Guilty_AI
Member
I'm a huge fan of the MGS saga, played everything from the first one to V, including Peace Walker and Rising revengeance. Naturally i wouldn't let the most recent game by Kojima Productions slip through my radar.
==//==
First of all, i will adress the most controversial aspect of it: the gameplay
The gameplay loop is easily one of the strongest aspects of the game for me. Lots of people say its boring or that its just an "walking simulator" but i didn't get that impression at all, much the contrary. The open world, the progression system, the types of mission, everything was clearly design in a way to never make players feel "detached" from the game (a feeling you could easily get playing No Mans Sky for example).
You're always doing something, theres always something that requires your attention, like finding a way to safely climb a mountain, descending a steep slope, planning your route, going through BT territory, fighting off MULEs and Terrorists, considering wheter or not to take a bunch of lost cargo you found, fixing and preparing routes to make sure your next journey will be easier, "do I ditch my bike now to go on foot or risk going through with it?", etc... ironically, at the beginning of each delivery, instead of feeling i was out for another fetch quest and yawning, I would instead be rather tense pondering if i would make it with the cargo in one piece, especially when i was going through uncharted territory.
The only "boring" moments, where i was literally doing nothing but pressing forward, were the ones right before getting to my destination. Those were the "breathers", after passing through every obstacle, seeing the bunker in the distance, knowing i had made it with the cargo safe, it was when i could finally stop holding my breath and just enjoy the moment.
The progression system is also really good. Nothing beats the feeling of going through a bunch of dificulties, to then receive tools that would help me with exactly that, only for the game spike the dificulty even higher next time.
"Damn, MULES are such a pain to deal with, do I really have to struggle with them like that every time?"
"Fear not player, heres a bola gun to aid you"
"Great! That'll help me a lot but.. did their number just increase?"
"Fear not player, heres an upgraded bola gun with even more ammo"
"Ok, but why do they also have guns now?"
The whole game progresses like that.
I do have a big criticism towards the gameplay however, and that is the boss fights.
I spend the majority of the game learning how to safely deliver packages, thats the game.
Then why the hell i'm sundelly forced to fight some guy/monster as if this was an action game? Even worse, i HAVE to defeat them in order to progress, It feels completely disconnected from the rest of the game.
It'd make more sense as a boss fight if my objective wasn't necessarely defeat the boss but to run away from it, try getting to my destination with my package safe while fending off the boss. (light spoilers) Kinda like it happened at the end of the game, before the boss fight with the giant whale
I'd give this aspect a 10/10, but i'll reduce one point due to the issue with boss fights, so 9/10
I suppose the reason why people criticized the gameplay so much was due to the simple fact that it isn't for everyone.
This game was advertised and shown to a public thats used to fast paced action games, a public that'd naturally twist their nose at stuff like Euro Truck SImulator, Football manager or Factorio, and death stranding seems closer to that class of games.
==//==
Now the second aspect of the game: the story.
I actually didn't like the story of the game very much. It relies too much on dream-ish sequences or stuff you can never tell how much real it is, then on top of that its constantly holding out information on us that isn't explained until much later. It makes the whole thing too hard to follow (and hard to care as a consequence). I didn't like the characters all that much either, perhaps only with the exception of Sam himself.
Sam's is basically a generic action hero (tragic past, talks little, distance himself from others, grumpy voice, the best on his line of work, etc) but put on a completely different role than the one we're used to seeing them. He isn't a soldier, a cop, a criminal, a mercenary, nor anything of of the sort. He's just a delivery guy, he doesn't do dirt work he just delivers stuff, something that isn't just harmless but also undoubtedly beneficial for everyone involved. That does creates some interesting dynamics between him and the rest of that world, as well as how we perceive this kind of character.
Talking about the world, thats another aspect i did like about the game. The setting is definitely interesting, which makes walking about a good experience.
That said, the explanations you get on e-mails and interviews can a be a bit too much with all the pseudo-science stuff.
Now, even though i didn't like much of the story itself, i did like how well weaved into the gamplay it was. I'll talk about it but there'll be spoilers.
I'd give the story just a 5 or 6/10, but considering they did a good job matching story and gameplay (something not many AAA games know how to do properly), i'll raise it to a 7/10
TL;DR:
Gameplay is definitely good, although not for everyone.
Story isn't that great, but it weaves well into gameplay
Well, those were my impressions, but there's still one more thing....
MiyazakiHatesKojima
GETT ITTT
==//==
First of all, i will adress the most controversial aspect of it: the gameplay
The gameplay loop is easily one of the strongest aspects of the game for me. Lots of people say its boring or that its just an "walking simulator" but i didn't get that impression at all, much the contrary. The open world, the progression system, the types of mission, everything was clearly design in a way to never make players feel "detached" from the game (a feeling you could easily get playing No Mans Sky for example).
You're always doing something, theres always something that requires your attention, like finding a way to safely climb a mountain, descending a steep slope, planning your route, going through BT territory, fighting off MULEs and Terrorists, considering wheter or not to take a bunch of lost cargo you found, fixing and preparing routes to make sure your next journey will be easier, "do I ditch my bike now to go on foot or risk going through with it?", etc... ironically, at the beginning of each delivery, instead of feeling i was out for another fetch quest and yawning, I would instead be rather tense pondering if i would make it with the cargo in one piece, especially when i was going through uncharted territory.
