Very conflicted feelings on this one…
The themes, art direction, voice acting, music, plot (kinda, will touch on it later) are all fantastic. All worthy of a top tier AAA game, and worthy of the hype attached to anything Kojima touches, BUT the presentation lets it down massively.
All of the above are phenomenal but the gameplay is so tedious, it’s halfway there to something great and just falls flat. I can understand why someone would love this but it’s not for me. Stealth/combat could be very fun but there’s just some tall grass and the strand weapon thing for takedowns, guns are uninteresting, hand to hand combat consists of a single 3 hit combo and a jump attack. The BT territory sections could also be very fun and engaging but they’re not, early on they’re gripping and feel very horror-esque but it’s not long before you just run through them with a Speed Skeleton or a Trike.
The meat of the game is traversal, and here I can see the appeal. I just felt like there was too much meandering and tedious journeys, to the point where it made it difficult to care about any of the cast beyond a few of the main characters. I can’t recall the name of a single person or story of any of the people at the way station things that I was constantly delivering to. Maybe this is on me, but by about 30% into the game I wasn’t giving any thought whatsoever into how I traverse areas, I’d simply craft a Bike, bring a few PCCs to keep it fully charged when I can, a Speed Skeleton, and just raw dog it to my destination lol. They kept throwing new items at me that would make my journey “easier” but why would I go through the hassle of carrying more cargo when I can just zip A-Z with the bike? Vibes are good tho
The story… idk how to feel. I think it’s solid but it’s presented so awfully. Boring exposition dumps, filler, uninteresting side characters, convoluted menus, “lore” hidden behind walls and walls and walls of text, and much more that just muddy what could be a more enjoyable experience. Kojima is just trying too hard. The game is also longer than it needed to be. I think cutting down from roughly 35 hours to 25 would do the game wonders, but I guess that would cause issues considering over half the game would then be cutscenes… I guess that’s why the game is statpadded with so much nonsense in the first place.
There genuinely is something really phenomenal here but very deep under the surface, because of the poor presentation it comes off as pretentious, self absorbed, pseudo intellectual, fake deep HOOPLA.
Some positives… I LOVE that Kojima doesn’t shy away from the fact that this is a video game. He fully embraces that whether it be through the hilarious 4th wall breaks, health bars in the Higgs fight, Heartman giving the players thumbs up, etc etc. very good
The core theme is about the strands (lol) that connect us to each other, and if anything, they nailed this on the head through the narrative and the gameplay. Out in the world you’ll never encounter another player, and you’ll never talk to another player, but you will find yourself rejoicing when you find a structure left behind by another player when you’re in a pinch. You’ll feel useful when you get the notification that another player used your structure that you left behind, you’ll spam likes on every structure to others know it was useful. Basically, it’s a very good feeling and it best emphasises selflessness and extending a helping hand out of kindness to a stranger through video games in a way never done. The closest comparison I can think of is NieR Automata’s Ending E, but like this is a whole game out of that credits sequence. sometimes I did dismantle my structures after finding a crazy route tho sorry lol I’m gatekeeping 😅😅 and thank you to every player that left generators everywhere, you made blitzing through everything with just a bike and speed skeleton easier
Some phenomenal characters in Cliff, Fragile, Malingen/Lockne and Die Hardman. Higgs had potential but eventually he became uninteresting, look forward to seeing what he’s cooking in the sequel. Cliff specifically tho… I don’t know if it’s because I’m just a huge Mads Mikkelsen fan but he’s one of my favourite video game characters already. What a man.
The soundtrack is some of the best you’ll find in the medium, just wish there were more moments where music would cut in while you’re out doing your deliveries. The game is very good looking, the face work is unreal all the actors killed it.
ok I’m done lol. Everything good but presented like ass making that everything not so good, brings an 8 or 9 down to a 4 or 5 it’s a huge shame
TLDR; just watch the cutscenes on YouTube
The themes, art direction, voice acting, music, plot (kinda, will touch on it later) are all fantastic. All worthy of a top tier AAA game, and worthy of the hype attached to anything Kojima touches, BUT the presentation lets it down massively.
