raddrax
2 reviews liked by raddrax
Death Stranding
2019
11/24/19: Definitely a Kojima game; where he thought of a premise that makes very little sense in a practical world. It could just as easily be a game about being a postal worker in 2019 who encounters ghosts on his route, but it has to be the most overly complicated nonsensical plot ever. I've played every single Kojima game (MGS and MGS4 being my all time favorite) and there is usually a sense of accomplishments between the gameplay and the overly long cinematic and dialog trees... but this game feels way more tedious in the ladder. He nailed the presentation aspect though; that opening gameplay segment with the music (low Roar "Don't be so serious") playing as you're running through the green open fields. That was beautiful. I just fixed up the bike, so my route's between bases will be quicker. But god damn it's still a game about delivering packages.
I found my Vita yesterday and eventually hooked it up to remote play to my PS4... so I think I'll be able to play this a lot more than I originally thought.
11/25/19: I just reached episode 3, right after you are thrown into the most convoluted, obscene boss battle ever convinced by man, and my game is hung on the loading scene. Time for a break I suppose.
Oh and protip, don't try and ride your bike through a BT area. Doesn't work.
11/26/19: This game is a metaphor to everyone in cinema saying we need more original ideas and less super hero films. In 2019, this game is equivalent to Under the Silver Lake.
The annoyances start to shine through- I still find it fucking hilarous that after I travel what is equivalent to 1/10th the distance across the United States (it's only refereed to as "America" in the game, which is also hilarous), plop my delivery down on the conveyor belt as it gets processed through a bunch of elevators and hooks, a nifty little hologram boots up and tells me how valuable I am to rebuilding "America"... I look around these giant delivery facilities and realize there isn't another soul in these buildings. Everyone is communicating to me remote via hologram or codec (gee Kojima, still can't get past the codec from MGS eh?) . Like, we have the technology for holograms, for these BB devices, giant beautiful structures, weird ass vehicles, but can't figure out how to deliver supplies across the country unmanned? They do reference drones at one point but I forget the reason why they stopped using them.
11/27/19: The more I play Death Stranding, the more I feel like the game was designed so Kojima could see what he could get away with in a game.
There's a lot to be annoyed with...
Like the self-congratulations after delivering a tiny package is comical; there's like 37 different lines of measure you see every single time, that you eventually just skip through it all. From the dialog of the guy accepting the package to whatever you are being graded on; Quality of the package, time it took you to deliver, which THEN translate to your rewards and ranking system- which feels never ending. Normal ranking systems have what? 1-30, 1-60? With Recruit, Captain, Colonel, General etc etc? Not a Kojima game. It's ranking system goes from 1- infinity+... from all kinds of different names like Veteran Porter, Expert Hiker, Expert Transporter... etc etc. I can't remember most of them because you can breeze through them with one large delivery.
If that wasn't complicated enough, lets make every city have a similar name so you can never remember which is which or where you are or where you need to go without looking at the Arial map, which btw is completely useless. You can't tell the different between a huge canyon or a giant mountain so good luck traversing until you come across an obstacle you wish you were aware of before you started on your journey. The names of places are: Capital Knot City, Mountain Knot City, Waystation Knot, Edge Knot City... wtf is this shit?
But hey... I'm still playing it I guess.
I found my Vita yesterday and eventually hooked it up to remote play to my PS4... so I think I'll be able to play this a lot more than I originally thought.
11/25/19: I just reached episode 3, right after you are thrown into the most convoluted, obscene boss battle ever convinced by man, and my game is hung on the loading scene. Time for a break I suppose.
Oh and protip, don't try and ride your bike through a BT area. Doesn't work.
11/26/19: This game is a metaphor to everyone in cinema saying we need more original ideas and less super hero films. In 2019, this game is equivalent to Under the Silver Lake.
The annoyances start to shine through- I still find it fucking hilarous that after I travel what is equivalent to 1/10th the distance across the United States (it's only refereed to as "America" in the game, which is also hilarous), plop my delivery down on the conveyor belt as it gets processed through a bunch of elevators and hooks, a nifty little hologram boots up and tells me how valuable I am to rebuilding "America"... I look around these giant delivery facilities and realize there isn't another soul in these buildings. Everyone is communicating to me remote via hologram or codec (gee Kojima, still can't get past the codec from MGS eh?) . Like, we have the technology for holograms, for these BB devices, giant beautiful structures, weird ass vehicles, but can't figure out how to deliver supplies across the country unmanned? They do reference drones at one point but I forget the reason why they stopped using them.
