Holy Shit Death Stranding is beautiful nonsense

[bork]

Bruh... IGN?  ... And who the fuck is Stevivor and why does his opinion matter??   

Only thing every review I've seen is consistent about, is that they say the game's not for everyone.  Sounds like every video game ever made. 

LOLZ aside, when I see them saying it's repetitive and dull, and comments like "this game is 80 hours and doesn't start getting good until at least 8 hours in," that's a good sign to wait and see what more people think about it and not get it on day one.

[nachobro]

thats what people said about red dead 2 and that's an amazing game. i got 6 months or whatever to wait though so i'll just let console people do the exploration work on this game for me.

[bork]

thats what people said about red dead 2 and that's an amazing game. i got 6 months or whatever to wait though so i'll just let console people do the exploration work on this game for me.

Red Dead 2 apparently shits all over this. 

[Rufus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltYRUvBiZ0k

Jeff is mad af.

'Make the subtext text - the game'

[bork]

It seems to be pretty common among the lower-scoring reviews that it's just too tedious and boring because of it. 

Game Informer - 7/10

Try as it might, Death Stranding’s story doesn’t shore up its faults. It’s the normal Kojima mix of twists-and-turns, tropes, and overbearing themes, but at least I like that it explores real-world topics like the theory of multiple dimensions and key events in the history of the planet’s biodiversity. Like Sam himself, I often wasn’t sure why I kept going in Death Stranding. Maybe there was a little bit of pride in another task checked off the list, another job done. Unfortunately, this added up to little reward in the end.

Metro GameCentral - 7/10

    Taken as a whole, Death Stranding is an awkward mishmash of ideas, some of which work exactly as intended and others of which feel entirely out of place. At 40+ hours it overstays its welcome but it’s still a fascinating journey to take, with Kojima being the only video games auteur who can still command a large budget and use it to create something that isn’t just pandering to mainstream tastes.

GamesRadar+ - 3.5/5

    There is an okay experience here, filled with a scrapbooking hokum of afterlife mythology and pseudoscience, with a cast of likeable if bluntly literal characters but it’s a game that, ironically, is easily lost in its lengthy delivery.

USGamer - 3.5/5

    Death Stranding might be Kojima's boldest game to date. It may also be his most tedious. Either way, its originality outweighs its sometimes exhausting structure and poor pacing... but only just. Maybe not a game I would recommend to everyone, but certainly one of the most interesting games of 2019.

VG24/7 - 3/5

    If you do manage to hold out, you will be rewarded with flashes of brilliance, it’s just that those flashes are buried as deep as the core story is buried in the endless dialogue. And as profound as it wants to be, this is still a game in which you can equip and unequip your penis so you can piss out Red Bull. The good stuff is waiting for you beyond that piss, beyond the shit grenades, beyond that Ride with Norman Reedus advert unceremoniously plastered into a game universe where I didn’t see a single television set. It’s just a test of attrition.

PowerUp - 3/10

    There’s a moment that sees you literally wait as a timer counts down three realtime minutes. For what purpose? I have no idea but like everything else in Death Stranding it made me roll my eyes with boredom. Death Stranding is clearly a labour of love for Kojima and his team but I hate it. Games don’t need to be fun, exciting, happy or cool but they should at least be entertaining. Death Stranding is not entertaining. As such, it fails as a video game, it fails as a narrative and it fails overall.

[nachobro]

Red Dead 2 apparently shits all over this.

well rdr2 may be my favorite game of the generation so i can accept that. but hearing that dan ryckert (who HATED rdr2) rates rdr2 over DS is a bit worrying.

[Rman]

The game just looks incredibly boring.  I like Kojima, but I don't know if the auteur model works well in the gaming space. 

[Joe Molotov]

Kojima, the absolute mad lad.

[Svejk]

See, R2R2... I have no desire to play it, because I don't care for westerns... Not for me...  Doesn't mean it's not a great game.   Hence, this game won't be for everyone.

However, this game better not be 80 hours average...  I got too many games to play.  I don't need another girthy game like AC: Odyssey was. fak

[bork]

See, R2R2... I have no desire to play it, because I don't care for westerns... Not for me...  Doesn't mean it's not a great game.   Hence, this game won't be for everyone.

