Death Stranding - New Kojima game

Wow.. you literally deliver a pizza in this game.. and its a main quest/delivery too. Hilarious.
 
I think the reality is that it's hard to say whether or not you'll like the game. I enjoy it and consider it fun, but many people may not, and I would understand why.

I don't really have any affinity for Kojima one way or the other. I really liked MGSV, and enjoyed MGS/MGS2 from what I remember. MGS4 felt tedious and I don't think I ever finished it. Never got around to MGS3.

I think the concept for Death Stranding is pretty interesting, but I don't know how popular it will be long-term as a "genre". I'm more interested in the story and general atmosphere of the game.
 
I put like 9 hours into the game today and got zero done in the story.. like I don't think I heard Sam speak once other than when I accidently hit the touch pad to make him yell pleasantries to those in another online dimension.

I did build a shitton of roads across central America though and some other structures to help myself and others out. It's a good thing I don't mind grindy games because this one is certainly a grind. Even with roads and vehicles available most of the time, I still didn't get all deliveries done in Act 3. I also only ran into BTs like twice and they were on the outskirts of the map as I was building roads out. So I guess they kind of clear out as you build roads through places.

I'm not sure if there's any real consequence or if it's intended, but I claimed a lot of materials (mostly ceramics and metals) from bases in order to dump into the roads. I got the other half from raiding mule bases. Those guys are zero threat to me too; I go in and Rambo the shit out of their base, just mash square on the first one, then pickup whatever case he drops and use it to one-hit KO the next guy and repeat until the base is clear. I ran into a couple guys that have a shield or something though so you can't punch them, then I just use my hog-tie gun and kick them. Then I get to spend the next 20 mins hauling loot back and forth to the nearest base to stash in my private locker, then to the next section of roads I'm working on.

Not sure if it's a lot, but I'm over 50k likes now because of the roads. If only you could monetize in-game somehow.

Anyways, I really hope the story is halfway worth all this work, because right now I'm kinda right there with IGN's 6.8/10 score and that's with the help of a lot of others online.
 
Yeah the MULES are a joke, even many of them attacking you at once is manageable by just parrying with the Strand and then tying them up. It's almost laughably easy, but they also have far too few areas to hide from them and they spot you almost immediately from a huge distance, so whatever.

Building the roads is really nice, very helpful. I stole a MULE truck and just drove around super fast over the roads. It's great for having to backtrack through areas.

I honestly don't know if doing all the side stuff is worthwhile - progression in the story seems to be solely based on the main missions, but I guess the more deliveries you do in general, the more carrying capacity and stuff you get when you level up your skills. Getting "likes" only seems to boost your Bridge stat, which just makes you able to do Strand Contracts and other semi-coop stuff, but I don't think it really unlocks anything for you. I guess the Strand Contracts make it so you see certain peoples' items more frequently in game, so you want to contract with people who have a ton of likes so you will see the most useful items.
 
I thought about this when I first played the game:




Lol, that's awesome. I can never get used to seeing this much crap on someone's back and would be impressed to see anyone somehow carry 500+ lbs for any significant distance or amount of time on their back like Sam does here. It's even funnier to see it while riding a bike:

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I spent some obscene amount of time building roads and doing side deliveries and whatnot to get upgrades this weekend. I don't know why I am compelled to keep playing this, because it does seem really monotonous and tedious and times, but I keep playing it.

I am starting to get to a point where I wish the story would progress a bit more. It's starting to be pretty stagnant where it's just like "go to this new place, then backtrack to this other place, then go to a farther place, then backtrack all the way back to the start of the area" kind of stuff. So far no real new story cutscenes or info in several hours of gameplay which is disappointing.
 
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Finally got past chapter 3...very long periods of threadbare story content in that part, unfortunately. Starting to get to some more interesting stuff.

Still trying to rebuild all the roads...it's a good way to get a lot of likes, as well as strategically placed generators and timefall shelters and such.

Does anyone know if there is a point to carrying the Anti-BT gun once you get the Handgun lvl 2 that can use hematic bullets? The game isn't clear on if one is more powerful than the other, or if they're the same, or what. The handgun holds more ammo and can be used against humans as well if needed.
 
Are any of you mashing the like button as much as possible? You know you can do that, right? I can do at least 120 likes at a time.
 
Any idea how long an area stays clear? I'm still in chapter two because I don't play much. I've knocked out the MULEs in their two camps and those camps seem to have remained vacant for a long time. I'm considering loading up with weaponry and letting myself get sucked into a BT battle if it's going to make backtracking that much easier, but since I still don't have much weaponry (just heme 'nades, etc.), I'm not sure if that's possible yet.

