Death Stranding

Zero-Cool

goon_magee wrote: »

All terrain skeleton and zip lines make such a breeze of the mountain!

I fudged up and didn't lay down any zipline poles. I now have to get the medical device which which is a return trip through a fairly bad section

i really miss BB

Potential-Monke

Ok, i'm finished tonight at 8pm and I'm off again until next Saturday. Curiosity is getting the better of me, so I think i'm gonna pick this up. CEX offering €47 cash trade in if I don't like it, so would only lose out on €13. Why can't there be demos anymore?!

Penn

Got this yesterday and played a few hours. Really enjoying it so far. Story and general world are completely f*cking insane even by Kojima standards. But of the few deliveries I've made so far, surprisingly enjoying it.

Only complaint so far is I can't tell the difference between the O and Square button prompts half the time. Spent ages resting at the first delivery terminal before realising I hadn't pressed the right button to activate it.

Zero-Cool

goon_magee wrote: »

All terrain skeleton and zip lines make such a breeze of the mountain!

One well placed pole from me connected 3 different zip line poles and made travel from mountain Knot City to the mountaineer take about 3 minutes while completely bypassing a BT area, awesome!

goon_magee

Zero-Cool wrote: »

One well placed pole from me connected 3 different zip line poles and made travel from mountain Knot City to the mountaineer take about 3 minutes while completely bypassing a BT area, awesome!

So handy. I hadn't used up much bandwidth across the map so I was essentially able to set up a zip network that let me travel between each outpost on the mountain without touching the ground!

LadySkunk

goon_magee wrote: »

All terrain skeleton and zip lines make such a breeze of the mountain!

I love the speed skeleton for raiding mule camps and running like a mother f**ker out of there :pac:

goon_magee

LadySkunk wrote: »

I love the speed skeleton for raiding mule camps and running like a mother f**ker out of there :pac:

Good thinking! In all honesty I totally forgot about the speed skeleton, but in retrospect it would have made life so much easier at times!

On the last couple of chapters here now. Its been absolutely phenomenal story wise from around chapter 9.

goon_magee

And that's a wrap!

Without a doubt my GotY. It's certainly not a game I could blame anyone for disliking and in all honesty it isn't one I myself will ever play again as I think so much of the enjoyment I got from it was from the feeling of discovery, whether that was through gameplay mechanics or plot twists; it just doesn't strike me as a game that would make for a satisfactory second playthrough.

Holy **** was it worth the wait though.

Zero-Cool

What was your total playtime? Sounds like the 2nd half of the game goes quicker?

I just started chapter 7 half way through i think.

goon_magee

Zero-Cool wrote: »

What was your total playtime? Sounds like the 2nd half of the game goes quicker?

I just started chapter 7 half way through i think.

Almost 62 hours. I was around 53 hours going into chapter 7. Second half of the game definitely goes a lot quicker, especially once you hit chapter 10 or so but it is a hell of a ride.

goon_magee

goon_magee wrote: »

Almost 62 hours. I was around 53 hours going into chapter 7. Second half of the game definitely goes a lot quicker, especially once you hit chapter 10 or so but it is a hell of a ride.

I should also point out that I done basically no side stuff after chapter 6. The story got so interesting that I couldn't slow down, so anyone playinh with less urgency will have a longer play time than me.

Zero-Cool

Excellent thanks, sounds like my plan, orders for Sam only from here on out.

ShaneU

Someday, somewhere, a masochistic madman is going to 100% this game without using vehicles or roads, that would be some challenge

Zero-Cool

I'm on chapter 8, i didn't think I'd like

Heartman

when i finally met him but what an incredible cutscene/story when you do. The game just keeps getting better.

Also the

record scratch

and the thumbs up was hilarious. Hideo doesn't give a **** and the game is all the better for it.

Came across a BT area with sensitive cargo that i knew wouldn't survive an escape attempt so finally decided to take them on with weapons. Went swimmingly until i came across a

glowing BT that seemed to be invincible,

what's the deal with them?

one armed dwarf

This game burned a lot of good will for me in its second half. I had lots of fun setting up

zipline

networks between the mountains, the weather station and the depot between South and Lake. But then on chapters 5, 6 and 8 the game becomes nothing but setting up said networks and it gets very boring and repetitive as it's the same traversal and infrastructure challenge over and over.