11/27/19: The more I play Death Stranding, the more I feel like the game was designed so Kojima could see what he could get away with in a game.
There's a lot to be annoyed with...
Like the self-congratulations after delivering a tiny package is comical; there's like 37 different lines of measure you see every single time, that you eventually just skip through it all. From the dialog of the guy accepting the package to whatever you are being graded on; Quality of the package, time it took you to deliver, which THEN translate to your rewards and ranking system- which feels never ending. Normal ranking systems have what? 1-30, 1-60? With Recruit, Captain, Colonel, General etc etc? Not a Kojima game. It's ranking system goes from 1- infinity+... from all kinds of different names like Veteran Porter, Expert Hiker, Expert Transporter... etc etc. I can't remember most of them because you can breeze through them with one large delivery.
If that wasn't complicated enough, lets make every city have a similar name so you can never remember which is which or where you are or where you need to go without looking at the Arial map, which btw is completely useless. You can't tell the different between a huge canyon or a giant mountain so good luck traversing until you come across an obstacle you wish you were aware of before you started on your journey. The names of places are: Capital Knot City, Mountain Knot City, Waystation Knot, Edge Knot City... wtf is this shit?
But hey... I'm still playing it I guess.
Death Stranding
2019
This is mostly the kind of game that I've been waiting for for a very long time, a true "walking sim". Instead of using this term derisively for linear, plot-driven games where you hold W and click things, walking is instead given a full set of mechanics and is your main way of interfacing with the game world.
In that regard, this game is a fucking masterpiece. Using your tools and your mind to navigate this world is a treat and seeing those tools benefit others is one of my favorite parts of any game, period. A special mention goes out to the floating carriers, because finding a good spot to plop that bad boy down and turn this into a snowboarding game is always an excellent feeling. Even the combat with other humans is fun, as it's just difficult enough to pose a threat without being oppressive.
Where this game really falls short for me, though, is the story. It is the kind of dense throwaway lore you should probably expect from Kojima, a world that is dead set on breaking your immersion every possible moment by having everyone repeat the themes of the game back to you every time you have the audacity to interact with someone.
Any time the story ties into the gameplay, it begins to cross the line from "encouraging the player to find fun in minutiae" into straight-up tedium. The game attempts to force you to care about BB by taking him away for a couple missions, but I ended up liking those the best by far. The BTs are literally never any fun to interact with, and the fact that they become comically easy to deal with as you upgrade your gadgets doesn't make it any better. Last but certainly not least - putting boss fights in a game like this should be punishable by a substantial prison sentence.
It is an excellent set of gameplay mechanics bogged down by Kojima bullshit. It's really a shame this is the price we have to pay to actually play this game, then, because you can bet your ass that at any other studio this would be some bonkers scrapped idea that would get an employee laughed back into a coffee-fetching role. Despite all the things that make me groan and all the venom I have for the plot, it's one of the most unique games I've ever played wrapped up in a AAA package, and if every 7 out of 10 I've played was like this I'd never have a fucking dime to my name again.
In that regard, this game is a fucking masterpiece. Using your tools and your mind to navigate this world is a treat and seeing those tools benefit others is one of my favorite parts of any game, period. A special mention goes out to the floating carriers, because finding a good spot to plop that bad boy down and turn this into a snowboarding game is always an excellent feeling. Even the combat with other humans is fun, as it's just difficult enough to pose a threat without being oppressive.
Where this game really falls short for me, though, is the story. It is the kind of dense throwaway lore you should probably expect from Kojima, a world that is dead set on breaking your immersion every possible moment by having everyone repeat the themes of the game back to you every time you have the audacity to interact with someone.
Any time the story ties into the gameplay, it begins to cross the line from "encouraging the player to find fun in minutiae" into straight-up tedium. The game attempts to force you to care about BB by taking him away for a couple missions, but I ended up liking those the best by far. The BTs are literally never any fun to interact with, and the fact that they become comically easy to deal with as you upgrade your gadgets doesn't make it any better. Last but certainly not least - putting boss fights in a game like this should be punishable by a substantial prison sentence.
It is an excellent set of gameplay mechanics bogged down by Kojima bullshit. It's really a shame this is the price we have to pay to actually play this game, then, because you can bet your ass that at any other studio this would be some bonkers scrapped idea that would get an employee laughed back into a coffee-fetching role. Despite all the things that make me groan and all the venom I have for the plot, it's one of the most unique games I've ever played wrapped up in a AAA package, and if every 7 out of 10 I've played was like this I'd never have a fucking dime to my name again.