A roller-coaster of a game, Death Stranding divisiveness is well-earned I think.

When the game hits you, it really hooks you with their incredible vistas and its strangely addicting gameplay. Walking from one site of the map to another its quite fun when it challenges your strategies and plans.

On the other hand, it gets incredible boring with it take some of your tools (Chapter 6) in order to create a sense of challenge, and some of it's encounter become repetitive and something you wish you could just skip.

It remains an incredible game, but one that I wish had keep it's focus on the traversal and planning side of the gameplay than it's stealth and combat side.

There's sporadic pieces here I really like; being a porter travelling through harsh environments sounds like a really cool video game (and in places it is), the story stuff (when it gets weird) is fun, piss grenades is a masterful concept. But it's also really really fucking boring, well beyond the inherent level you'd expect from the "postman video game" pitch. It's like its been meticulously designed to bore you to death as much as possible, with clunky menu after quick time event after dropped package after terrible boss fight after baby shake minigame. Every time a BT encounter showed up it felt like a punch line: I was just starting to relax a bit and enjoy the hike and then boom, world's shittiest stealth section, kill me.

The "postman delivering packages across harsh environments (and it's also a fun video game)" concept remains untapped, hopefully we'll get a good one before the world implodes or melts or freezes over.

This game is currently in the Humble Choice for April 2023, and this is part of my coverage of the bundle. If you are interested in the game and it's before May 2nd, 2023, consider picking up the game as part of the current monthly bundle.

A true walking simulator.

Hideo Kojima is probably best known for Metal Gear Solid. After Leaving Konami he created Death Stranding, a brand-new and strange game. A few years after that he released the Director’s Cut which has a decent amount of new content, including new missions, cutscenes, abilities, and areas. Death Stranding is a unique game telling a Kojima-tier story about a post-apocalyptic world.

It’s hard to explain why the game is good without explaining the story, and that story is filled with important secrets, so this is a game to tackle a bit blind On the other hand the gameplay is a mixture of exploration and walking which probably will sound odd but is strangely compelling

There are two issues I feel are important for Death Stranding. The first is that while there are tons of different things to do, the core of the game is getting from point A to B, and many people complained about the lack of combat in the game. The other is that while this has a great crazy Kojima-tier story, the story and gameplay often feel disjointed, almost like they could have come from different games. But if you enjoy both it won’t be as big of an issue.

Pick this up if you want the usual Kojima insanity, this man tells stories that are unique and oftentimes brilliant but also challenging and they will take a lot of thought. If you ever find yourself wanting to go for a long beautiful walk, Death Stranding will be there for you as well. But I’ll also be honest if it wasn’t for Kojima’s name, I don’t think this game would have sold as well. Even with all that, I still heavily enjoy this title, but it’s not going to be for everyone.

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Death Stranding supone mi primer acercamiento real a la mente de Hideo Kojima. Nunca había jugado a un juego de este narrador, pero los conocía. Y ahora, tras haber reposado durante horas este complejo videojuego, es hora de hablar de él.

DS es un juego único, original, autoral y tan complejo que merece jugarse. La mente de Kojima es muy complicada y eso se nota al intentar entender la historia que compone cada uno de sus personajes, sus mundos y sus detalles. Al final todo cobra sentido, mas o menos, de cara a la recta final. Lo que más me ha gustado ha sido esa sensación real de conexión con el mundo, lo que haga la gente en sus partidas se reflejan en la tuya y viceversa. Ese puente, esa conexión con la comunidad es palpable a la hora de avanzar en el juego. La gente construyendo puentes, carreteras, apoyos para que todos los jugadores podamos avanzar.

Gráficamente es un juego espectacular y con los añadidos de esta versión con los 60fps, texturas... Y la banda sonora es tremenda con unas piezas musicales muy armónicas y casi espirituales.

DS es un juego con el que me lo he pasado genial. Con una historia tan abrumadora que me ha gustado un montón. Todos los detalles escondidos en lugares, personajes, objetos, situaciones...son una maravilla. Ojala Hideo haga cine. Se ve que le tiene ganas y le pone mucho empeño a la cinematografía del juego. Cuida tremendamente el guion, a sus personajes y esos diálogos metafóricos y filosóficos que acompañan. Me he emocionado mucho con el juego.

I'm really happy I came back to this one. I played a little bit a few years ago but wasn't hooked enough to stop me from jumping to other games. However once I jumped back into it, I ended up feeling surprised with the end result. Death Stranding is a game that is very hard to sell to people. The gameplay loop sounds boring, however I honestly enjoyed it for the whole runtime. I liked managing my packages, planning my routes and problem-solving my way through a hostile and supernatural america (which is visually gorgeous). Above the gameplay is the story, which presents a concept that I found so interesting and in-depth. That said, a lot of scenes are marred by obvious exposition, which is needed, however I feel it could have been done in a less heavy handed way. The vehicle gameplay is also very clunky, to the point where I would rather just walk the whole way. Overall, this game, despite it's flaws, is unapologetically true to its themes and ideas, and I feel that Kojima has successfully delivered a story of life and death, and the importance that connections have on making that journey across these two ends worth it.

Intriguing and weird and totally unique and... Didn't quite grab me. The way Death Stranding has all these lofty ideas and musings, while also making basic things like descending a steep hill feel genuinely thrilling is super impressive. I found the contemplative wandering to be surprisingly relaxing.

But something about it just didn't hook me after six or so hours of play. While I appreciate its unique approach to multiplayer, and open world maneuvering, I think a lot of the other mechanics didn't click for me. I got bored of dodging BTs fairly early and almost wish Kojima doubled down on how Not Metal Gear this game is, by ditching all semblances of combat at all. That probably would have been a deal breaker for some people but I think this would have really shined as a strictly exploration based game.

One for the 'I Respect It, But It's Not For Me' file.