Death Stranding

Zero-Cool

_CreeD_ wrote: »

Finished it this morning also. Absolutely loved it from beginning to end (if that wasn't obvious from previous posts). It's rare a game can actually make me feel anything and I won't lie

Chapter 14, with BB's theme playing (stunning version of it), had me on the edge of tears. I kept trying to use the 'soothe bb' function and took breaks on the trip thinking 'maybe it'll work this time'

. The visuals, audio, story and gameplay all came together to make something that shouldn't work so well do so brilliantly imho.

Exact same!

bugs

I came across a bridge in my instance, beside mamas lab. It doesn't go over water or any obstacles, it's actually a bit of a hindrance and it has over 10 million likes. I'm at a loss as to why!

Zero-Cool

bugs wrote: »

I came across a bridge in my instance, beside mamas lab. It doesn't go over water or any obstacles, it's actually a bit of a hindrance and it has over 10 million likes. I'm at a loss as to why!

I saw that during my time with it as well, it was at 5 million, thought it was surely a glitch as it was nothing special. Tried googling that bridge an all but found nothing.

OptimusTractor

So I was running away from MULES and was using a ladder. Stepped off the ladder and immediately fell to my death. Who the hell put that ladder there, went back to check & it was my ladder. Derp.

Penn

Started Chapter 3 last night. Only real complaint (bar the story which is just pure insanity at this point but that's a whole 'nother matter, plus pretty much every location being called 'XXX Knot City' or 'Waystation Near XXX Knot City' meaning I can barely remember which location is which) is it's not the easiest system for equipping/using weapons on the rare occasions you do have to use them. The blood bag auto-equips a new one when it runs out, but the grenades don't, instead forcing you to drop the empty one to equip a new one. I spent more time in that fight trying to figure that out than actually fighting.

Zero-Cool

Penn, same thing happened me with the grenades in that fight until someone on here told me you don't have to drop old ones. When you hold right on the d pad, you can click R3 to go to the next page of items and select a new grenade box. Annoying it doesn't auto equip new ones but beats dropping old ones first.

Fully agree on location names.

Penn

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Penn, same thing happened me with the grenades in that fight until someone on here told me you don't have to drop old ones. When you hold right on the d pad, you can click R3 to go to the next page of items and select a new grenade box. Annoying it doesn't auto equip new ones but beats dropping old ones first.

Nearly the hardest thing in that fight was other players kept appearing and dropping items for me. In a panic I was collecting pretty much everything, then ended up nearly overloaded.

Enjoying the game anyway. Excited to explore the new area. Haven't picked up too many standard orders yet but I'm sensing there'll be more back and forth as I go on so will try pick a few here and there.

OptimusTractor

OptimusTractor wrote: »

So I was running away from MULES and was using a ladder. Stepped off the ladder and immediately fell to my death. Who the hell put that ladder there, went back to check & it was my ladder. Derp.

Don't bother running from them, even when they have rifles you can just run up to them and batter them.

_CreeD_

Deleted User wrote: »

Don't bother running from them, even when they have rifles you can just run up to them and batter them.

Aye they really are a non-threat unless you get mobbed by 5-6 early on. Basic melee and strands are enough, and the Bola gun makes them trivial. They're just mobile resource farms .

Underground

I'm on episode 8 now. Hoping to finish it maybe this weekend if I have the time.

I love the story and the world of DS. This has all the mad Kojima story elements that I was looking for but didn't get in MGS5. The game is worth playing for the story and world alone.

I have to say though, parts of the game are dragging in for me. Wasn't really an issue until I got to mountainous / snowy regions where missions have become a chore.

The acting is mostly good. Mads is great, as is Higgs. This might be just me, but I really dislike the Mama voice acting. I can't quite put my finger on it but it sounds the least natural, very ham-fisted and over acted.

I also can't help but look at the whole "strand" gameplay as anything other than gimmicky. At the start I thought it was brilliant and wondered why more games don't do this. But what will this game play like in 3 years when only 5% of the people playing it now are still playing? The roads, bridges etc all deteriorate over time so the world will just revert to emptiness again no?