Then it turns into a Hideo Kojima game where you spend something like 4 hours of the back half of the game being sat down* as people talk the most overwrought, convoluted ****e at you. All of its themes and messages are very basic attempts at addressing real life issues in our world in the most patronising ways. It's like being lectured to by someone who has no experience of the real world and thinks just being nice to people will solve all our problems.

It is the absolute pits and the nadir of Kojima's career to date. But all the walking and delivery sim stuff in the first half of the game is still really good. I just wish I could pluck it out of this childish garbage that is the rest of the game. MGS2's Colonel AI spiels looks positively erudite in comparison

*

At one point this is literal, the game sits you down and talks **** at you and never lets up. It actually made my weekend feel longer

R3_Regera

If you've got the Timefall porter instead of Monster energy drinks in your private room, make sure to drink them all

fixXxer

Spent hours yesterday doing side missions in Chapter 3. If i dont remind myself to do story missions I might never finish this. Is there a non-spoiler reason why the roads are so creepy? Who wants to drive on something that has black goo dripping off AND floating off it?

one armed dwarf

fixXxer wrote: »

Spent hours yesterday doing side missions in Chapter 3. If i dont remind myself to do story missions I might never finish this. Is there a non-spoiler reason why the roads are so creepy? Who wants to drive on something that has black goo dripping off AND floating off it?

I believe their tech is based off of stuff they took back from the beaches, or something. The reason they can print things so fast is cause it is all resourced from the beach where time moves differently

Again, I think that's it cause that's how their internet works. It's like AWS set up on the River Styx, as I heard a podcast commenter call it :pac:

Can you completely ignore all the side mission stuff. Just blast through the campaign?
Wonder how long it takes to do so.

Side mission crap sounds like desperate filler. AAA trope of the decade.

one armed dwarf

Deleted User wrote: »

Can you completely ignore all the side mission stuff. Just blast through the campaign?

Side mission crap sounds like desperate filler. AAA trope of the decade.

This game is supposed to be taken slow. The more you push against the pace of it the more miserable it will get imo.

Really the best part of the game is investing in infrastructure to better connect everyone to all your supply routes. That can feel really engaging and interesting.

If you mainline things you're just making a beeline to get lectured to by lots of insane people for hours and hours

one armed dwarf

one armed dwarf wrote: »

This game is supposed to be taken slow. The more you push against the pace of it the more miserable it will get imo.

Really the best part of the game is investing in infrastructure to better connect everyone to all your supply routes. That can feel really engaging and interesting.

If you mainline things you're just making a beeline to get lectured to by lots of insane people for hours and hours

Seems to be a common theme keeping me well away from it.
It sounds like it really wouldn't respect my time.
Thanks for explaining though!

goon_magee

Deleted User wrote: »

Seems to be a common theme keeping me well away from it.
It sounds like it really wouldn't respect my time.
Thanks for explaining though!

I would say of all Kojima's games, this one respects the player's time the most for the majority of the game.

For about 10 chapters, the cutscenes aren't overly frequent, and when they do arrive it usually isn't long until you are back on your way again. IMO there is a far better balance between gameplay and narrative than the majority of the Metal Gear series.

It isn't until the back end of chapter 10 that the story starts to dominate things, and even then it's punctuated by some really strong gameplay sequences.

You can definitely push through the story missions and ignore the side objectives; I played this way from chapter 6/7 onwards and found the game all the better for it because I was really enjoying the story. It's also not hard to complete a few side orders anyway as you are pushing through the main story as many side objectives will fall along routes you are travelling anyway as part of the narrative.

The game does change entirely on the home stretch, and your mileage will vary depending on whether or not you are enjoying the narrative or not.

goon_magee

goon_magee wrote: »

I would say of all Kojima's games, this one respects the player's time the most for the majority of the game.

For about 10 chapters, the cutscenes aren't overly frequent, and when they do arrive it usually isn't long until you are back on your way again. IMO there is a far better balance between gameplay and narrative than the majority of the Metal Gear series.

It isn't until the back end of chapter 10 that the story starts to dominate things, and even then it's punctuated by some really strong gameplay sequences.

