Death Stranding
- Thread starter HKZonda
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I also thought it was pretty enjoyable. Funny though because I can't stand most open world games and usually find them incredibly repetitive. I guess this was different enough with a fun story.For balance I fancied a second play thorough so I've bought the directors cut upgrade for a fiver
I also thought the music was so good I bought the album from the artist!
Ziplines are better than expected. I wrongly assumed that you could only go down them (with gravity), but I forgot this is Kojimaland. You can just as easily go uphill on a zipline (it's magic).
The mountains aren't so much a problem after building a network of ziplines (although the initial time investment is sizeable). What has started to really cheese me off is Sam stopping every 2 mins to say he needs to rest. Even if you've just slept in a private room. Get to the top of any hill and like clockwork he drops to his knees for 10 seconds leaving the player unable to do anything at all.
And that's with the L3 all-terrain exoskeleton, which I thought was supposed to prevent fatigue (it clearly doesn't).
I quit tonight after triggering another boss fight, this one with 10 mins of cutscenes in the middle of it. It wouldn't let me save, so I'm guessing I have to rewatch all of that tomorrow...
Hopefully I'm close to the end, now. When I complete it I'm officially one of the top 20% masochists alive today.
The mountains aren't so much a problem after building a network of ziplines (although the initial time investment is sizeable). What has started to really cheese me off is Sam stopping every 2 mins to say he needs to rest. Even if you've just slept in a private room. Get to the top of any hill and like clockwork he drops to his knees for 10 seconds leaving the player unable to do anything at all.
And that's with the L3 all-terrain exoskeleton, which I thought was supposed to prevent fatigue (it clearly doesn't).
I quit tonight after triggering another boss fight, this one with 10 mins of cutscenes in the middle of it. It wouldn't let me save, so I'm guessing I have to rewatch all of that tomorrow...
Hopefully I'm close to the end, now. When I complete it I'm officially one of the top 20% masochists alive today.
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@FoxEye
A true inspiration.
I can't play until get off work in a couple of days, but your pain is egging me on to push on through.
I most definitely will be leaving a negative review on steam if/when I finish it. Not that it matters much any more.
If MGSV was crack, DS is like uncooked broccoli.
A true inspiration.
I can't play until get off work in a couple of days, but your pain is egging me on to push on through.
I most definitely will be leaving a negative review on steam if/when I finish it. Not that it matters much any more.
If MGSV was crack, DS is like uncooked broccoli.
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I loved reading that, simply because every time it started getting all 'serious' in it's explanation, the whole thing would just fall down as I'd just shout out "but he's a POSTMAN!" What a WASTE of all that writing/information lol.It's.... complex
Death Stranding: What The Title Actually Means
Death Stranding's title actually means something beyond just sounding mysterious, and we break down everything behind the name of 2019's biggest game.screenrant.com
I mean can you imagine an epic Arnie film of that nature, but instead it's postman Pat just faffing about...
@Fubsy quick update for you 
Last boss fight was stupid easy and much easier than earlier fights.
Then spent an ungodly amount of time doing deliveries to max out all the known preppers and distro centres.
Some fun was had building zipline networks and integrating online networks.
Sadly, the stupid annoyances keep flaring up to make the game much more frustrating than it should be.
1. The controls can be downright awful. So many buttons have multiple uses. A good example is the carrier that you get. Normally L1 and R1 make you brace for rough terrain. If you have a carrier with you, 50% of the time you'll just pick up cargo from the carrier instead, before falling over because you didn't brace.
2. The game is super, super inconsistent about what terrain is safe and what isn't. Sam randomly falls over a blade of grass and breaks all his cargo, after having no issues scaling a sodding mountain. But it was clearly a super dangerous blade of grass. He also likes to fall over when dismounting from ladders. I actually avoid all ladders now because of how unpredictable the dismount is.
3. The cutscenes and unskippable debrief screens. Also unskippable fade-to-black where you spend 30s watching Sam drop to his knees and lose consciousness (and is fully unskippable no matter what).
4. The rate of decay of things you build. Kojima wants you to spend fully half your playtime rebuilding things you'd already built, because he's decided they will decay that quickly. Just, why? Some things decay stupidly quickly. I put a climbing anchor in near one prepper and went off and did his mission, when I came back it had already disappeared.
