𝗬𝗼𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗶 𝗞𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘀𝗲 - Original director of Final Fantasy 7
𝗞𝗮𝘇𝘂𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗲 𝗡𝗼𝗷𝗶𝗺𝗮 - One of the original writers.
𝗛𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗯𝘂 𝗦𝗮𝗸𝗮𝗴𝘂𝗰𝗵𝗶- The designer behind Chrono Trigger
𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗶 𝗧𝗼𝗸𝗶𝘁𝗮 - one of the directors.
𝗝𝗼𝗵𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗸 - The coding mind behind Doomsday engines
𝗧𝗶𝗺 𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗳𝗲𝗿 - Designer of The Secret of Monkey Island
𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗷𝗶 𝗠𝗶𝗸𝗮𝗺𝗶 and 𝗛𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗸𝗶 𝗞𝗮𝗺𝗶𝘆𝗮- The original Resident Evil 2 directors
𝗖𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘆 𝗛𝘂𝗱𝘀𝗼𝗻 - The mastermind behind Mass Effect trilogy
𝗗𝗿𝗲𝘄 𝗞𝗮𝗿𝗽𝘆𝘀𝗵𝘆𝗻- The writer
𝗛𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼 𝗞𝗼𝗷𝗶𝗺𝗮 - First to bring stealth to an international audience
𝗦𝗵𝘂𝘆𝗼 𝗠𝘂𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗮 - One of the writers of Ground Zeroes (best Metal Gear on my opinion)

Kojima is but one great mind among many. Only praising Hideo’s Kojima as an LEGENDARY game developer - as if there is no team behind him, as if he was the only one, over and over everywhere I go? Such brain implant isn’t going to work with everyone. Those other names aren’t blessed by the same advertising methodology like Todd Howard. They're your gods until some Fallout 76 disaster comes out, then all that said “love” fades away.

When someone is truly legendary, you don’t need someone repeating it so we can remember. What we need is some self-awareness and independent-thoughts and a good dose of freedom, unless you’re willing to go back to the stone-ages. The past decade was pretty close to that so watch yourself out there.


Some writers can go very deep in both spirituality and psychology, even existentialism, not very popular with some folks. Before claiming this game is boring, movies like Angel’s Egg could illuminate some people. The slow pace is slowly building those things I mentioned, the slow pace is required. Sadly when it is a game, it can affect the gameplay with a very long learning curve. When someone misuses that or overstays it there, then it is BORING - it is exactly the case here.


Those types of games usually lets you create your own character and customize hundreds of stuff. This isn’t the case here, but I must say this isn’t a rule so I got no problem with that.

1. You can choose the “very easy” difficulty if you're a story-only kind of gamer.
   
   
2. Immersion flanks differently than most games.
   
   
3. The story isn’t exactly what I was told, but still got its own meritory moments.
   
   
4. Sam is an imperfect hero and I always enjoy those types.
   
   
5. I like the communion between sci-fi and fantasy. (sci-fantasy?)
   
   
6. The terrain modeling was the reason I bought the game.
   
   
7. Satisfying sci-fi design on suits, guns, equipment and vehicles.
   
   
8. Voice acting during cutscenes are very good, with few exceptions.
   
   
9. I like how this game braves uncharted mechanics like the 90s games used to do.
   
   
10. Exploration, strategy, action, horror, fantasy, it’s everything here but not quite there.

Games like this where the farming is so thorough, the reward is often reasonable with the stuff you go through. When I deliver I guess I’m being rewarded with MORE crap so I can build stuff to keep farming other crap. For better or for worse, the main reason is to progress the story that barely attaches me to any character, because the game persists in keeping weirdness going on while it drains humanity from them so I naturally stop caring about them.

• PC platforms can do much better graphics than this.

The “very high settings'' is supposed to be ultra? It is a sad dead thing to see. I understand all the porting yadda-yadda behind it but the lack of deeper tweaking by design is insulting. But I guess crushing console capabilities this bad would either be expensive or just bad for console business.

• The 3rd person camera bumps...

They almost “fixed” one of the most annoying problems that prevented me from buying this game past year, so I was right all along. When running on-foot over rocks and damaged terrain (that is 90% of the game) the camera dead zone was straight locked behind Sam’s center back like the first 3D games ever made. It caused the camera to stutter progressively after stepping rocks and small stuff, it was really irritating. Now it seems to be much smoother and way better now - unfortunately I can still see signs of it there - perhaps it's just trauma.

