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Death Stranding Review Thread

iconmaster

Banned
As much as I would love to get into semantics, a 10/10 means perfect.

So would 9/10 be 90% of perfect? What would that even mean? Do we have a perfect game by which to measure the rest, or is it an innate idea we all share?

It makes more sense to me to understand these scales as being mechanisms for relative comparison only. A 10/10 game is better than a 9/10 game, but that's all.

After all we're not making moral judgments here, but expressing distinctions of taste.
 
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Eiknarf

Banned
But what is this game most similar to?

im reading that the game is weird -right?
The game CONTROL by remedy is a weird game too and it’s absolutely amazing. Although CONTROL isn’t you delivering packages via 80 side missions....

So again - what is this game most similar to?
 

Romulus

Member
You guys just cant help yourselves.

And, yes, a Sony game with this much hype behind it is a colossal failure. They get the benefit of every doubt, just like Nintendo and unlike anything related to Xbox. Imagine if a Zelda or mainline Mario game scored an 84. It would absolutely be a failure.

Its also more than just a number. 85 doesn’t take into account what reviews are saying, which is that it’s generally a slog to play. Encumbrance systems in games aren’t fun at all. DS goes full ham on encumbrance.


Maybe I've been living in an alternate universe, but I seem to remember everyone predicting this to fail. No one forecasts nice cutscenes to mean it would be a good game so the big production values were never an indication of greatness. If anything, the lack of gameplay was a red flag for everyone.

So really, an 85 is a massive win considering the bad press and confusion gameplay and story. It actually turned out to be not bad. It just seems like a game I wouldn't like.
 
And that is with a huge speed up, lmao.



Watching this makes me want to wait until someone does a complete write-up of the entire story, that way I can just read the insanity. After a few months someone will have a well edited billion hour video showing all the cutscenes and relevant conversations with holograms for me to watch...
 

MiguelItUp

Member
Jesus, I can't tell if some of you are trolling or are just that negative, it's pretty sad honestly. At this point I think there's just a lot of people that like to shit on Kojima, because it's Kojima and honestly just want it to fail. That's just being toxic for the sake of being toxic, lmao.

I've always been particular about reviews, and honestly I usually don't care about them too much as they're revolving around an opinion formulated by a writer. A complete stranger. With some games you can look at a review and get the gist of the experience, with some, you can't. So, I generally look at gameplay, play it myself, and come to my own conclusion.

So far I feel the Inside Gaming, Yong Yea, and Laymen Gaming reviews all sounded solid and I don't really need to know what else anyone thinks. They weren't like OMFG IT'S 100% perfect, game definitely has it's things here and there. But it was also said that it was unique, strange, and applaudable to make such a game with such a budget. Dude took a huge risk. So, I'm still very excited about it. After all of the gameplay that was shown it was pretty clear that the reviews and opinions would be divisive, that shouldn't come off as a surprise. I can't recall which video review it was but they said...

"If you couldn't get into the flow of RDR2, or the breaking weapon mechanics in BotW, just be aware. There's a possibility you may want to hold out on this."

As someone that ADORED RDR2 and really enjoyed BotW that comment made me really excited.

So, yeah, it makes sense that this game won't be everyone's cup of tea. If you're surprised by that, why weren't you paying more attention the past few months? Lol. It's like people wanted it to be some crazy shooter/action game when it was never meant to be that.
 
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DonF

Member
High praises coming from SkillUp...I'm super hyped!! God bless kojima, how lucky I am to be living at this point in time!
 

TeamGhobad

Banned
Kojima's best game by far is MGS and that's because Yoshioka the co-producer was able to reign in his crazy ideas to something more focused and grounded. With him gone Kojima went full fledged kookoo. What do we know about Kojima? He's willing to ruin a whole game just for a plot twist, every protagonist he makes is basically Kurt Russell from Escape from New York and every games has this childish koombaya about how evil war is. He's almost 60! It's time to grow the hell up.
 

Phase

Member
Except it doesn't. All these sites flat out say that is not what a 10/10 means.

I got 100s on essays I wrote in college. Nobody's brain exploded from reading "perfection" that should not be possible.
You have a clear objective in most essays and if you get a 100 you succeeded on all fronts and provided the necessary arguments to back it up. There is no set objective of a game, so in that sense I guess you point is valid. Reviewers will come up with one and ask if it meets it's objective.

So would 9/10 be 90% of perfect? What would that even mean? Do we have a perfect game by which to measure the rest, or is it an innate idea we all share?

It makes more sense to me to understand these scales as being mechanisms for relative comparison only. A 10/10 game is better than a 9/10 game, but that's all.
Fair point. It's all subjective and relative to different things like the times we're in and expectations set forth by each player individually. Personally, I'm just annoyed at reading the reviews that sound like they're about to justify a 70, then throw a 100 on the board. Seems disingenuous.
 
