very emotionally impactful and resonated with me deeply. I loved the game despite feeling like the gameplay loop got old at some points - especially the Mama chapter and being told I basically had to walk home from the Tar Belt. That really felt defeating since it just felt like a way to drag the story out. There were moments where I appreciated some of the "dragging" and think its effect on the hopelessness vs. hopefulness tone of the game really worked, but a bit of it did feel like a slog.

All-in-all, I thought the ending was really rewarding and the game will definitely stand out in my mind as one of the most unique, standout experiences I've had in years of playing video games. Really excited to see what Kojima pulls out next.

 

[Dever]

Chapter 13 is a bit ridiculous, but the proper ending in Chapter 14 is great.

I guess the point of running around on the beach is you're supposedly trapped there. So Sam is spending an eternity alone. It's supposed to make you feel isolated. So it does work into the game's theme of connection perfectly well, but yeah, I can't argue it doesn't disrespect the player's time lol

 

[Mr Delabee]

Not at all. In fact I thought the ending was amazing.

Reading that people literally "quit the game" during the beach scene after playing to get to that point is laughable and absurd.

Click to shrink...

Seriously? That means they will have missed the actual end of the game, that is totally absurd.

As I went through the entire game the story was pushing me through, I was curious about the beach, about sam and BB's origins and I never once suspected that Sam was a BB.

Also come the end of that game BB's Theme and walk to the incinerator broke me.

 

[BizzyBum]

Tommie Earl Jenkins needs a god damn oscar for that performance at the end.

Click to shrink...

That might have single-handedly been one of the most impressive things I've seen done in a game. That scene was raw and powerful. Dude even legit cried during the mocap session. Just so good.

 

[chrominance]

Was I the only one who started blasting Amelie until the gun was empty? I didn't even wait or hesitate once I had control.

Please tell me I am not the only one.

Click to shrink...

Things I did, in order:

• "well, I'm pretty clearly not supposed to shoot her, so I guess I'll wait"
• "waiting doesn't work, and I can't do anything else, so... shoot her?"
• "what if I shoot her from the front"
• "do I need to shoot her closer"
• "what if I just ran away"
• "okay, um, can I throw the gun at her? oh wait, do I need to unequip it first? oh, I unequipped the gun, A BUTTON PROMPT PRESS IT"

I didn't even realize until afterward that the button prompt said "Hug her." At no point did I have an actual clue as to what I was supposed to do.

 

[shadowman16]

Was I the only one who started blasting Amelie until the gun was empty? I didn't even wait or hesitate once I had control.

Please tell me I am not the only one.

Click to shrink...

Not the only one. Couldn't stand her plot point and I'm a sadistic bastard. If your names not "Haruka" your probably getting a bullet to the head if I have my way.

But seriously, her part of the plot in the end game didn't really click with me. So much so I didn't get that your supposed to hug her (oops). But really, that's more on me.
What I legit HATED in that chapter was the stupid way it did the next few cutscenes, making you wait through slow ass unskippable credits to see the next cutscene, and repeat several times.

Thankfully chapter 14 was fucking fantastic, mainly thanks to Tommy Earl Jenkins and Mads knocking it outta the park with their plots wrapping up. That plus the last delivery you do... loved that ending, honestly its only chapter 13 that really annoyed me in the game, otherwise I loved it.

 

[Deleted member 35987]

Was worried it would be an incomplete mess. Ended up being a complete mess instead.

Click to shrink...

Hahaha

 

[Nimby]

It's too long but I loved the scenes after the credits. The credits tho, that was painful.

 

[shaneo632]

Was worried it would be an incomplete mess. Ended up being a complete mess instead.