You can definitely push through the story missions and ignore the side objectives; I played this way from chapter 6/7 onwards and found the game all the better for it because I was really enjoying the story. It's also not hard to complete a few side orders anyway as you are pushing through the main story as many side objectives will fall along routes you are travelling anyway as part of the narrative.

The game does change entirely on the home stretch, and your mileage will vary depending on whether or not you are enjoying the narrative or not.

Stop twisting my arm :pac:

I've a feeling that's why Gimli has gone AWOL from the thread

Zero-Cool

I've found myself saying ok, only doing story missions......oh you need a coat for a side story?? Well actually i really like your character and don't want you to be cold so I'll fetch your coat and feel good about it.

There are plenty of fluff requests that i think would be a bad idea to get bogged down on, same as building too many roads but I'm finding enough things for me to enjoy at my own pace. I can totally see problems journalists would have with this, even with a 3 week play time. If it's in your head that you are against a deadline, i can see the mechanics can annoy you but that doesn't mean it's a slow game.

Hard to explain, it just feels great to play.

goon_magee

Zero-Cool wrote: »

I've found myself saying ok, only doing story missions......oh you need a coat for a side story?? Well actually i really like your character and don't want you to be cold so I'll fetch your coat and feel good about it.

There are plenty of fluff requests that i think would be a bad idea to get bogged down on, same as building too many roads but I'm finding enough things for me to enjoy at my own pace. I can totally see problems journalists would have with this, even with a 3 week play time. If it's in your head that you are against a deadline, i can see the mechanics can annoy you but that doesn't mean it's a slow game.

Hard to explain, it just feels great to play.

Definitely agree with the fluff requests - not a good idea to get obsessive over them unless you are intending on getting 5 stars across all shelters for the trophy. Some optional deliveries are well worth doing though, especially those flagged as Order's for Sam (in case anyone is unsure, not all Order's for Sam are tied to story progression); the pizza deliveries to the north west of the second map in particular are worth doing. The payoff is a nice little "holy ****" moment that anyone paying attention to the narrative will enjoy.

Zero-Cool

goon_magee wrote: »

Definitely agree with the fluff requests - not a good idea to get obsessive over them unless you are intending on getting 5 stars across all shelters for the trophy. Some optional deliveries are well worth doing though, especially those flagged as Order's for Sam (in case anyone is unsure, not all Order's for Sam are tied to story progression); the pizza deliveries to the north west of the second map in particular are worth doing. The payoff is a nice little "holy ****" moment that anyone paying attention to the narrative will enjoy.

Ha, it came to the 2nd pizza request and i said **** right off :pac: will come back to it if i feel like it by the end.

fixXxer

goon_magee wrote: »

Definitely agree with the fluff requests - not a good idea to get obsessive over them unless you are intending on getting 5 stars across all shelters for the trophy. Some optional deliveries are well worth doing though, especially those flagged as Order's for Sam (in case anyone is unsure, not all Order's for Sam are tied to story progression); the pizza deliveries to the north west of the second map in particular are worth doing. The payoff is a nice little "holy ****" moment that anyone paying attention to the narrative will enjoy.

Stupid question but can the pizza mission be done without a vehicle? When he said it had to be kept flat, I stole a truck to use the flatbed in the back :-/

Zero-Cool

fixXxer wrote: »

Stupid question but can the pizza mission be done without a vehicle? When he said it had to be kept flat, I stole a truck to use the flatbed in the back :-/

Yupp, i carried the first one on my back just make sure it's not attached to your suit (shoulders, hips).

goon_magee

fixXxer wrote: »

Stupid question but can the pizza mission be done without a vehicle? When he said it had to be kept flat, I stole a truck to use the flatbed in the back :-/

It can go on your back but like you I usually just bunged it in a vehicle as well to save messing around in menus to make sure its flat. Floating carriers are useful as well for stuff that needs to stay flat.

goon_magee

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Ha, it came to the 2nd pizza request and i said **** right off :pac: will come back to it if i feel like it by the end.

There is a third as well! I said **** this as well when I seen the third one but I was going that way anyway in chapter 10 so figured I'd take it with me. Manys the time I asked the missus to stop in at the chippy for me on her way home from work so figured I'd pay the good deed forward!