I mean...you're playing this game as a dude "roaming the range" and shit. 

However, this game better not be 80 hours average...  I got too many games to play.  I don't need another girthy game like AC: Odyssey was. fak

Youtube the cut scenes.

[Svejk]

If it comes to that,  I just want to be able to b-line the main story if need be.  No level grinding like AC: Odyssey.  That shit was annoying.

[benjipwns]

There's apparently tons of non-story grinding in the first part of the game. One review suggested ten hours before the main story comes back.

Jeff and Brad indicated quite a few hours of futzing around.

The technical analysis they did was very helpful. Good to know there are lots of resolutions on screen in the game, potentially thousands of pixels. Many good types of framerates too.

[Rufus]

https://twitter.com/nathan_brown/status/1190182964530991104

 

[nachobro]

https://twitter.com/jeffgerstmann/status/1190257552459624448

one way or another this game is gonna be interesting

[Akala]

I don't know what people expected as it's pretty much exactly what we thought it would be...unfortunate about the bloat/pacing. I love the aesthetic but there is no way I am playing this as-is. Will wait for the mass-market abridgedistance version.

[bork]

If it comes to that,  I just want to be able to b-line the main story if need be.  No level grinding like AC: Odyssey.  That shit was annoying.

Doesn't sound fun if you're already thinking about ways to make it less of a grind and power through the game. 

[Coffee Dog]

It's still probably better than MGS4 and Peace Walker, if there's critical backlash that means that it's at least making creative decisions that give people reason to hate it.

I was worried all the reviews would be giving it the Kojima scaled 90-100 and I'd have to play a big open shootemup with glaring issues like MGSV. But it actually seems committed to the premise of being a package delivery man with all the monotony and simple beauty that entails.

I'm actually more excited than I've ever been for this game. Kojima made a turbo high budget Fedex sim that made everybody mad.

[Rman]

The inventory system sounds awful.

[Svejk]

If it comes to that,  I just want to be able to b-line the main story if need be.  No level grinding like AC: Odyssey.  That shit was annoying.

Doesn't sound fun if you're already thinking about ways to make it less of a grind and power through the game. 

Witcher 3 still remains GOTG for me, but at a certain point, I b-lined the main story too... and didn't regret doing that one bit.  I already had 80-90ish hours invested... I needed to move onto the next game (MGSV at the time).  My gaming time/schedule is more important than gaming itself.... if that makes any sense. 
My personal problem is that I like these "longer" type games, but my lifestyle doesn't agree with them.  I roll that way now.    

[Trent Dole]

Critics are saying 'That's a thing!'

[kingv]

Yeah... I’m thinking about cancelling my preorder, even though I bought it completely with Best Buy funny money

[Svejk]

I had no idea how many IGN's there were.    So much IGNorance around the world.

IGN US - 6.8/10
IGN Japan - 9.5/10
IGN Italy - 9.6/10
IGN Spain - 8.7/10
IGN South Africa - 9/10
IGN Germany - 7.9
IGN Poland - 7.6
IGN Latin America - 9.8
IGN Brazil - 9.0

 

[nachobro]

brad from GB really making the game mechanics sound unappealing lol

[benjipwns]

beautiful nonsense gameplay in Japanese


11:45 is a pretty quality recreation of Brad/Jeff's high end technical analysis for those with less patience

[Coffee Dog]

(Image removed from quote.)

brad from GB really making the game mechanics sound unappealing lol

Unappealling? You have to hold the button to keep a handheld package in your hand. If you want to stop holding the button, you have to set the package down.  That sounds like a hilarious incentive for keeping your hands free.

It reminds me of Red Dead 2 a lot. The first few hours of that game had me drawing my gun accidentally as well, though in Death Stranding the complexity of the controls seems more intentional given how many mechanics affect them.

[nachobro]

isn't the whole game just holding packages though?

edit: yeah this game sounds like a blast

https://twitter.com/agentbizzle/status/1190280391229181957

[Rufus]

beautiful nonsense gameplay in Japanese
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9sTIaVSofc

11:45 is a pretty quality recreation of Brad/Jeff's high end technical analysis for those with less patience

The servos in the exoskeleton make a horrendous racket. That alone would drive me insane.

