Death Stranding AKA Kojima and Friends The Game

Sorry mate I'm not going to stream a 50hr game which I'm guessing is going to have those share blocks some games have looking at you Persona 5.

That's incredibly selfish of you.

Treesmurf wrote:

The boring in-between bits might be what appeals to me strangely enough which sounds quite contradictory given my feelings about stuff like Journey, I might just be better watching a stream of it to be honest whilst there's still a buzz around it.

Excessive Profanity might be your best bet for a Death Stranding stream, he's a big Metal Gear fan but doesn't fuck about when the truth has to be told on certain things in gaming. So, for me his playthrough will be the most interesting to watch.

I'm about 4-5hrs in, near the start of Episode 2 if you prefer.

Lot's of similarities to MGSV with menus and mission structure. DS also plays and feels like MGSV, then it looks ridiculous on the PS4 Pro which makes a tad excited to see the Decima engine on PC & PS5.

Then the little touches with music and stuff that made me chuckle.

Basically excellent so far, boys.

Should be arriving today

Me and my girlfriend are going to be fighting to play it so I hope I don't get spoiled too much

I'm about 13hrs in or (I reckon) halfway through Episode 3.

I've now got a sort of gun, a bike and with the online elements got some nice roads to drive on.

If the rest of the game continues to be this good, then this easily my game of the year.

I'm not as far as you (I only got to start it myself on Saturday night) but I am really enjoying it!

I'm sort of halfway now depending how you look at it.

As I'm on Order 40 out of the 70 story ones (I think some can be missed but done them all so far) and linked up half the country, plus just past 20hrs.

But I'm only on Episode 5 of 14.

I figure there is going to be a whole twist and more story continuation on reaching the west coast

I started this today. So far I think it's ok, having completed about 10 story missions I think.

The story is gibberish and I can't say I give a toss about any of the characters, nor its basic take on American individualism versus community. Our protagonist is about as interesting as a sack of potatoes to boot.

I'm sure Kojima was going for some sort of Cormac McCarthy, lone cowboy sheep wrangler, kind of vibe but it's a bit difficult to appreciate that and the deliberately craggy, unforgiving and lifeless open world when the plot is full of Kojima nonsense; fourth wall winks, product placement and ultra verbose cutscenes.

I've enjoyed the game most whilst listening to other things, although I'm not sure if that's a particularly good compliment to give it. Those moments of tension and stealth are good, but I'm not sure if it will hold my attention. That and the fact that we're not playing some drifter postman, we're meant to be a legend - as if Kojima can't get away from having us be Snake.

I hear it gets a bit more action oriented later on, and there's something to be said for seeing footprints gradually cover the landscape, bridges, watchtowers and so on popping up over time. It's not quite Manifest Destiny, but it does evoke a sense of the railroads coming in a western - the end of an era, or in this case, a renaissance. That's definitely one of the strengths of Death Stranding, which sees humanity gradually master a landscape in a way nothing else I've played has.

So I think it's worth keeping on with, but it's definitely a slow burner.

I’ve started playing this recently. There really is something to this, despite my sneering at the game pre-release. There’s an addictive quality to planning out your delivery routes and deciding what equipment you’ll need to bring to best navigate the landscape - it’s got that moreishness that I found when traversing Hyrule in BotW. The act of connecting up the region and seeing your connection with other players be rewarded with their structures appearing in your world is a really clever idea.

It’s also full of Kojima’s trademark bollocks that I genuinely love, like Hologram Geoff Keighley gushing about how he’s my biggest fan or Troy Baker summoning an oily squid beast to attack me.

You're also playing post-pandemic, as during it Death Stranding was reevaluate by many.

Yeah, staggering how the isolation and dependency on deliveries actually manifested in real life. Kojima's a wizard.