All of the above are phenomenal but the gameplay is so tedious, it’s halfway there to something great and just falls flat. I can understand why someone would love this but it’s not for me. Stealth/combat could be very fun but there’s just some tall grass and the strand weapon thing for takedowns, guns are uninteresting, hand to hand combat consists of a single 3 hit combo and a jump attack. The BT territory sections could also be very fun and engaging but they’re not, early on they’re gripping and feel very horror-esque but it’s not long before you just run through them with a Speed Skeleton or a Trike.
The meat of the game is traversal, and here I can see the appeal. I just felt like there was too much meandering and tedious journeys, to the point where it made it difficult to care about any of the cast beyond a few of the main characters. I can’t recall the name of a single person or story of any of the people at the way station things that I was constantly delivering to. Maybe this is on me, but by about 30% into the game I wasn’t giving any thought whatsoever into how I traverse areas, I’d simply craft a Bike, bring a few PCCs to keep it fully charged when I can, a Speed Skeleton, and just raw dog it to my destination lol. They kept throwing new items at me that would make my journey “easier” but why would I go through the hassle of carrying more cargo when I can just zip A-Z with the bike? Vibes are good tho
The story… idk how to feel. I think it’s solid but it’s presented so awfully. Boring exposition dumps, filler, uninteresting side characters, convoluted menus, “lore” hidden behind walls and walls and walls of text, and much more that just muddy what could be a more enjoyable experience. Kojima is just trying too hard. The game is also longer than it needed to be. I think cutting down from roughly 35 hours to 25 would do the game wonders, but I guess that would cause issues considering over half the game would then be cutscenes… I guess that’s why the game is statpadded with so much nonsense in the first place.
There genuinely is something really phenomenal here but very deep under the surface, because of the poor presentation it comes off as pretentious, self absorbed, pseudo intellectual, fake deep HOOPLA.
Some positives… I LOVE that Kojima doesn’t shy away from the fact that this is a video game. He fully embraces that whether it be through the hilarious 4th wall breaks, health bars in the Higgs fight, Heartman giving the players thumbs up, etc etc. very good
The core theme is about the strands (lol) that connect us to each other, and if anything, they nailed this on the head through the narrative and the gameplay. Out in the world you’ll never encounter another player, and you’ll never talk to another player, but you will find yourself rejoicing when you find a structure left behind by another player when you’re in a pinch. You’ll feel useful when you get the notification that another player used your structure that you left behind, you’ll spam likes on every structure to others know it was useful. Basically, it’s a very good feeling and it best emphasises selflessness and extending a helping hand out of kindness to a stranger through video games in a way never done. The closest comparison I can think of is NieR Automata’s Ending E, but like this is a whole game out of that credits sequence. sometimes I did dismantle my structures after finding a crazy route tho sorry lol I’m gatekeeping 😅😅 and thank you to every player that left generators everywhere, you made blitzing through everything with just a bike and speed skeleton easier
Some phenomenal characters in Cliff, Fragile, Malingen/Lockne and Die Hardman. Higgs had potential but eventually he became uninteresting, look forward to seeing what he’s cooking in the sequel. Cliff specifically tho… I don’t know if it’s because I’m just a huge Mads Mikkelsen fan but he’s one of my favourite video game characters already. What a man.
The soundtrack is some of the best you’ll find in the medium, just wish there were more moments where music would cut in while you’re out doing your deliveries. The game is very good looking, the face work is unreal all the actors killed it.
ok I’m done lol. Everything good but presented like ass making that everything not so good, brings an 8 or 9 down to a 4 or 5 it’s a huge shame
TLDR; just watch the cutscenes on YouTube
2 Comments
Thank you for this in-depth review.
goneangels
5 months ago