All that said, I'm glad there's interesting people like Kojima putting out games like this. I've seen some reviewers say that Horizon Zero Dawn is a better version of this game but I actually found HZD to be an absolute snoozefest, the exact same as most other open world games these days. At least this game tries something different.

OptimusTractor

Sam's lack of dialogue outside of story cutscenes is a tad annoying. It'd be nice if he actually engaged in some sort of conversion at least when you first meet a new strand character.

OptimusTractor

Underground wrote: »

All that said, I'm glad there's interesting people like Kojima putting out games like this. I've seen some reviewers say that Horizon Zero Dawn is a better version of this game but I actually found HZD to be an absolute snoozefest, the exact same as most other open world games these days. At least this game tries something different.

Any links to that. Games are polar opposites.

Zero-Cool

Underground wrote: »

I've seen some reviewers say that Horizon Zero Dawn is a better version of this game

one armed dwarf

Underground wrote: »

I'm on episode 8 now. Hoping to finish it maybe this weekend if I have the time.

I love the story and the world of DS. This has all the mad Kojima story elements that I was looking for but didn't get in MGS5. The game is worth playing for the story and world alone.

I have to say though, parts of the game are dragging in for me. Wasn't really an issue until I got to mountainous / snowy regions where missions have become a chore.

The acting is mostly good. Mads is great, as is Higgs. This might be just me, but I really dislike the Mama voice acting. I can't quite put my finger on it but it sounds the least natural, very ham-fisted and over acted.

I also can't help but look at the whole "strand" gameplay as anything other than gimmicky. At the start I thought it was brilliant and wondered why more games don't do this. But what will this game play like in 3 years when only 5% of the people playing it now are still playing? The roads, bridges etc all deteriorate over time so the world will just revert to emptiness again no?

All that said, I'm glad there's interesting people like Kojima putting out games like this. I've seen some reviewers say that Horizon Zero Dawn is a better version of this game but I actually found HZD to be an absolute snoozefest, the exact same as most other open world games these days. At least this game tries something different.

Agree and disagree with lots of this. The "strand" stuff feels like such a non-sequitur to me tbh. I don't feel the connection with other players at all and I think the game pulls in far too many other user creations. It should have been more selective of that stuff, seeing a user creation should have been like seeing a summon marker in Dark Souls or something. Not something you are seeing constantly.

The mountains section, at first I really liked setting up all the ziplines cause it was a new and interesting infrastructure challenge. But chapter 6 is nothing but that and it got very rote for me. The game is too long.

Disagree about Mama though. The character herself is very limited and uninteresting but I thought the actress did the most she could with a crap character.

At the end I was left wishing that this had more of a free-form BOTW structure. It would be much better than the way you're funneled into each new area for (terrible) story.

Still a great game.

Potential-Monke

So I gave up on this. I only managed to get to the third waystation, or point, or whatever, done all the dialogue stuff, set up for the next mission to the next waypoint. Got to the exit about to start the walk, and I just couldn't face it again. I understand that some people are enjoying the "traversal" parts, but to me they're absolutely boring. Hold both bottom shoulder buttons and go. Not hard. The BT parts were more annoying than anything imo, scan, move around, hold R1, scan, move around, hold R1... And the BB, even though it wasn't annoying yet, I could see it getting annoying, and the one story section where you're running to the waypoint to figure out what is happening to BB, the crying/upset noises were doing my head in. But I don't like kids, especially babies, so this was probably never going to work for me.

I'm really intrigued about the setting, the lore, etc, but the gameplay leaves this down imo. I'll probably watch a story video on YouTube to see what the craic is.

In complete opposite to Underground, I think HZD done this way better and was far more interesting, instantly grabbing me and not letting go until the end. But Death Stranding doesn't appreciate my time. It's a sneaking game really, in the beginning at least (no idea if you can actually take on the BT's at any stage), but with lots of lonely walking around inbetween. And the like system, as previously mentioned, is not for me either. It feels forced, and the story also does feel forced, 'we need to reconnect for the future of humanity'... Feels like i'm playing Facebook: The Game at times.