5. The constant rain that degrades buildings, vehicles and items. In my game it won't stop sodding raining. After 5 mins everything you're carrying is ruined. Who thought that would be fun...
6. The insistence that you return to base for Sam to sleep every 30 mins or so. If you don't, he becomes increasingly fragile and useless. The game will keep spamming you with, "Rest is advised! Rest is advised! Rest is advised!" Sure Kojima, it's such fun to go back to base so I can watch the shower cutscene over and over. Good times. I'd much rather be doing that than anything else in the game, sure.
7. The stupid human enemies. Stealth is so ***** in this game. You get pinged no matter what you do, or how well you prepare and disable all their sensors. As you walk around one of them will just randomly start pinging and then all of them descend on you. You can't just take one out and get in and get out, because as soon as you try the others spot the downed guy from wherever they are, and then everybody pings you over and over. Also any time you waste trying to stealth is time your buildings are decaying. Sooner or later you realise you just need to do things as quickly as possible because the clock is always ticking. Spend an hour planning to stealthily infiltrate and that's an hour of decay on all your structures. Better to just run and gun and be done in 5 mins.
8. The fights with human enemies are so dull. They descend on you in groups of ~10 soldiers and at least one vehicle, but the AI is stupid and you can just punch your way through all of them even if they are all armed. Sam can tank endless amounts of damage even from machine gun turrets. It makes the stealth option even more pointless. Fighting the human enemies is a huge, boring chore that you wish you could avoid, but many of the missions want you to go butt heads with them. Honestly, my least favourite part of the game.
9. The amount of plain daft stuff that happens. Stunning an enemy with a stun grenade only for him to alert the base even tho he's standing there convulsing. I guess they're all telepathic.
Overall there are ways to have fun, but the game insists that you not have too much fun, because Kojima is always there punching you in the balls with his design decisions.
Last boss fight was stupid easy and much easier than earlier fights.
Then spent an ungodly amount of time doing deliveries to max out all the known preppers and distro centres.
Some fun was had building zipline networks and integrating online networks.
Sadly, the stupid annoyances keep flaring up to make the game much more frustrating than it should be.
1. The controls can be downright awful. So many buttons have multiple uses. A good example is the carrier that you get. Normally L1 and R1 make you brace for rough terrain. If you have a carrier with you, 50% of the time you'll just pick up cargo from the carrier instead, before falling over because you didn't brace.
2. The game is super, super inconsistent about what terrain is safe and what isn't. Sam randomly falls over a blade of grass and breaks all his cargo, after having no issues scaling a sodding mountain. But it was clearly a super dangerous blade of grass. He also likes to fall over when dismounting from ladders. I actually avoid all ladders now because of how unpredictable the dismount is.
3. The cutscenes and unskippable debrief screens. Also unskippable fade-to-black where you spend 30s watching Sam drop to his knees and lose consciousness (and is fully unskippable no matter what).
4. The rate of decay of things you build. Kojima wants you to spend fully half your playtime rebuilding things you'd already built, because he's decided they will decay that quickly. Just, why? Some things decay stupidly quickly. I put a climbing anchor in near one prepper and went off and did his mission, when I came back it had already disappeared.
5. The constant rain that degrades buildings, vehicles and items. In my game it won't stop sodding raining. After 5 mins everything you're carrying is ruined. Who thought that would be fun...
6. The insistence that you return to base for Sam to sleep every 30 mins or so. If you don't, he becomes increasingly fragile and useless. The game will keep spamming you with, "Rest is advised! Rest is advised! Rest is advised!" Sure Kojima, it's such fun to go back to base so I can watch the shower cutscene over and over. Good times. I'd much rather be doing that than anything else in the game, sure.
7. The stupid human enemies. Stealth is so ***** in this game. You get pinged no matter what you do, or how well you prepare and disable all their sensors. As you walk around one of them will just randomly start pinging and then all of them descend on you. You can't just take one out and get in and get out, because as soon as you try the others spot the downed guy from wherever they are, and then everybody pings you over and over. Also any time you waste trying to stealth is time your buildings are decaying. Sooner or later you realise you just need to do things as quickly as possible because the clock is always ticking. Spend an hour planning to stealthily infiltrate and that's an hour of decay on all your structures. Better to just run and gun and be done in 5 mins.