[benjipwns]

I have to say, being only casually interested in what the fuck this was going to turn out to be, it's hilarious that literally everyone I've looked at and this includes positive reviews, mentions how the whole "Death Stranding" and rain aspect that's arguably the most compelling fictional component can basically never be encountered as anything but a slight annoyance in the game. Brad specifically mentions in the Quick Look he had yet to see it over 20+ hours until Jeff tells him to specifically fail to see what happens.

Also nobody seems to mention that it's been seen before. Prey? Souls series?

Sounds like the game has a Kojima™ clusterfuck pile-up final act. I think it was Eurogamer guy mentioned that it continues through and past the credits but only makes things more confusing and less relevant to anything you did during the game.

[kingv]

Mgs4 and 5 had bad parts but were largely entertaining, either because they just kept it moving or the gameplay was good.

This almost seems to be MGS5 without the combat. Like the whole game is just traversing empty Afghanistan.

[benjipwns]

Nobody is allowed to show anything past "Chapter 3" which is not quite halfway through the game. There are supposedly more environments but the buildings and everything just start to repeat.

A number of reviews mention that combat outside of the bosses is basically unnecessary unless you're exploring and doing all the side-quests. And even then it's sometimes smarter to just run.

The whole visual design and connectivity thing is compelling but it really sounds like it needs another iteration where there's more ideas for gameplay outside of delivering stuff. The Postman comparisons are fascinating to me because I felt the same way about that movie visually and world design but it similarly was boring and plot clusterfuck. (And to a lesser extent, Waterworld! Get me Costner for the improved sequel!)

[Eel O'Brian]

Games don't need to be fun

2019 video game philosophy

[Rman]

So I'm not getting the high scores here then.  When you read the text of the higher scored reviews, it's the same issues with the lower scored reviews lol. 

Game sounds like a slog.

Kojima's Hollywood fantasies need to come to an end. Just become a filmmaker already if that's what you want to do.

[benjipwns]

Games don't need to be fun

2019 video game philosophy

So I'm not getting the high scores here then.  When you read the text of the higher scored reviews, it's the same issues with the lower scored reviews lol. 

Please understand.

[BlueTsunami]

Winding Refn being so prominent in this should have been a red flag I'm so damn curious now

[kingv]

I’m curious too... I’m just no longer $60 day 1 curious.

[benjipwns]

https://twitter.com/2plus2isjoe/status/1190221809133727744

 

[Mr. Gundam]

Sounds like the kind of thing you'd enjoy if you're into 60s-80s Russian cinema and sci-fi as well as Thomas Pynchon, Haruki Murakami and Kobo Abe books. I know that those are bit out there and boring as fuck for a lot of people, but for some reason I like it all. Guessing this will be my kind of game.

[Rufus]

10 minutes into this and I'm definitely watching the rest after he called the game "the Gran Turismo of walking simulators."

[Joe Molotov]

isn't the whole game just holding packages though?

edit: yeah this game sounds like a blast

https://twitter.com/agentbizzle/status/1190280391229181957

You don't have to get up to turn off your PS4, more fake news attacks on a totally perfect videogame.

[bork]

https://twitter.com/nathan_brown/status/1190182964530991104

 

https://twitter.com/nathan_brown/status/1190183693840769024

[Svejk]

The only review that I'm actually REALLY curious to see that's going to matter, is Dunkey's.

[Mr. Gundam]

10 minutes into this and I'm definitely watching the rest after he called the game "the Gran Turismo of walking simulators."

This was a highly entertaining video to watch with my morning coffee. It also works well as a podcast for most of it.

[Mr. Gundam]

Like.. is this supposed to be praise?

http://www.pushsquare.com/reviews/ps4/death_stranding

The most important factor you'll have to consider as you deliver packages is weight. Sam, played by The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus, can only carry so much on his back so you'll need to work out a method of distributing the burden effectively. Piling it high is always an option, but that means our protagonist will constantly be off-balance as the cargo swings from side to side in the wind. You could attach some items to Sam's suit, which in turn makes him slower as he lugs about more than just his own body mass. Or you could opt to carry a couple of objects with your hands, which takes away a couple of interactive actions away from you. That's thanks to the L2 and R2 buttons having to be held for the entire trek to ensure you don’t drop them.

