***Death Stranding***

Soldato
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Played (watched) a few hours of this today and tbh I have no real idea what it’s all about but it’s very moreish. Something wants me to play on even though I can’t say I’m really enjoying it that much. I’m not a Kojima fan and think his stuff is massively overrated but this is just beyond weird that it’s intriguing.
 
Soldato
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Finally got to play this over Christmas - utterly brilliant so far! Nearly rank/level 200 now, and can honestly say, it is quite addictive - and such a time sink it's unreal - I often think "just one more mission" and find that another hour goes in no time :D I must admit, the story/lore seem the usual far-fetched mental Kojima nonsense, so I've tried my best to not bother trying to decipher that - but it's certainly hasn't hurt the gameplay experience for me.

I do quite like the whole feeling of being connected to other players and helping them out - I wasn't sure I would like that, as finding ladders, ropes and bridges everywhere felt a bit like cheating - but it works really well! A few times now, my bacon has been saved by a well placed charger, shelter or discarded item of equipment. And helping to rebuild a road has been great - that thing really helped move around the second area!

That fact I haven't touched another game over Christmas, just shows me what a draw this one is!

@neoglow many thanks for this!
 
Caporegime
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I've given it a bit more of a chance, seems a bit repetitive/tedious although the story and sense of progress is enough to keep you hooked. It's a lot better once you reach the second zone but the vehicle physics is annoying, even if you only run into a tennis ball sized pebble the bike often acts like you've driven into a brick wall.
 
Soldato
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I don't see the appeal to be honest.

Played 3 hours and found the bones of a good idea but the gameplay is tedious and the story is nonsense.

Not for me but fair play to those who like it. The minute I saw a character was called Die-Hardman they lost me. :)
 
Soldato
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The minute I saw a character was called Die-Hardman they lost me

Yeah, the nutjob naming is all there, Kojima style - wasn't there something in MGS4 called the la-le-lu-lay-le or something equally daft :D

For me though, if I ignore the oddities of his storytelling, and focus on the game - I get plenty of enjoyment out of it. Even going for a virtual hike is enjoyable - spent a good hour or so just hiking up a snowy mountain in the second area - and it became quickly apparent that I was very ill equipped! But I found some really odd settlement, and what looked like the remains of old sky scrapers.

It's probably the first real Marmite game I can recall tbh.
 
Soldato
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I don't see the appeal to be honest.

Played 3 hours and found the bones of a good idea but the gameplay is tedious and the story is nonsense.

Not for me but fair play to those who like it. The minute I saw a character was called Die-Hardman they lost me. :)
If you've only played 3 hours then it's no wonder you feel the story is nonsense, the game doesn't even get started till the end of Episode 3.
 
Caporegime
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Yeah, the nutjob naming is all there, Kojima style - wasn't there something in MGS4 called the la-le-lu-lay-le or something equally daft :D
The most hilarious aspect of Kojima stories is that you can find people defending them as "making complete sense". You can find them all over the internet.

Ultimately, I love the Kojima MGS games, but the stories (whilst well-presented and fun) have always been utterly bonkers, like a drug fuelled hallucination.

Does it all make sense by the end then?
If it's Kojima, don't count on it :D
 
Caporegime
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I got to the mission to deliver the pizza/wine from the farm by hand and feel like it's just taking the **** now.

Another annoyance is that I spent loads of time building roads and not only do they go long routes everywhere but even though you are supposedly travelling twice as fast you only seem to cover half as much ground in the same amount of time. It feels like things have been slowed down to allow the console to render everything in time.
 
Soldato
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I got to the mission to deliver the pizza/wine from the farm by hand and feel like it's just taking the **** now.

Another annoyance is that I spent loads of time building roads and not only do they go long routes everywhere but even though you are supposedly travelling twice as fast you only seem to cover half as much ground in the same amount of time. It feels like things have been slowed down to allow the console to render everything in time.

I get why it's frustrating, but I love it. It's a game where the whole point is the journey, so why rush it. I usually hate open world games as I don't want to deal with all the faff in the middle of the missions, but Death Stranding is all about the faff and everything else is pretty superfluous. For some reason it really suits me but I totally get why it's not loved by all.
 
Soldato
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Another annoyance is that I spent loads of time building roads and not only do they go long routes everywhere but even though you are supposedly travelling twice as fast you only seem to cover half as much ground in the same amount of time. It feels like things have been slowed down to allow the console to render everything in time.

Not had any issues on the Pro. But I think the point of rebuilding the roads, is to make traversal of the maps easier - certainly towards the bottom of the second map - there is plenty of terrain that is tricky/near impossible to navigate by vehicle.
 
Soldato
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I've just hit the penultimate chapter - going to put some more hours into it this evening. I expect I'll be playing some free-roam post game as I go on a little trophy hunt and I'm obsessed with getting and even bigger Zipline network!
 
Caporegime
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I've reached the mountains and it just seems to have become a massive drag, no baby and there are BT's everywhere, there's rocks hidden under the snow, the water stream you have to cross is red almost everywhere. I can see the attraction behind just putting zip lines everywhere but it seems a bit of a cheat to me.
 
Caporegime
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I persevered until the end I think the story telling was much better than the game play, I'm glad I finished it but can't see it being a game I ever want to play through again. I suppose I should praise the imagination and daring to try something different.
 
Associate
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So I've recently started playing Death Stranding, and it definitely isn't what i was expecting. Visually its amazing, and the story telling so far i've enjoyed albeit a bit confusing lol, i just think i may lose interest as the game progresses as from what I've read on here its just a bunch of fetch quests. I'm only 5 hours in, so the question is does it pickup momentum a lot? I also find the the game has a massively over complicated menu system, and i really have to squint to read some of the instructions/messages as they are just so small.
 
Soldato
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Currently enjoying this, great visuals and the quirkyness of it I find appealing, and the music is fantastic (although that's probably because it features one of my favourite artists ever).

What was really ruining things for me was the online aspect, all the stupid signs etc littering the landscape left by others. It would have been nice to help towards building roads and bridges but there was no separation between them, you either have it all on or all off, so I'm playing offline.

Have to admire as stated above the imagination of it all.
 
Associate
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What was really ruining things for me was the online aspect, all the stupid signs etc littering the landscape left by others. It would have been nice to help towards building roads and bridges but there was no separation between them, you either have it all on or all off, so I'm playing offline.
Tell me about, so many random signs and it almost feels like i'm cheating if i use someone else's bridge lol. I think i might have to try it offline as well.
 
Soldato
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What was really ruining things for me was the online aspect, all the stupid signs etc littering the landscape left by others. It would have been nice to help towards building roads and bridges but there was no separation between them, you either have it all on or all off, so I'm playing offline.

That's why I played offline from the beginning.
Didn't feel like...
A) having my landscape ruined by everyone's goofy signs.
B) needing other's help for beating the game
 
Soldato
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Just picked this up for the wife and I to play on the PS4 Pro in the evenings. We got to Episode 2 last night and we are absolutely in love with it already. We love slow atmospheric games like this. Any beginner tips that I should be aware of?
 
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