Edit: Watched a video that didn't seems to spoil anything but talked about voiding or killing BTs. Found that slowly creeping and looking around revealed the position of the BTs, which allows you to strategically move around.
 
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Is it even possible to "clear" an area of BTs? I wasn't aware that was a thing.

You get something pretty great for handling BTs about halfway through chapter 5.

Also, you are really going to want to progress to at least chapter 3. You start getting some really good equipment and you can always go back to previous areas.
 
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Did the last delivery, dropped package 1/2 way through... had to literally go back and get it, and died twice doing that. Almost 3 hours later, finally able to finish the game. I didn't find it that boring, and actually had a decent time clobbering people to collect mats to rebuild the highway. Story was weird, but stuck with it and the ending i enjoyed.


Be careful last mission, at one part you will drop everything and have to pick it back up... don't forget lol
 
The one thing I don't like about rebuilding the roads is that it generates very few likes compared to other items, while also requiring the most resources / effort to rebuild.

Plus, I've rebuilt at least half a dozen segments now, possibly more, and I've only ever seen like, one other segment of road completed by other users. Wtf? Usually the roads will have *some* resources put into them, but I would expect to see more from Strand Contracts and other users.
 
The one thing I don't like about rebuilding the roads is that it generates very few likes compared to other items, while also requiring the most resources / effort to rebuild.

Plus, I've rebuilt at least half a dozen segments now, possibly more, and I've only ever seen like, one other segment of road completed by other users. Wtf? Usually the roads will have *some* resources put into them, but I would expect to see more from Strand Contracts and other users.

Yikes, you got paired with some losers. I did probably 6 or 7 sections on my own, and some other nerds apparently finished the rest. We had like the whole system built except for connection to lake knot city.
 
Yikes, you got paired with some losers. I did probably 6 or 7 sections on my own, and some other nerds apparently finished the rest. We had like the whole system built except for connection to lake knot city.

That's bizarre, all of my strand contracts have like 100k+ likes, some over 300-400k. I would think that at least a few of them would have completed some roads.

Kinda sucks, I wish the game would prioritize roads since it's something static in all instances and I'm sure someone else has completed them.

EDIT: It actually pisses me off the more I think about it, because I have zero roads through the mountain area where it would arguably be the most useful. The fuck, game?

It also makes me angry that some road segments cost just as many resources but are like half or less the length of others.
 
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That's bizarre, all of my strand contracts have like 100k+ likes, some over 300-400k. I would think that at least a few of them would have completed some roads.

Kinda sucks, I wish the game would prioritize roads since it's something static in all instances and I'm sure someone else has completed them.

EDIT: It actually pisses me off the more I think about it, because I have zero roads through the mountain area where it would arguably be the most useful. The fuck, game?

It also makes me angry that some road segments cost just as many resources but are like half or less the length of others.


Yea the segment heading north to mountains is like 4x the price as some other segments. Also some of the segments just end in a cliff, and trying to turn truck around is a huge PITA.
 
Yea the segment heading north to mountains is like 4x the price as some other segments. Also some of the segments just end in a cliff, and trying to turn truck around is a huge PITA.

Yeah, I am not a huge fan of that. I wish it would show you roughly how far some of the segments go before you put the resources in. For instance, the stretch between the little mountain area near the Cosplayer and Mama's Lab is pretty pointless to build a road, since it's just a flat desert area between the two.
 
I must say, the mountains are kind of annoying the fuck out of me. I think I'm getting close to the end, though.
 
Just completed the main story after ~50 hours. What a ride.

Great game overall with some massive pacing issues mid-game. It's basically a bunch of cutscenes, then about 30 hours of story-poor deliveries, then a bunch more cutscenes, with some decent-ish fights thrown in.
 
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Just completed the main story after ~50 hours. What a ride.

Great game overall with some massive pacing issues mid-game. It's basically a bunch of cutscenes, then about 30 hours of story-poor deliveries, then a bunch more cutscenes, with some decent-ish fights thrown in.

Hah, nice.. I'm still stuck in that 30 hour section grinding away on deliveries in central America and not too motivated to keep going through it since I haven't seen a cut scene or any story whatsoever in the last 20 hours at least. I'm not sure how Kojima thought that was a good idea to have that much of a break in the story given that this is definitely not a game-play or skill oriented game.