Striking a balance between the three options is key to making a successful delivery, otherwise the load will be damaged the more you drop it. It's a fascinating, incredible set of mechanics that serve as a perfect introduction to Death Stranding. You're made to think about what you will be taking with you as soon as the first order comes through, making for a weight management mini-game that competes with the very best: the inventory sorting of Resident Evil 4.

Sounds like a super niche thing that some people will just love. I think it's an interesting user experience from a purely research and design perspective, but whether it's ultimately a good one is another question. Also, it's often hard to understand why people like things we don't. I mean, I don't get the fascination with pastry stouts.

[Mr. Gundam]

You know, game user experience is still a relatively new field quite different from QA and not widely used in the industry. I'm curious if Kojima Productions does any of that at all. He seems like the kind of guy that only cares about his personal vision and doesn't really think about UX.

I'm currently working as a user researcher for a small gaming startup, btw.

Like.. is this supposed to be praise?

http://www.pushsquare.com/reviews/ps4/death_stranding

The most important factor you'll have to consider as you deliver packages is weight. Sam, played by The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus, can only carry so much on his back so you'll need to work out a method of distributing the burden effectively. Piling it high is always an option, but that means our protagonist will constantly be off-balance as the cargo swings from side to side in the wind. You could attach some items to Sam's suit, which in turn makes him slower as he lugs about more than just his own body mass. Or you could opt to carry a couple of objects with your hands, which takes away a couple of interactive actions away from you. That's thanks to the L2 and R2 buttons having to be held for the entire trek to ensure you don’t drop them.

Striking a balance between the three options is key to making a successful delivery, otherwise the load will be damaged the more you drop it. It's a fascinating, incredible set of mechanics that serve as a perfect introduction to Death Stranding. You're made to think about what you will be taking with you as soon as the first order comes through, making for a weight management mini-game that competes with the very best: the inventory sorting of Resident Evil 4.

Sounds like a super niche thing that some people will just love. I think it's an interesting user experience, but whether it's ultimately a good one is another question. Also, it's often hard to understand why people like things we don't. I mean, I don't get the fascination with pastry stouts.

THICC BOIS

CRISPY BOIS

[Mr. Gundam]

You know, game user experience is still a relatively new field quite different from QA and not widely used in the industry. I'm curious if Kojima Productions does any of that at all. He seems like the kind of guy that only cares about his personal vision and doesn't really think about UX.

I'm currently working as a user researcher for a small gaming startup, btw.

Interesting;  UX is such a tricky field in general, I've seen UX design based on extensive surveying that once unleashed on the surveyed users everyone hated.

It is definitely tricky, I think a lot of times people go into the process with solutions already in their mind and then the design is driven by those assumptions and pre-conceived solutions. Surveying alone isn't super insightful, need to do one on one interviews, field studies, user testing, etc. It can also be problematic if you don't do your due diligence about proper recruiting and population sampling.

[headwalk]

sounds like something that would come out of a game jam or uni project but given a AAA budget.

[thetylerrob]

I would say that games need more critics that are capable of critiquing games on a deeper level than "is it fun and good looking and politically inoffensive" but there really aren't enough games around that warrant it. Anyway all the talk about this has actually made me more interested. I like auteur shit though so :shrug emoji.

[Mr. Gundam]

Sounds like the kind of thing you'd enjoy if you're into 60s-80s Russian cinema and sci-fi as well as Thomas Pynchon, Haruki Murakami and Kobo Abe books. I know that those are bit out there and boring as fuck for a lot of people, but for some reason I like it all. Guessing this will be my kind of game.

Dude this is a kojima game. It's more like if Michael Bay wanted to make a david lynch movie.

And I say that as a fan of Kojima.

I was talking more about the walking through huge stretches of absolutely nothing going on and weird metaphysical bullshit, but sure your comparison is just as valid.

I like Kojima games. I like all the stuff I referenced earlier. None of that makes me think I'm smarter or better than anyone else.

[Mr. Gundam]

Never said you did, apologize if my wording made it seem that way.

I'm basically expecting a kojima story, with kojima exposition, and the subtlety of a curb stomp in regards to it's themes repeated ad nauseam. I can deal with that when it's dumb fun japanese GI Joe. But dude attempting something avant garde with gameplay that looks like the most boring fucking thing in the world isn't exactly revving my engines.

