Finished Death Stranding today.
My thoughts on it are all over the place. I did enjoy the game, but I enjoyed the story more than the actual gameplay. In this way it was lots like Alien Isolation. But to be clear, the gameplay in DS is more playable to me than Isolation. The story is also one you have to swallow the suspension of disbelief pill to work so if you are thinking about getting it, know that.
I know people have drawn comparisons to may other medias but the closest thing I can think of is NGE. There is something about the feel, the themes, even the color hue that reminds me so much (granted of what I can remember) of NGE. Sam isn't a whiny little bitch like Shinji, but is a shutout to the rest of humanity that gradually forms bonds with other people, the enemies are unknowable with motivations we don't understand (except THE enemy which reminds me somewhat of Kowaru) there are even random ass explosions when the BTs make contact with a human being called a voidout (matter vs antimatter), which reminded me of the 1st and 2nd impacts in NGE and the threatened third impact. They even try to explain all the crazy shit that is happening with enough psuedo science that the story doesn't feel like a series of ass pulls and just about all the main characters have emotional baggage of some sort.
I've heard people like the gameplay, but everything not included in the story to me just feels like fetch quest after fetch quest, and I dislike unpopulated gaming worlds. Occasionally you will run into AI porters, and enemy raiders and terrorist but there is no verbal interaction with them and the world feels very barren. Of course the story explains this so there is a reason for all the above, but its not my passion to run aroud and not interact with anything.
However the multiplayer aspect of the game IS unique. You might need to scale a mountain and another player might have already laid down a ladder for you to use to scale mountain, or built a bridge that allows a vehicle to get across a cliff. You can call out and see the phantoms of other players in the area, but there is no direct link to them. The last doesn't bother me since other players tend to take me right out of the game if it isn't traditional mp and thats why I solo games like the Division series and the new Ghost Recons.
I'm also not a fan of the forced no kill gameplay. YOU CAN KILL in this game but you can actually ruin your game by doing so. If you kill and leave a body, they will necrotize and kill a human which causes a voidout an force you to restart a game from an earlier save. IF you don't remember where you killed somebody at when you saved it to dispose of the body then you are SOL. You'll be forced to scan your minimap for corpse icons which are tiny. And there are some jackasses in this game that you need to be able to take out. AKA the terrorist. Instead you just run away from them letting them do terrorist things with no repercussions. Sam isn't really a pacifist, he beats the f**k out of many people, so the forced non kill thing feels out of place imo. Kind of like the Snake and the blowgun in MGSV. You can tell that Kojima wants to abandon the run and gun in favor of the no kill but it seems to contrast with his absolute love of military history and lore.
I actually surprised that hideo made this game where the characters weren't philosophers pondering the end of days with MGS length codec dialogues. This is probably his most relatable cast of characters since the first MGS. Only when the actual technical issues about the situation they are in is brought up does things drag on a bit but the characters themselves feel much more grounded than anything he's done recently imo. Sam especially isn't anything like Snake in the trivia or history regard. He KNOWS history, but he doesn't rattle on in endless dialogues about it. TBH I don't even remember if he initiates a codec the whole game. Usually people call him and he grunts and hangs up.
7.5/10.
But I'd actually give the story an 8.5/10. It is definitely out there, and you'd have to be one that likes philosophical end of day character dramas to like the story, but it did enough and had enough emotional weight that I've been thinking about it ever since I completed it today.