Click to shrink...

lmao

 

[Milennia]

I enjoyed the ending greatly outside of the blatant shrugging off of fragile that felt super weird considering everything and the time fall stopping

the die hardman confession was a great sequence

 

[Cosmic Voyager]

I finished death stranding last night. I have generally enjoyed the game. If you had asked me a couple of days ago, I would have been fairly effusive. I was surprised to find that the general gameplay really clicked with me and I found it very addictive, in particular the traversal /exploration and the road/zip line building.
I have found the wider story completely nonsensical, but kind of amusing. None of it had any emotional resonance for me - I don't know if it does for anyone else? For example the mama/lockne story arch made me laugh, because it is so ridiculous. Similarly deadman is kind of a tragic character, but is also amusing because what happens to him is so absurd. However despite much of an emotional connection, I had been enjoying the weirdness of the story - I was "entertained"!
The turning point for me was the final battle with troy Baker. The game takes the piss after this, and really didn't respect my time. The ridiculous part on the beach being an example. You run (in any direction) for a minute, stop from exhaustion, get reset in the same place, run again next time when your get tired you get a bit of story. Repeat many times - how is that fun?
The dreadful ending brings the game down in my estimation, if I were to put a number on it, it went from a 9 to a 10.
If anyone thinks I should have known to expect this from kojima, will the list game of his I have played is mgs2, and the cut scenes in 1&2 were nowhere near this bad.

Click to shrink...

agreed. I play games primarily for the narrative, and I found the ending to this so boring & non-sensical that I was looking at my phone throughout many of the ending cutscenes.

there were some standout moments like that scene with Die-Hardman and just the imagery on Bridget's beach, but otherwise I didn't give a shit about the delaying the EE and all that horseshit.

I really enjoyed the experience overall, and Kojima has a great sense of visual storytelling, but the game is so bogged down in its stupid mumbo jumbo and trying to sound profound through amateurish naming conventions.

"The baby is called a BB because they're phonetically similar" get it? "Sam's last name is a Bridges because he's a bridge between humans" get it?? "Each city is called Knot because we're all linked together together" get it???? Yes game. Yes, I get it. No need to pulverize my brain with all your "clever" names.

It's a shame, because I think it's well-acted and it's nice to have a game with such hopeful themes, but it's really undercut by all the cutesy names that are just too corny & blatant. It's like Kojima was so afraid of people not getting it that he designed a game for 5 year olds.

 

[OutofMana]

The ending and the last few chapters really soured the experience. It was just so bad. Don't even get me started on the multiple credits and exposition dumps.

 

[Jawbreaker]

I really enjoyed the ending. It resonated with me on an emotional level.

 

[Deleted member 59126]

The story is complete and utter nonsense, the gameplay loop was amazing though. Had the enemies been more difficult/intelligent I feel this game potentially could have surpassed BotW in gameplay albeit within its niche.

The most disappointing aspect of the story being so ridiculous is that the acting, facial capture and atmosphere were all 10/10, which makes the shortcomings of the story even more apparent.

Overall though, Death Stranding is my #2 game of 2019.

 

[Spazerbeam]

The ending is incredible. One of Kojima's best.

 

[Dussck]

It was a bit stretched out, but I think it was all good fun. I really liked playing the game and just had fun watching the story, nothing diminished my fun.
I also liked how they handled Sam: he didn't have much of an opinion about it all; they let you fill it in as the player.

 

[Keikaku]

The beach and EE boss fight were bad but otherwise the ending was great.

Especially liked the Higgs fight which was an awesome homage to the Ocelot fight in MGS4.

Also the last delivery was the most emotional moment in gaming for me. The music just knocked the wind out of me.

 

[Dever]

It was a bit stretched out, but I think it was all good fun. I really liked playing the game and just had fun watching the story, nothing diminished my fun.
I also liked how they handled Sam: he didn't have much of an opinion about it all; they let you fill it in as the player.

Click to shrink...

Sam works really well as a vessel for the player yeah. Pretty sure there's multiple times where some other character is explaining some pseudo-scientific nonsense and Sam just goes, "What the fuck?" or something like that haha

 

[BrickArts295]

The Troy Baker/Amelie stuff in the 3rd act and the beach credits kinda almost killed the story for me but the ending saved it for me.

 

[Acquiesc3]

The whole EE/End of Evangelion part missed the mark for me. But everything else was great.

Particularly the last 10-15 minutes was really great - Kojima knows how to make ending sequences for sure.