• Corporate weakling sponsoring a game at the cost of immersion.

In a post apocalypse world it seems Monster still is fabricating the energy drink. How? Dunno. Not just energy drink but also “collaboration” with other games that got nothing to do with the provided theme, such as Cyberpunk 2077. Sam has this “magic” can, that when you fill with natural water, the energy drink mysteriously refills again. Sorry, but my brain just can’t ignore this sheat.

1. The fourth-wall breaking is supposed to be funny?
   
   
2. False sense of difficulty, the BBs aren’t that much of a threat as you guessed.
   
   
3. Delivery can be repetitive to the extreme, and super systematic.
   
   
4. Dialog is the work of a university freshman. It is often immature and repetitive.
   
   
5. Amateurish body capture in cutscenes undermines voice acting.
   
   
6. Cutscenes are so slow they could use dialog options to spice things up.
   
   
7. Driving on the landscape could have been as hard and organic as it is on foot.
   
   
8. Preparation is very confusing, too many pointless useless numbers and info.
   
   
9. Excessive tips are badly timed overloading information instead of helping.
   
   
10. Mandatory “courtesy music” you can’t turn off in options.
    
    
11. This game could use a glider, since mechanical aerial vehicles can’t be used.
    
    
12. I don’t get why Sam uses a hoodie instead of a helmet against Timefall.
    
    
13. I don’t get why everything ages to rain, but not the grass, not the buildings.
    
    
14. You won’t meet A.I. porters but you find other player’s remains. (in a singleplayer?)
    
    
15. The foundation of the genre is sound, but the delivery is rather confusing.

I respect the developers intentions and I get it. It seems it wasn’t the intention to provide an ultra realistic game, just hiking mechanics and some fighting, yet there is realism, but no. If you run too much, you can trip over a rock and fall - that’s realistic. But you can also take items from the ground at superhuman speed, or carry items tower high, so high it is ridiculous and hilarious. That’s gamey mechanics. Those types of confusing things seems to always land on the “Kojima’s style” card or whatever, sorry but writing doesn't work like that.


I remember watching Evangelion when I was younger, but I could spot when the director was trying to act the mysterious writer, it was a downside to me. When you can spot the attempt then the magic dies. Disturbing has nothing to do with annoying. A good movie to use as an example is “Mother!” dreaded fever sequence in the house and the Matrix trilogy, people still discuss if the real world is truly real, now that's real mysteries. In games you got the Indoctrination Theory on Mass Effect. See what I mean?

Death Stranding just keeps posing, forcing it down, trying to act mysterious and weird but very frequently it falls out pretentious. The main reason is a poor virtual camera direction, some gamey immaturity here and there pretending to be a movie or series or whatever. It isn’t bad, but indulgent at best. Maybe next time.