Still buying it day one and playing  a shitton of it

Nah, no worries, I never got the impression you did, but I know that often people like to pull the "I like this thing so I'm clearly better than all of you and you just don't understand it" and I didn't want anyone to think that was my intent.

Bsides, my wife doesn't give a shit about a lot of the stuff I like and I value her opinion way more.

[TEEEPO]

Never said you did, apologize if my wording made it seem that way.

I'm basically expecting a kojima story, with kojima exposition, and the subtlety of a curb stomp in regards to it's themes repeated ad nauseam. I can deal with that when it's dumb fun japanese GI Joe. But dude attempting something avant garde with gameplay that looks like the most boring fucking thing in the world isn't exactly revving my engines.

Still buying it day one and playing  a shitton of it

this sums up my feels

day one

[Svejk]

Currently my wife refers to this game as "That game with the baby thing".

[Mr. Gundam]

Currently my wife refers to this game as "That game with the baby thing".

I can't remember the last game that my wife is even aware of. Probably the stuff my daughter and I play together like KHIII or Dragon Quest Builders 2.

[Tuckers Law]

I would say that games need more critics that are capable of critiquing games on a deeper level than "is it fun and good looking and politically inoffensive" but there really aren't enough games around that warrant it. Anyway all the talk about this has actually made me more interested. I like auteur shit though so :shrug emoji.

I hope Tom Chick posts a review of it.  Despite my rarely agreeing with his verdicts on games, I’ve always enjoyed his examinations of them.

[Don Rumata]

Games don't need to be fun

2019 video game philosophy

Yeah, Flight Simulator and all other PC slow as shit simulators including THE Walking-Simulator-King, Armed Assault, are all 2019 games. 

The fact that so many reviewers hate it is basically my sign of approval.

I loved the slower pace of Red Dead Redemption 2, and i think it's their best game yet and should've been even slower.
Mud Runner was one of the best games i tried on the Xbox gamepass thing, and you spend 15 minutes trying to get a 4x4 out of a ditch in that game.

I look forward to an open world map that doesn't feel like Disneyland, for once. 

[Great Rumbler]

Where's my George Wood review???

[BlueTsunami]

I don't understand Kojimas fixation with wrapping meniality around the cinematic. It's like he wants to delve into emergent gameplay yet continue making bombastic experiences. I think this is going to be the game that burns him into realizing he cannot truly have both, at least not in the ways he used to creating worlds.

[thisismyusername]

So reviews are saying to wait for Steam sale?

Thanks for beta-testing, PS4 Cucks.

[kingv]

Would be interesting to find out that the 10 years has just been Konami yelling at Kojima “but where’s the fucking gameplay?!”

[Rahxephon91]

Man hasn’t made a good game in over a decade. MGSV and PW were also tedious and full of unfun BS. No surprise that when he’s gone full up his own ass you get a game like this.

[thisismyusername]

https://twitter.com/SwiftOnSecurity/status/1190275520283500545

Would be interesting to find out that the 10 years has just been Konami yelling at Kojima “but where’s the fucking gameplay?!”

It's more that Kojima without checks and balances gets into situations like this or Phantom Pain.

(In Phantom Pain's defense: He was writing a middleware engine for Konami at the time to license/reuse over the course of a generation or two, so a lot of the costs/time taken was on that.

Just read https://www.polygon.com/2019/7/18/20696081/metal-gear-solid-translation-japanese-english-jeremy-blaustein <---Blaustein basically made MGS into a house-hold name with his translation that was blood-sweat-and-tears like Alexander O. Smith's Ivalice translations (but O. Smith had some other S-E translator's helping during his run). What does Kojimbo do after discovering it isn't a dry translation in Integral/MGS: International: VR Job System? Never works with Blaustein again.

And then you can see the vocal change in MGS2. To where folks were "WTF." And then MGS3 had like 2-3 editors of Kojima's story (writers as well, IIRC) for Kojima Productions and that turned out MUUUUCH better than MGS2.

Then 4 happens because most of 3's team leaves again (or was fired because of Kojima?)

I mean it seems pretty simple the answer of why this is "divisive"/being hated is because "Kojima with a blank check and nobody to reign him in is a problem, so Konami was valid in firing him." I guess.