I can tell you I had a shit ton more fun doing missions in MGS5 than I have had doing deliveries in this at least, and MGS5 still didn't have anywhere near this long of a break in the main story either.
 
Hah, nice.. I'm still stuck in that 30 hour section grinding away on deliveries in central America and not too motivated to keep going through it since I haven't seen a cut scene or any story whatsoever in the last 20 hours at least. I'm not sure how Kojima thought that was a good idea to have that much of a break in the story given that this is definitely not a game-play or skill oriented game.

I can tell you I had a shit ton more fun doing missions in MGS5 than I have had doing deliveries in this at least, and MGS5 still didn't have anywhere near this long of a break in the main story either.

I would honestly recommend not bothering to do too much of the road rebuilding and stuff, though if you get a continuous road from Lake Knot to close to South Knot, that can be pretty helpful (and in the later game, too, where you have to backtrack because yep...this game does that). I didn't bother with most of the mountain roads, because realistically you spend a lot of time in areas where there is no ability to build roads, anyway.

Also, you want to progress enough to get the PCC lvl 2, which lets you build ziplines...very useful, and if you get some good strand contracts you might already have part of a network set up by other people.

Once you get into the mountains the pace starts to pick up a little bit, but I would still just keep progressing forward and not spend a lot of time grinding those delivery points. Most of the time I spent in Chapter 3 was grinding for road rebuilds and upgraded equipment, which...can be fairly useful but not necessary, ultimately.

Probably I could have shaved off about 5-10 hours or so and been alright.

Still...even with the game being finished, I do feel compelled to keep playing post-game a bit, just to get some upgraded stuff and mess around in the world a bit.
 
IGN salty that Death Stranding was winning their user GOTY poll, so they took the poll down entirely.


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IGN gave the game a 6.8 because the reviewer complained about how traversal was too difficult.
 
To be frank, their PS4 poll sucked and none of the games on there were anywhere near Death Stranding in terms of quality.

I don't understand why it's so cool to hate on DS - sure, the core gameplay loop is not for everyone, but it's still a quality-made game. Never encountered a single bug in the whole experience, and everything just oozes polish.
 
IGN salty that Death Stranding was winning their user GOTY poll, so they took the poll down entirely.


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IGN gave the game a 6.8 because the reviewer complained about how traversal was too difficult.

So is that Mod an actual IGN employee or just a volunteer mod for the forum/poll? Because the "I applaud IGN..." line makes it sound like he's not with them since it would sound tacky to applaud your own employer or business. And I would think a real employee would use their real name on the forum like any other site I've seen.

Anyways, it's odd that they still named Death Stranding as the best PS4 game of the year if they did indeed take that poll down prematurely.



I'm amazed that Days Gone didn't even make it into the conversation there though, which I actually haven't played yet but it still got a better score on IGN and seemed to be much more well received than DS.
 
So is that Mod an actual IGN employee or just a volunteer mod for the forum/poll? Because the "I applaud IGN..." line makes it sound like he's not with them since it would sound tacky to applaud your own employer or business. And I would think a real employee would use their real name on the forum like any other site I've seen.

Anyways, it's odd that they still named Death Stranding as the best PS4 game of the year if they did indeed take that poll down prematurely.



I'm amazed that Days Gone didn't even make it into the conversation there though, which I actually haven't played yet but it still got a better score on IGN and seemed to be much more well received than DS.

While days gone was cool it didn't get the reception that they were expecting. It really did underperform compared to other PS4 exclusives.
 
To be frank, their PS4 poll sucked and none of the games on there were anywhere near Death Stranding in terms of quality.

for my style, it was a crap year for ps4 games :(

DS is the shakespeare in love of ps4 GOTYs.
 
I've really been enjoying the game because I apparently like games where I do some mindless tasks for a while and then watch some story bits. It's a fairly relaxing game because the bad guys aren't particularly difficult probably because I carry a buncha grenades. I was on chapter 3, built out tons of roads, suddenly chapter 4, build more roads, suddenly chapter 6. Wading through the snow over a mountain range was the dumbest thing I've done. After about 2-3 times of me thinking I'm going to travel a straight line between two points, I think I'm done with that. Pretty sure they strategically put BTs in areas they know you'll try to go instead of taking what you think is the long way around. In the time it took me to wade through the snow, I could have just gone back around the way I came.

Anyway, I think I'm on chapter 6 and the story has gotten more interesting. GOTTA BUILD ROADS. Seriously makes things easier.

I put like 9 hours into the game today and got zero done in the story.. like I don't think I heard Sam speak once other than when I accidently hit the touch pad to make him yell pleasantries to those in another online dimension.