Game sounds like it has a good chance of being total bullshit the 10/10 people will mysteriously flip their opinions on later down the line...Nevertheless, I am still going to purchase and play this at launch. =P
 

Hargate

Member
It's pretty simple if you wiped everyone's memory and removed Kojima's name from the game It would be a dead on arrival piece of shit.
 

Phase

Member
I'm being critical of the reviews but most likely I'll buy it, play it, like it, or possibly even love it. This just reminds me why I usually stay away from game reviews in general.
 

Bryank75

Banned


Describing Death Stranding as a 'UPS sim' is akin to saying To Kill a Mocking Bird is just a court case... it glosses over the details, nuance, genius etc.

Describes it as Kojimas best game ever.



DF tech review is also extremely complimentary, one of the best implementations of HDR, incredibly realistic eyes, unlike anything achieved this generation, skin, including goosebumps and hair.


My thoughts are that there are people that 'get it' and gave the game the score it deserved... 85+, up to 100.
Then there are the people that didn't get it and never will....
 

Stuart360

Member
Very nice, and quite surprising, to see many sites stand up and tell the truth in regards to this game. Of course the various 10/10 and 100/100 scores show fear still existed for many in the face of the Kojima fanboy horde.
 
My thoughts are that there are people that 'get it' and gave the game the score it deserved... 85+, up to 100.
Then there are the people that didn't get it and never will....

This is a terrible take, reviewers are saying the game is an encumbrance simulator where you do nothing but fetch quests. It looks stunning, but it's largely boring if the reviews are even remotely accurate. Defending the game as some unbelievable avant-garde piece of fine art that people just don't get is exactly why Kojima gets perhaps unfairly mocked.
 

GHG

Member
Very nice, and quite surprising, to see many sites stand up and tell the truth in regards to this game. Of course the various 10/10 and 100/100 scores show fear still existed for many in the face of the Kojima fanboy horde.

So you're suggesting that those who enjoyed it didn't actually enjoy it and aren't telling the truth?

Christ alive...
 

Stuart360

Member
[

My thoughts are that there are people that 'get it' and gave the game the score it deserved... 85+, up to 100.
Then there are the people that didn't get it and never will....
Lol i said numerous times on here this tired excuse would be trotted out by the Kojima World Order if the reviews werent stellar.
 
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Stuart360

Member
So you're suggesting that those who enjoyed it didn't actually enjoy it and aren't telling the truth?

Christ alive...
Of course, how else do you have such a divide between meh reviews and a bunch of 10/10 reviews?.

By the sound of it, the game is pretty much a videogame version of the Costner movie 'The Postman'. And knowing Kojima, it will be mixed in with 40min overly melodramatic and badly written cutscenes.
 

Chiggs

Gold Member
Those 10/10 and 100/100 reviews are a real hoot. Just reading them you can tell they were written by slobbering fanboys. Holy moly, some of them are nearly as bad as EGM's infamous Gears of War review.

By the sound of it, the game is pretty much a videogame version of the Costner movie 'The Postman'. And knowing Kojima, it will be mixed in with 40min overly melodramatic and badly written cutscenes.

One of my friends literally texted me the same thing. Great minds think alike.
 
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DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Konami, what? Konami that was in negotiations with Reedus at the time they asked Kojima not to showcase his project yet until contracts were signed? The same Kojima that didn’t listen and showed the game which consequently ended the negotiations with Reedus’s people asking for more money?


3lygGXJ.png


Source

Oh please, they could have made the game without Reedus.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
Of course, how else do you have such a divide between meh reviews and a bunch of 10/10 reviews?.
Because people have their own opinions and don't need to be in constant agreement with one another?

What world would anyone want to live in where reviews matter so much while not mattering at all because it's all the same regurgitated nonsense with a different writer's name slapped on it. That's a pretty narrow/skewed view, lmao.
 

Stuart360

Member
Because people have their own opinions and don't need to be in constant agreement with one another?

What world would anyone want to live in where reviews matter so much while not mattering at all because it's all the same regurgitated nonsense with a different writer's name slapped on it. That's a pretty narrow/skewed view, lmao.
But then every game would be in the same boat and have these divides between bad and amazing reviews. They dont though.
 

GHG

Member
This is a terrible take, reviewers are saying the game is an encumbrance simulator where you do nothing but fetch quests. It looks stunning, but it's largely boring if the reviews are even remotely accurate. Defending the game as some unbelievable avant-garde piece of fine art that people just don't get is exactly why Kojima gets perhaps unfairly mocked.

Actually it's pretty accurate.

Not everything has to be enjoyable for everyone and that's especially true for media that is not created as a result of rigorous market research and focus group testing.

To say that some people don't get "it" isn't necessarily an insult, it's just the way it is.

