for real the game is really good. Genuinely relaxing and charming. Delivering packages on foot, building roads, exploring a huge map. You can climb any mountain you see. Also has a positive outlook of humanity. I like optimistic scifi, there's not enough of it.
It's extremely pretty. The vaguely surreal combination of Icelandic beaches and Lunar moonscapes, the constant soft rains, the deliberate pacing and moment to moment presentness of navigating up a steep hillside or defile. There's nothing like it. It's what you want hiking to be like in an ideal world without chafing backpack straps and blisters.
Story is typical Kojima - lots of characters talking about bizarre concepts in completely neutral tones.
Gameplay is more fun than it sounds. Delivery is explicitly depicted in the game as stirring Dopamine output. It's time-consuming enough to feel rewarding, without becoming a chore, and it's generally optional.
You can always step into a camp of raiders if you're looking for some action or need to farm some resources. The boss levels are very heart-pumping.
Combat is basic but fun, and includes stealth missions and take-downs which Kojima is known for doing well.
It feels a bit slow at first, but you're unlocking new weapons/tools/construction options/vehicles throughout the entire game so there's always something new to play with.
The soundtrack absolutely slaps, too.
I do recommend listening to podcasts or Parenti lectures while playing, though.
Combat can get creative, like a lot of Kojima games. You can throw cargo boxes at a guy's head, you can trick them into falling off ledges with smoke grenades. You can even do really wacky stuff like run them over while riding the hover platform. The decoy cargo full of sleep gas was always my favorite thing to throw them off. You also get a bunch of different grenades and traps.
Problem is none of that is as efficient as just shooting a gun or punching them, unfortunately
The roads are part of the game's vaguely souls-like multiplayer, where you never actually see other players but you encounter some of the structures they've built to make travelling through the world easier. You can contribute resources to build their structures and they can contribute to your structures. The roads deliberately require an unreasonable number of resources for any one person because you contribute to them alongside other players to build them which reinforces the games dual themes of social isolation and the need for community and cooperation.
It's free, try it and decide if you're into it. There's a lot of cutscenes so give it a couple hours. And it's not like the cutscenes ever let up, if that's a downside for you consider it a no then. Reminded me of mgs4 honestly with how the plot and cutscenes went. The moment to moment gameplay is mostly hiking, a little bit of planning before a trek, and some real "oh shit oh shit there's ghosts/MULEs here oh fuck I didn't prep for this" tossed in. There's a spooky haunted woods section that was really fun in the beginning. There's a sense of progression from getting upgrades and advancing west. The combat is baby-easy, you don't want to kill people in-game for diagetic reasons but also because the combat is unrewarding. The game's themes are very appealing, I found. I thought the space they were exploring was intriguing and it'd be nice if more big budget games played around there instead of "I AM A GUY IN ARMOR KILLING EVERYTHING AROUND ME" - the idea of isolated people coming together is neat. I didn't find the characters all that deep or interesting, the lore was cool, the actual story is a little bizarro (it's untethered unedited Kojima so of course).
If you don't want epic launcher and have access to a console your local library might have a copy you can borrow (for free), that's how I played through.
Hands down, unquestionably, one of the most satisfying gameplay experiences in my long, long gaming life. Also one of the most emotionally moving and heartwrenching media experiences I've had. I cried a couple of times. And the whole thing is just so incredibly creative and bizarre. In a world where every possible story has been trodden in to the dirt over and over again Death Stranding was new and weird and beautiful.
Is it worth playing? I've heard very mixed reviews of it.
you can put piss in a bottle and throw it at ghosts
So just like when I worked at Amazon and was suffering from extreme sleep deprivation.
for real the game is really good. Genuinely relaxing and charming. Delivering packages on foot, building roads, exploring a huge map. You can climb any mountain you see. Also has a positive outlook of humanity. I like optimistic scifi, there's not enough of it.
it is but in this game the package fulfillment guy is a national hero and gets treated with the respect he deserves .
He also is the internet guy that installs your router
He cries a little bit after connecting you to the internet, as they tend to do.
I already do that every day.