 

[Kazuhira]

We loved the ending.
The ending song almost made us burst into tears tbh.

 

[Zassimick]

I just beat the game last night as well. Mixed feelings overall.

Early game, in particular Episodes 3 - 8 with some exceptions, were just a bit too much of a drag for me. I was getting frustrated at a lack of dramatic action, urgency, etc. I just had to journey across America, connect these people by delivering them some goods, they look at it and say wow it's in perfect condition now connect me to chiral network, rinse repeat. It was getting... old.

Late game the game finally sunk its teeth in me. Between the Last Delivery, DieHardMan's speech, the entire cutscene with Cliff, it was great. There were rough spots, like the Beach credits scene, but that to me speaks to the entire game being just a... rough piece that could have done with some trimming down and focus.

Gotta appreciate his ambition, but man could I have done with less exposition and instead more emotion to it all. The guy gets lost in his own complexities.

 

[AlternateAir]

The ending and the last few chapters really soured the experience. It was just so bad. Don't even get me started on the multiple credits and exposition dumps.

Click to shrink...

This, as well as the entirely out of place boss rush too. It's like someone said - "Lets take the two worst parts of this game - it's story, and combat - and smash them together for the last third of the game!" and they ran with it. A game I'd was surprised on how much I was really enjoying it became a terrible slog that I almost gave up on once you get to Edge Knot City.

 

[TitlePending]

Here's a well-written perspective on those vignettes you disliked. Maybe it will give you a new perspective on their purpose or value. If it doesn't, it's a fascinating read anyway.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ne88g7/death-strandings-hero-is-just-a-side-character

Click to shrink...

Nice, I've been looking for something like this since beating the game!

 

[snausages]

Yes, I think DS I'd a tremendous game and its close to me goty. But the story was so fucking terrible that I completely failed to make a connection to any of the characters

Which is a shame cause thematically it's got some stuff I can dig, what with it being about humanity's acceptance of a mass extinction event. But it lacks a single good character outside of Madds. I dont think I've seen a worse sidekick than Del Toro's character in it.

I have to forget the story to convince myself I liked this game tbh

 

[wafflebrain]

Yeah the beach part was completely unnecessary (the waiting credits sequence not the battle), and what could've been a more emotionally fitting moment to place "I'm Still Coming" was instead kinda wasted on that whatever limbo sequence on the beach where you're not progressing anything. At least the other Low Roar songs were more evocative during the traversal sections between different areas.

I still loved the actual ending and with "BB's Theme" playing it was one of the more cathartic and emotionally rewarding moments I've seen in a game so while the aforementioned beach scene certainly could have been axed I don't think it took too much away from the overall ending.

RDR2's mission bloat detracted from the story beats a lot more imo, the last section before the prologue is just a blur to me outside of tuberculosis, the island, and the final confrontation. Just an absurd amount of padding that doesn't really respect the main narrative arc's pacing. I mean I get it it's a game at the end of the day but Rockstar has done much better wrt pacing in their other games to balance story developments more in tandem with gameplay.

 

[Draper]

Needed more run along the beach happily scenes

 

[Rommaz]

Change or remove the repeating beach section and this game maybe gets onto my GOTY list, that bit really burnt my goodwill on the game. That aside the ending was actually pretty good

 

[Se_7_eN]

Fantastic game, I enjoyed the ending.

 

[GinoFelino]

Nice, I've been looking for something like this since beating the game!

Click to shrink...

In that case, I will also heartily recommend this wonderful piece of writing.

If the more personal aspects of this piece are not your cup of tea, start with the paragraph titled 'On Drama' and go from there. As in-depth and inspired a discussion of the game's merits I've seen and some great insights.

https://medium.com/@DocSeuss/playthis-death-stranding-d22e660d2581

 

[Deleted member 19767]

Absolutely.

I was really enjoying the game early on. It's started to drag for me in the middle, but I was interested in the story and was excited to see what was next.
By the end of the game and final few cutscenes, I was completely over it. Chapter 3 was the best part of the game in my opinion. The story was more or less nonsense and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking for an interesting story.