8. The fights with human enemies are so dull. They descend on you in groups of ~10 soldiers and at least one vehicle, but the AI is stupid and you can just punch your way through all of them even if they are all armed. Sam can tank endless amounts of damage even from machine gun turrets. It makes the stealth option even more pointless. Fighting the human enemies is a huge, boring chore that you wish you could avoid, but many of the missions want you to go butt heads with them. Honestly, my least favourite part of the game.
9. The amount of plain daft stuff that happens. Stunning an enemy with a stun grenade only for him to alert the base even tho he's standing there convulsing. I guess they're all telepathic.
Overall there are ways to have fun, but the game insists that you not have too much fun, because Kojima is always there punching you in the balls with his design decisions.
Soldato
I think Fox’s posts should be moved in to their own thread for posterity. Honestly I find it hilarious, I love the game, the story and the acting. But everything you’ve said about it is 100% truth
Thanks for the update. I lasted 90 minutes yesterday before deciding to do something better with my day off.
Don't think I'm ready to abandon completely, but the ideal of "I'll blast through this quick, and on to the next" just isn't something I have time for right now, so hour or two over a week means I'm going to have Sam (and Hideo) in my life for likely the next couple of months as I've just reached chapter 4 after 22 hours....
Don't think I'm ready to abandon completely, but the ideal of "I'll blast through this quick, and on to the next" just isn't something I have time for right now, so hour or two over a week means I'm going to have Sam (and Hideo) in my life for likely the next couple of months as I've just reached chapter 4 after 22 hours....
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Still havent tried this game..have it though, seen a lot of people say its boring and a walking simulator lol maybe those people like pew pew action games all the time? idk.... will defo install and give it a go someday though
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Mental note to self: always save before using a zipline.
Pro tip: point the camera in the direction you want to disembark before pressing the button.
Sadly, this isn't always enough. Sometimes the zipline ejects you with great force and propels you down a cliff face to your death. Even when you were pointing in the other direction. Sometimes the game just wants to be a Rick and ruin your day. There is no way to prepare for this, you just have to save often. And save before any kind of journey. I already know this but I don't always save, and the game always does something stupid to punish me.
Then you watch helpless as instead of disembarking onto the safe, flat area you were pointing at, the zip propels you backwards into a ravine. Nice. A touch of Kojima magic to brighten my day.
Pro tip: point the camera in the direction you want to disembark before pressing the button.
Sadly, this isn't always enough. Sometimes the zipline ejects you with great force and propels you down a cliff face to your death. Even when you were pointing in the other direction. Sometimes the game just wants to be a Rick and ruin your day. There is no way to prepare for this, you just have to save often. And save before any kind of journey. I already know this but I don't always save, and the game always does something stupid to punish me.
Then you watch helpless as instead of disembarking onto the safe, flat area you were pointing at, the zip propels you backwards into a ravine. Nice. A touch of Kojima magic to brighten my day.
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I have to admit, I loved it, it was one of my most memorable gaming experiences for a long time. But then, my idea of a good holiday is to go for a walk on some cliffs near a bleak coastline, or for a sail in some water just off a bleak coastline, so I'm pretty much the target market. I played it during lockdown, and really enjoyed how it provided both a sense of loneliness, and togetherness, that other people were out there helping you out but you'd never meet them.
The combat wasn't great - the boss fights and human fights were pretty annoying, but I loved the walking sections and found them strangely compelling. I also didn't encounter a number of the problems which FoxEye seems to have done - I don't remember Sam having to go back to a base to sleep at all. Have some of those issues been added to the directors cut? I played the original version on the PS4. If additional faff has been added, perhaps its made the game worse not better.
Anyway, I can absolutely understand not enjoying the game but, for some reason, I did!
The combat wasn't great - the boss fights and human fights were pretty annoying, but I loved the walking sections and found them strangely compelling. I also didn't encounter a number of the problems which FoxEye seems to have done - I don't remember Sam having to go back to a base to sleep at all. Have some of those issues been added to the directors cut? I played the original version on the PS4. If additional faff has been added, perhaps its made the game worse not better.
Anyway, I can absolutely understand not enjoying the game but, for some reason, I did!