Again, I can see why people would like it, but I need to echo the sentiments of others, it's a boring game. Maybe i'll wait for some fan to do a mod and turn it into an action game instead. Might be good then.

Zero-Cool

I highly recommend looking up a story video on YouTube. It still not might be you're cuppa as I've seen people love/hate the gameplay and love/hate the story separately. I feel very lucky that i loved both and got a huge sense of enjoyment out of this game.

Potential-Monke

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Again, I can see why people would like it, but I need to echo the sentiments of others, it's a boring game. Maybe i'll wait for some fan to do a mod and turn it into an action game instead. Might be good then.

You get the rocket launcher towards the end if you could stick it out. Lots of guns available as you get past chapters 4&5.

sticker

Potential-Monke wrote: »

So I gave up on this. I only managed to get to the third waystation, or point, or whatever, done all the dialogue stuff, set up for the next mission to the next waypoint. Got to the exit about to start the walk, and I just couldn't face it again. I understand that some people are enjoying the "traversal" parts, but to me they're absolutely boring. Hold both bottom shoulder buttons and go. Not hard. The BT parts were more annoying than anything imo, scan, move around, hold R1, scan, move around, hold R1... And the BB, even though it wasn't annoying yet, I could see it getting annoying, and the one story section where you're running to the waypoint to figure out what is happening to BB, the crying/upset noises were doing my head in. But I don't like kids, especially babies, so this was probably never going to work for me.

I'm really intrigued about the setting, the lore, etc, but the gameplay leaves this down imo. I'll probably watch a story video on YouTube to see what the craic is.

In complete opposite to Underground, I think HZD done this way better and was far more interesting, instantly grabbing me and not letting go until the end. But Death Stranding doesn't appreciate my time. It's a sneaking game really, in the beginning at least (no idea if you can actually take on the BT's at any stage), but with lots of lonely walking around inbetween. And the like system, as previously mentioned, is not for me either. It feels forced, and the story also does feel forced, 'we need to reconnect for the future of humanity'... Feels like i'm playing Facebook: The Game at times.

Again, I can see why people would like it, but I need to echo the sentiments of others, it's a boring game. Maybe i'll wait for some fan to do a mod and turn it into an action game instead. Might be good then.

Nailed it there. My thoughts exactly

Potential-Monke

Deleted User wrote: »

You get the rocket launcher towards the end if you could stick it out. Lots of guns available as you get past chapters 4&5.

I couldn't keep going. The idea of spending another 20+ minutes holding forward and R2/L2, with maybe a sneaking section to make the progress slower, just couldn't bring myself to keep going. I do appreciate that it's deliberately this way, but like other games of it's ilk, it's not what I look for. Can't say I didn't try it at least!

OptimusTractor

Soundtrack for Blade Runner 2049 syncs perfectly with this.

DarC_Kn1ght

Wow, what a masterpiece this is.
60hrs and didnt want it to end. Now to get the platinum.

F1ngers

Finished this last night, loved it.

Earlier in the game I spent a stupid amount of time/resources building roads in both regions(central/mountains), connected them too.

About 2hrs later I get

zip-lines

, :pac::pac:
Will start building a

zip-line

network and tidy up the remaining trophies.

Gyan84

Finished building my road network on wednesday so went back to the story last night. Got hooked so went from chapter 8 to the start of chapter 12. Have absolutely no clue what's going on.

One question that others who finished it might know

What was Sam's relation to Amelie meant to be originally ? They just explained that Bridget had cervical cancer so she couldn't have children but I was under the impression that Sam was Bridget's son and Amelie was his sister but that wouldn't explain why Amelie is fully grown in the flashback to young Sam on the beach.

Maybe I'm not meant to know that yet and the final reveal is that Sam really is Mario :pac:

goon_magee

Gyan84 wrote: »

Finished building my road network on wednesday so went back to the story last night. Got hooked so went from chapter 8 to the start of chapter 12. Have absolutely no clue what's going on.