I did build a shitton of roads across central America though and some other structures to help myself and others out. It's a good thing I don't mind grindy games because this one is certainly a grind. Even with roads and vehicles available most of the time, I still didn't get all deliveries done in Act 3. I also only ran into BTs like twice and they were on the outskirts of the map as I was building roads out. So I guess they kind of clear out as you build roads through places.

I'm not sure if there's any real consequence or if it's intended, but I claimed a lot of materials (mostly ceramics and metals) from bases in order to dump into the roads. I got the other half from raiding mule bases. Those guys are zero threat to me too; I go in and Rambo the shit out of their base, just mash square on the first one, then pickup whatever case he drops and use it to one-hit KO the next guy and repeat until the base is clear. I ran into a couple guys that have a shield or something though so you can't punch them, then I just use my hog-tie gun and kick them. Then I get to spend the next 20 mins hauling loot back and forth to the nearest base to stash in my private locker, then to the next section of roads I'm working on.

Not sure if it's a lot, but I'm over 50k likes now because of the roads. If only you could monetize in-game somehow.

Anyways, I really hope the story is halfway worth all this work, because right now I'm kinda right there with IGN's 6.8/10 score and that's with the help of a lot of others online.
I take all the metals and ceramics I can get from distro centers and friendlies and use them on the roads because I don't find myself using those materials for much else. Ceramics always seem more difficult to come by; if the MULE camp has ceramics, I'll stomp those guys, hijack their truck and load it up with all their materials.:LOL: They always seem to have the ceramics I need to finish building out roads.
 
roads are cool and all, but my zipline network in the mountains was legit.
 
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They just patched it recently to not require you to have to watch the odradek animation every time you enter into BT territory, which...would have been nice to have through my initial playthrough. Glad they finally did add it, though. I guess you can change the behavior in the options.
 
I've been wondering if roads or certain zip lines are intentionally left out of your world. None of my roads were already built, but some had materials contributed, I finished off all but one road segment in my current game and I was surprised to see that one segment was completed when I started a new chapter. I find it interesting that zip line towers exist that don't connect to anything, but I can find a spot that connects two different zip line towers. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but it seems that some things are absent from your game so that you're forced to contribute, which is fine.

roads are cool and all, but my zipline network in the mountains was legit.
After meeting with Heartman I have become enlightened of the zip lines and religiously contribute. Tons easier to build compared to roads. I love jumping on one and easily speeding around to all of the locations.

They just patched it recently to not require you to have to watch the odradek animation every time you enter into BT territory, which...would have been nice to have through my initial playthrough. Glad they finally did add it, though. I guess you can change the behavior in the options.
I got a kick out of that update because last week I was looking for a way to turn off that animation. Super annoying when you're making repeated trips on roads.

I really need to play this again... I couldn't get past the first 2 hours of the game.
I think I know how you feel because it does start out a bit slow. I don't know how many hours I put in just building the roads and delivering stuff until it really picked up. The game picks up after chapter 3 or 4, then suddenly you're in chapter 6 or 7. Maybe I just got more efficient at deciding what was important to do (avoiding deliveries to people that weren't giving me gear upgrades).
 
I've been wondering if roads or certain zip lines are intentionally left out of your world. None of my roads were already built, but some had materials contributed, I finished off all but one road segment in my current game and I was surprised to see that one segment was completed when I started a new chapter. I find it interesting that zip line towers exist that don't connect to anything, but I can find a spot that connects two different zip line towers. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but it seems that some things are absent from your game so that you're forced to contribute, which is fine.

From what I can gather, the more areas you connect to the network, the more materials will show up on the roads. I think other users can also contribute if they're connected to you. Sometimes they can be completed naturally by some combination of things, but usually you have to finish them yourself. I think that is done on purpose in most cases.

Kind of the same deal with other shared resources, it's semi-random but if you form strand contracts you can make it more likely to see a certain person's stuff. So if you see a zipline or two that look like they are in a good place, maybe form a strand contract with that player to try to get the complete network. Usually you're not going to see a full network, though, because even with the contract it's still not a complete set of their stuff (makes sense because you only have a certain amount of chiral bandwidth in any given area, anyway).
 
Just finished the game. I was surprised when it said I played for 92 hours, but I typically do whatever is necessary to make a game easier, so I built out roads and ziplines and did deliveries that got me better item blueprints and odradek functionality. I liked how the story progressed and characters developed and the ending portion was interesting if not bizarre.
 
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