@manic111 I've only played the Director's Cut so I don't know what was added (except a new road).
If you don't rest at the base two things happen:
1- your max stamina bar shortens, so you see the "Sam needs to catch his breath/rest" animation much more often. This is where Sam stops responding to your commands, starts panting, and will grab his knees. You can then press a button to make him sit down, and then a further button to massage his shoulders (yes, really).
2- Whenever you do a delivery you get spammed with "Rest is advised!" over and over.
The shortening of the stamina bar is easy to see: the bar itself is the same size, but a portion on the right hand side turns black and white, representing the amount of stamina that can't be recovered until you rest at base again (so drinking an energy drink will only fill up the blue part, the black and white part is effectively unavailable).
If you absolutely refuse to rest at base, you can lose as much as 50% of the total stamina bar, which means Sam will continually do the "tired/rest" animation wherever you go (it's starts triggering when you go below 50% stamina. If you've lost 50% stamina, you're always below that threshold). At that point it's so frustrating you give up and go rest
Also if you are below 50% stamina you are more likely to fall over/fail to climb a rock/etc.
If you don't rest at the base two things happen:
1- your max stamina bar shortens, so you see the "Sam needs to catch his breath/rest" animation much more often. This is where Sam stops responding to your commands, starts panting, and will grab his knees. You can then press a button to make him sit down, and then a further button to massage his shoulders (yes, really).
2- Whenever you do a delivery you get spammed with "Rest is advised!" over and over.
The shortening of the stamina bar is easy to see: the bar itself is the same size, but a portion on the right hand side turns black and white, representing the amount of stamina that can't be recovered until you rest at base again (so drinking an energy drink will only fill up the blue part, the black and white part is effectively unavailable).
If you absolutely refuse to rest at base, you can lose as much as 50% of the total stamina bar, which means Sam will continually do the "tired/rest" animation wherever you go (it's starts triggering when you go below 50% stamina. If you've lost 50% stamina, you're always below that threshold). At that point it's so frustrating you give up and go rest
Also if you are below 50% stamina you are more likely to fall over/fail to climb a rock/etc.
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This sounds familiar and I've not tried the directors cut. I didn't notice it being that bad but I guess I chose to rest often enough. Have you made much more progress? When I got to the mountains I finished the story probably just a few days later focusing on it over the side stuff.@manic111 I've only played the Director's Cut so I don't know what was added (except a new road).
If you don't rest at the base two things happen:
1- your max stamina bar shortens, so you see the "Sam needs to catch his breath/rest" animation much more often. This is where Sam stops responding to your commands, starts panting, and will grab his knees. You can then press a button to make him sit down, and then a further button to massage his shoulders (yes, really).
2- Whenever you do a delivery you get spammed with "Rest is advised!" over and over.
The shortening of the stamina bar is easy to see: the bar itself is the same size, but a portion on the right hand side turns black and white, representing the amount of stamina that can't be recovered until you rest at base again (so drinking an energy drink will only fill up the blue part, the black and white part is effectively unavailable).
If you absolutely refuse to rest at base, you can lose as much as 50% of the total stamina bar, which means Sam will continually do the "tired/rest" animation wherever you go (it's starts triggering when you go below 50% stamina. If you've lost 50% stamina, you're always below that threshold). At that point it's so frustrating you give up and go rest
Also if you are below 50% stamina you are more likely to fall over/fail to climb a rock/etc.
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I've been maxing out all the preppers and have gone back to Area 1 to max them out too. Just... don't ask me why, OK?
Tonight I spent the entire play session rebuilding the roads. Just... don't ask me why... Hmm, there's a pattern developing here.
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Are they degrading that fast? Again, perhaps I finished the game quickly enough that it wasn't an issue, but I never had to rebuild our repair any of the roads.
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Same here. I also did not have to rest anytime. I played the standard edition last year so not sure if the game mechanics were changed in the meantime. Most of my roads were still there towards the end of my gameplay which was about 70 hours.
To give you an idea, by the time I'd got to the last one to restore durability the first few were at 95-97%%. So every 5-6 play sessions you need to start thinking about repairs. By then they've dropped to 40% ish.
Again this is because I'm trying to find and max every prepper (please somebody stop me..) and get all the stars (help, somebody, help me, I'm sick..)