I didn't "get" RDR2 and never will. However I can't sit there and say it's a bad game with a straight face - it's not. It's very well made and I can see what it's trying to do, I just don't like it. They shouldn't change it just for me, that would be wrong. Similarly some people don't "get" other popular/highly rated games like Nier, Dark Souls, etc.

The biggest issue is that most people in gaming circles lack the maturity to have proper discussions about this sort of thing without getting offended or upset when they encounter a game that they don't "get". It's like they take offense to it, as if it's an insult to their intellect or "gaming cred". The reality is that it's neither of those things and it's just a simple way of saying your tastes aren't aligned to this videogame so you won't like it.
 
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MiguelItUp

Member
But then every game would be in the same boat and have these divides between bad and amazing reviews. They dont though.
It's certainly happened before, this isn't the first and/or only time. It really just boils down to the type of game it is I feel.

But again, reviews are just reviews, when everything is said and done they're a stranger's opinion and nothing more.

Opinions are wild, but they exist. Like how so many people love the Souls (and related) games, but I can't get into them for the life of me.
 
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Otterz4Life

Member
Those 10/10 and 100/100 reviews are a real hoot. Just reading them you can tell they were written by slobbering fanboys. Holy moly, some of them are nearly as bad as EGM's infamous Gears of War review.
Yeah. The SonySpot review was very entertaining. The mental gymnastics on display from Kallie ”Too Much Water” Plagge were impressive.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
I've waited all day to post, read a lot of these reviews out of curiosity really. I can appreciate this game is probably not for me. I got impatient in the snow sections in AC3 for example and that's fine. I'm not the target audience. I do find the reviews interesting though. A lot, I mean a LOT seem to really find a lot of faults or tedium in the game and yet still give what I'd consider high scores (8.5+), and there are some which are obviously low balled. who seem to go deliberately low to spite the game or get the clicks.

This makes it really difficult to actually gauge the true quality of this game or to clear things up for me. Just have to wait till GAF plays it and offers its impressions. I think reading the reviews though, there has been a tendency to upscore it by at least half a point in most cases which makes it even harder to ascertain the 'truth'. It just feels like there's a little bit of trepidation or peer pressure on the score as opposed to the text or thoughts of the review itself. Part of reviewing or being a critic is about finding that balance between personal indifference/hype and being able to draw out analogies, comparisons and contextualise it for the readers. I don;t feel any of the reviews do this, of the 17-20 I've read throughout today.
 

Mista

Banned
Those 10/10 and 100/100 reviews are a real hoot. Just reading them you can tell they were written by slobbering fanboys. Holy moly, some of them are nearly as bad as EGM's infamous Gears of War review.
Oh so it’s either bash the game for “proper criticism” or giving it a full score is “fanboying” .. I thought that’s called different opinions so what changed now. Unless the bashing is “real criticism” and someone having another opinion that’s a good one about the game is “fanboying”
 

MiguelItUp

Member
Oh so it’s either bash the game for “proper criticism” or giving it a full score is “fanboying” .. I thought that’s called different opinions so what changed now. Unless the bashing is “real criticism” and someone having another opinion that’s a good one about the game is “fanboying”
Yup, this is the worst case of this that I've seen in a long time. At least since I can remember. It's like I have two paths to take or be labeled as when I complete the game. One is, "SEE I TOLD YOU THE GAME IS SHIT!" while the other is "YOU'RE A MINDLESS KOJIMA FANBOY!"

Awesome, lmao.

This game could be EXACTLY this and not Kojima, and I'd be in the exact same spot I'm in now. But you know, whatever, lol. 🤷‍♂️
 
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D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
The mixed reception actually makes me more interested in the game. I was planning on waiting for the recently announced PC version, but I might just be there Day 1.
 

Mista

Banned
Yup, this is the worst case of this that I've seen in a long time. At least since I can remember. It's like I have two paths to take or be labeled as when I complete the game. One is, "SEE I TOLD YOU THE GAME IS SHIT!" while the other is "YOU'RE A MINDLESS KOJIMA FANBOY!"

Awesome, lmao.

This game could be EXACTLY this and not Kojima, and I'd be in the exact same spot I'm in now. But you know, whatever, lol. 🤷‍♂️
It’s a waste of time. I said to myself that I’ll never engage in such a hypocritical “discussion” ever again on here but I’ve let myself down. Carry on mate and buy the comfort of your mind.
 

Stuart360

Member
I guess all the 10/10 reviews score for RDR2 must be fake as well because I personally don't like the game.....right!?
RDR2 didnt have many, if any, bad reviews though, it was universally loved overall. That doesnt mean every player will think the same.
Point is how can a game get a load of 6/10 level reviews, then get a load of perfect 10/10 reviews?. There is obviously problems with the game, major problems.
And Kojima fanboyism spreads far and wide, many reviewers will be Kojima fanboys themselves, and many are simply scared of the backlash from KWO, Kojima himself (in terms of eclusives, interviews, etc).
 
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