It's still better than 95% of games. I thought it was great. Cool story and gameplay, graphics, etc.
Will give it a go then. Just upgraded my PC and I haven't been able to decide what to play.
It's extremely pretty. The vaguely surreal combination of Icelandic beaches and Lunar moonscapes, the constant soft rains, the deliberate pacing and moment to moment presentness of navigating up a steep hillside or defile. There's nothing like it. It's what you want hiking to be like in an ideal world without chafing backpack straps and blisters.
Story is typical Kojima - lots of characters talking about bizarre concepts in completely neutral tones.
Gameplay is more fun than it sounds. Delivery is explicitly depicted in the game as stirring Dopamine output. It's time-consuming enough to feel rewarding, without becoming a chore, and it's generally optional.
You can always step into a camp of raiders if you're looking for some action or need to farm some resources. The boss levels are very heart-pumping.
Combat is basic but fun, and includes stealth missions and take-downs which Kojima is known for doing well.
It feels a bit slow at first, but you're unlocking new weapons/tools/construction options/vehicles throughout the entire game so there's always something new to play with.
The soundtrack absolutely slaps, too.
I do recommend listening to podcasts or Parenti lectures while playing, though.
Combat can get creative, like a lot of Kojima games. You can throw cargo boxes at a guy's head, you can trick them into falling off ledges with smoke grenades. You can even do really wacky stuff like run them over while riding the hover platform. The decoy cargo full of sleep gas was always my favorite thing to throw them off. You also get a bunch of different grenades and traps.
Problem is none of that is as efficient as just shooting a gun or punching them, unfortunately
Indeed, but like you said, basic brute-force assault is generally most effective. You also have the risk of Voidout if you kill someone.
I still had a great time with DS. I wouldn't pay full Triple-A new release price for it, but it's worthwhile if you can get it cheap or free.
The soundtrack is an experience all by itself. Sometimes I'd just sit down on a mountainside in the rain to listen to the music.
Do you like walking in video games?
Do you like prepping loadouts?
Most importantly, do you like walking in video games
I do like playing Skyrim without fast travel?
Death Stranding has fast travel. But you can also grind for roads and then truck around like this is a big wheeler sim
The roads are part of the game's vaguely souls-like multiplayer, where you never actually see other players but you encounter some of the structures they've built to make travelling through the world easier. You can contribute resources to build their structures and they can contribute to your structures. The roads deliberately require an unreasonable number of resources for any one person because you contribute to them alongside other players to build them which reinforces the games dual themes of social isolation and the need for community and cooperation.
It's free, try it and decide if you're into it. There's a lot of cutscenes so give it a couple hours. And it's not like the cutscenes ever let up, if that's a downside for you consider it a no then. Reminded me of mgs4 honestly with how the plot and cutscenes went. The moment to moment gameplay is mostly hiking, a little bit of planning before a trek, and some real "oh shit oh shit there's ghosts/MULEs here oh fuck I didn't prep for this" tossed in. There's a spooky haunted woods section that was really fun in the beginning. There's a sense of progression from getting upgrades and advancing west. The combat is baby-easy, you don't want to kill people in-game for diagetic reasons but also because the combat is unrewarding. The game's themes are very appealing, I found. I thought the space they were exploring was intriguing and it'd be nice if more big budget games played around there instead of "I AM A GUY IN ARMOR KILLING EVERYTHING AROUND ME" - the idea of isolated people coming together is neat. I didn't find the characters all that deep or interesting, the lore was cool, the actual story is a little bizarro (it's untethered unedited Kojima so of course).
If you don't want epic launcher and have access to a console your local library might have a copy you can borrow (for free), that's how I played through.
I use the Epic launcher exclusively for downloading free games that I don't want to bother pirating.
Hands down, unquestionably, one of the most satisfying gameplay experiences in my long, long gaming life. Also one of the most emotionally moving and heartwrenching media experiences I've had. I cried a couple of times. And the whole thing is just so incredibly creative and bizarre. In a world where every possible story has been trodden in to the dirt over and over again Death Stranding was new and weird and beautiful.