The only "boring" moments, where i was literally doing nothing but pressing forward, were the ones right before getting to my destination. Those were the "breathers", after passing through every obstacle, seeing the bunker in the distance, knowing i had made it with the cargo safe, it was when i could finally stop holding my breath and just enjoy the moment.
The progression system is also really good. Nothing beats the feeling of going through a bunch of dificulties, to then receive tools that would help me with exactly that, only for the game spike the dificulty even higher next time.
"Damn, MULES are such a pain to deal with, do I really have to struggle with them like that every time?"
"Fear not player, heres a bola gun to aid you"
"Great! That'll help me a lot but.. did their number just increase?"
"Fear not player, heres an upgraded bola gun with even more ammo"
"Ok, but why do they also have guns now?"
The whole game progresses like that.
I do have a big criticism towards the gameplay however, and that is the boss fights.
I spend the majority of the game learning how to safely deliver packages, thats the game.
Then why the hell i'm sundelly forced to fight some guy/monster as if this was an action game? Even worse, i HAVE to defeat them in order to progress, It feels completely disconnected from the rest of the game.
It'd make more sense as a boss fight if my objective wasn't necessarely defeat the boss but to run away from it, try getting to my destination with my package safe while fending off the boss. (light spoilers) Kinda like it happened at the end of the game, before the boss fight with the giant whale
I'd give this aspect a 10/10, but i'll reduce one point due to the issue with boss fights, so 9/10
I suppose the reason why people criticized the gameplay so much was due to the simple fact that it isn't for everyone.
This game was advertised and shown to a public thats used to fast paced action games, a public that'd naturally twist their nose at stuff like Euro Truck SImulator, Football manager or Factorio, and death stranding seems closer to that class of games.
==//==
Now the second aspect of the game: the story.
I actually didn't like the story of the game very much. It relies too much on dream-ish sequences or stuff you can never tell how much real it is, then on top of that its constantly holding out information on us that isn't explained until much later. It makes the whole thing too hard to follow (and hard to care as a consequence). I didn't like the characters all that much either, perhaps only with the exception of Sam himself.
Sam's is basically a generic action hero (tragic past, talks little, distance himself from others, grumpy voice, the best on his line of work, etc) but put on a completely different role than the one we're used to seeing them. He isn't a soldier, a cop, a criminal, a mercenary, nor anything of of the sort. He's just a delivery guy, he doesn't do dirt work he just delivers stuff, something that isn't just harmless but also undoubtedly beneficial for everyone involved. That does creates some interesting dynamics between him and the rest of that world, as well as how we perceive this kind of character.
Talking about the world, thats another aspect i did like about the game. The setting is definitely interesting, which makes walking about a good experience.
That said, the explanations you get on e-mails and interviews can a be a bit too much with all the pseudo-science stuff.
Now, even though i didn't like much of the story itself, i did like how well weaved into the gamplay it was. I'll talk about it but there'll be spoilers.
At some point we learned that middle knot city was wiped out with a nuclear bomb that was sliped in as an order amongst the cargo Fragile was supposed to deliver. Then later we also learned of the existence of a lake that sucked everything to its bottom, perfect for disposing of stuff like bodies or contaminated cargo (one of the side quests we do for the junk dealer).
Then, Higgs appears in disguise and gives us a nuclear bomb in the form of an order to be delivered to south knot city. If you even so much as glance at the description of the package (something you might do due to the weirdness of the situation), everything will click in your head at that moment. Whats going on and what you're supposed to do. It easily became one of my favorite gaming moments.
Another twist that pleasantly caught me by surprise (more so than the stuff with Amelie and Bridget being the same person as well as an EE or whatever, or even war veteran being Sam's father) was finding out the Peter guy i was delivering pizza to was actually Higgs.
I initially thought they were just a joke of the game that also doubled as some interesting challenges, but i did engage with them. Imagining there was some weird guy out there that was really fanatic with pizza, i even rebuilt half the roads of the country just to get his pizza delivered safely in time. Finding out the truth shocked me because it completely changed the perspective i had on those missions, they weren't just a joke, it was Higgs messing with Sam by making him do hard and stupid errands (or maybe he just really liked pizza, i don't know)
Then, Higgs appears in disguise and gives us a nuclear bomb in the form of an order to be delivered to south knot city. If you even so much as glance at the description of the package (something you might do due to the weirdness of the situation), everything will click in your head at that moment. Whats going on and what you're supposed to do. It easily became one of my favorite gaming moments.
Another twist that pleasantly caught me by surprise (more so than the stuff with Amelie and Bridget being the same person as well as an EE or whatever, or even war veteran being Sam's father) was finding out the Peter guy i was delivering pizza to was actually Higgs.
I initially thought they were just a joke of the game that also doubled as some interesting challenges, but i did engage with them. Imagining there was some weird guy out there that was really fanatic with pizza, i even rebuilt half the roads of the country just to get his pizza delivered safely in time. Finding out the truth shocked me because it completely changed the perspective i had on those missions, they weren't just a joke, it was Higgs messing with Sam by making him do hard and stupid errands (or maybe he just really liked pizza, i don't know)
I'd give the story just a 5 or 6/10, but considering they did a good job matching story and gameplay (something not many AAA games know how to do properly), i'll raise it to a 7/10
TL;DR:
Gameplay is definitely good, although not for everyone.
Story isn't that great, but it weaves well into gameplay
Well, those were my impressions, but there's still one more thing....
MiyazakiHatesKojima
GETT ITTT
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