One question that others who finished it might know

What was Sam's relation to Amelie meant to be originally ? They just explained that Bridget had cervical cancer so she couldn't have children but I was under the impression that Sam was Bridget's son and Amelie was his sister but that wouldn't explain why Amelie is fully grown in the flashback to young Sam on the beach.

Maybe I'm not meant to know that yet and the final reveal is that Sam really is Mario :pac:

The last few hours will answer that question

Penn

I'm enjoying the gameplay as a whole, but feck me Chapter 3 is becoming a real slog. Road network coming along slowly, can't be bothered with standard orders even if I'm heading back that direction because I need to keep enough cargo space for metals and ceramics for the road, and my cargo gets ridiculously high on my back with all the ammo for both BTs and mules since I'm going back and forth over territories for both all the time, or don't know if even though one mission doesn't require anti-BT weapons, if the next one will and I'd have to go back for them if I didn't have them with me.

Only plus side is I looked up how to properly deal with Mules (didn't know you had to kick them after hitting with the Bolo so was constantly just having to run away). So finally managed to clear two mule camps and loot the road supplies (as much as I could fit in the trucks anyway).

But yeah, have to do a mission for the junker at the minute, and I swear the end to this chapter better be soon. I've heard it's pretty much the longest chapter anyway, I just really want to progress past this bit at this stage. It's really sapping the energy out of the game.

Grumpypants

Finally got back into it and moved on from chapter 3. Ploughed through 4 and 5. Amazing.

Got my Bridges truck too, that yoke can carry so much.

Zero-Cool

Penn, yupp 3 is long enough and if road building is becoming a slog, forget it. Ignore standing orders and materials for building, stick to orders for Sam. Always check the shared garage as i always had access to multiple bikes and take them. Don't forget the bike can jump over rough terrain a bit with x.

If progress are enjoying the building in 3, great, but if not it's not essential. 4 is such a crazy chapter and worth getting to. 5 & 6 brings new terrain challenges and after that it's short story focused chapters (compared to 3). Well worth getting through.

Gyan84

Finished it last night. The story really is a wild ride :pac: I still can't believe that all those weird trailers they showed off over the years came together to make an actual game.

It's probably beaten out Fire Emblem as my game of the year. Think I'll go for the platinum now. I'll have to build some ziplines to get to the preppers in the mountains and the elder but once I do that it should be easy enough.

Chapter 8 was probably my favourite out of all of them.

The game focuses on the grand theme of the death stranding in general for so long that bringing it back down to one man in Heartman was a nice change of pace.

Two things I'm still confused about though

When Sam gets sucked up into the storms and fights Cliff, is Cliff actually searching for Sam or does he still think his BB is the one in the pod ?

Also why would they let die-hardman be the president ? After Bridget/Amelie and Higgs he's the most morally corrupt character in the game. He goes along with using BB's as sacrifices, gets Cliff killed through his half hearted support of his escape and then engages with the deceit of Sam to get him to run across the country after a hologram. But he feels bad about it so let's make him President ?

Zero-Cool

Gyan

1. Not sure, something i think about as well. I like to think he is after Sam as he knows that is his BB. If not he could go after anyway that uses a BB but specifically is coming for Sam. Sam's BB is perfect red herring here i think.

2. Politics :pac:

Gyan84

Zero-Cool wrote: »

Gyan

1. Not sure, something i think about as well. I like to think he is after Sam as he knows that is his BB. If not he could go after anyway that uses a BB but specifically is coming for Sam. Sam's BB is perfect red herring here i think.

2. Politics :pac:

Fair enough on point 2 I suppose :pac:

Die-Hardman was probably my least favourite character overall. Everyone else seems to go on a personal journey or examine their views like Deadman with the BBs but Die-Hardman does horrible things and just has to deal with the guilt for a short amount of time. Maybe it's meant to be realistic in the sense that leadership positions attract the ruthless since Bridget/Amelie wasn't exactly well balanced either.

I guess it's possible that Cliff doesn't realize the amount of time that's passed since his death because the part where he talks to you in the hospital seems to be his first moment of true understanding. Still seems a bit weird in retrospect that he spends most of his screen time spraying bullets at his BB.