[code][b]WHEN YOU'RE FORCED TO PRAISE SOMEONE ELSE'S GOD[/b][/code] 𝗬𝗼𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗶 𝗞𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘀𝗲 - Original director of Final Fantasy 7 𝗞𝗮𝘇𝘂𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗲 𝗡𝗼𝗷𝗶𝗺𝗮 - One of the original writers. 𝗛𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗯𝘂 𝗦𝗮𝗸𝗮𝗴𝘂𝗰𝗵𝗶- The designer behind Chrono Trigger 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗶 𝗧𝗼𝗸𝗶𝘁𝗮 - one of the directors. 𝗝𝗼𝗵𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗸 - The coding mind behind Doomsday engines 𝗧𝗶𝗺 𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗳𝗲𝗿 - Designer of The Secret of Monkey Island 𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗷𝗶 𝗠𝗶𝗸𝗮𝗺𝗶 and 𝗛𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗸𝗶 𝗞𝗮𝗺𝗶𝘆𝗮- The original Resident Evil 2 directors 𝗖𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘆 𝗛𝘂𝗱𝘀𝗼𝗻 - The mastermind behind Mass Effect trilogy 𝗗𝗿𝗲𝘄 𝗞𝗮𝗿𝗽𝘆𝘀𝗵𝘆𝗻- The writer 𝗛𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼 𝗞𝗼𝗷𝗶𝗺𝗮 - First to bring stealth to an international audience 𝗦𝗵𝘂𝘆𝗼 𝗠𝘂𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗮 - One of the writers of Ground Zeroes (best Metal Gear on my opinion) Kojima is but one great mind among many. Only praising Hideo’s Kojima as an LEGENDARY game developer - as if there is no team behind him, as if he was the only one, over and over everywhere I go? Such brain implant isn’t going to work with everyone. Those other names aren’t blessed by the same advertising methodology like Todd Howard. They're your gods until some Fallout 76 disaster comes out, then all that said “love” fades away. When someone is truly legendary, you don’t need someone repeating it so we can remember. What we need is some self-awareness and independent-thoughts and a good dose of freedom, unless you’re willing to go back to the stone-ages. The past decade was pretty close to that so watch yourself out there. [code][b]THINK BEFORE YOU CLAIM SOMETHING IS BORING, THEN COMPLAIN AFTER THAT.[/b][/code] Some writers can go very deep in both spirituality and psychology, even existentialism, not very popular with some folks. Before claiming this game is boring, movies like [b]Angel’s Egg[/b] could illuminate some people. The slow pace is slowly building those things I mentioned, the slow pace is required. Sadly when it is a game, it can affect the gameplay with a very long learning curve. When someone misuses that or overstays it there, then it is BORING - it is exactly the case here. [h1][b]10 things that I like about Death Stranding[/b][/h1] Those types of games usually lets you create your own character and customize hundreds of stuff. This isn’t the case here, but I must say this isn’t a rule so I got no problem with that. [olist][*]You can choose the “very easy” difficulty if you're a story-only kind of gamer. [*]Immersion flanks differently than most games. [*]The story isn’t exactly what I was told, but still got its own meritory moments. [*]Sam is an imperfect hero and I always enjoy those types. [*]I like the communion between sci-fi and fantasy. (sci-fantasy?) [*]The terrain modeling was the reason I bought the game. [*]Satisfying sci-fi design on suits, guns, equipment and vehicles. [*]Voice acting during cutscenes are very good, with few exceptions. [*]I like how this game braves uncharted mechanics like the 90s games used to do. [*]Exploration, strategy, action, horror, fantasy, it’s everything here but not quite there.[/olist] [h1][b]Things that should be illegal[/b][/h1] Games like this where the farming is so thorough, the reward is often reasonable with the stuff you go through. When I deliver I guess I’m being rewarded with MORE crap so I can build stuff to keep farming other crap. For better or for worse, the main reason is to progress the story that barely attaches me to any character, because the game persists in keeping weirdness going on while it drains humanity from them so I naturally stop caring about them. [list][*]PC platforms can do much better graphics than this.[/list] The “very high settings'' is supposed to be ultra? It is a sad dead thing to see. I understand all the porting yadda-yadda behind it but the lack of deeper tweaking by design is insulting. But I guess crushing console capabilities this bad would either be expensive or just bad for console business. [list][*]The 3rd person camera bumps...[/list] They almost “fixed” one of the most annoying problems that prevented me from buying this game past year, so I was right all along. When running on-foot over rocks and damaged terrain (that is 90% of the game) the camera dead zone was straight locked behind Sam’s center back like the first 3D games ever made. It caused the camera to stutter progressively after stepping rocks and small stuff, it was really irritating. Now it seems to be much smoother and way better now - unfortunately I can still see signs of it there - perhaps it's just trauma. [list][*]Corporate weakling sponsoring a game at the cost of immersion.[/list] In a post apocalypse world it seems Monster still is fabricating the energy drink. How? Dunno. Not just energy drink but also “collaboration” with other games that got nothing to do with the provided theme, such as Cyberpunk 2077. Sam has this “magic” can, that when you fill with natural water, the energy drink mysteriously refills again. Sorry, but my brain just can’t ignore this sheat. [h1][b]15 things that I can’t stand[/b][/h1] [olist][*]The fourth-wall breaking is supposed to be funny? [*]False sense of difficulty, the BBs aren’t that much of a threat as you guessed. [*]Delivery can be repetitive to the extreme, and super systematic. [*]Dialog is the work of a university freshman. It is often immature and repetitive. [*]Amateurish body capture in cutscenes undermines voice acting. [*]Cutscenes are so slow they could use dialog options to spice things up. [*]Driving on the landscape could have been as hard and organic as it is on foot. [*]Preparation is very confusing, too many pointless useless numbers and info. [*]Excessive tips are badly timed overloading information instead of helping. [*]Mandatory “courtesy music” you can’t turn off in options. [*]This game could use a glider, since mechanical aerial vehicles can’t be used. [*]I don’t get why Sam uses a hoodie instead of a helmet against Timefall. [*]I don’t get why everything ages to rain, but not the grass, not the buildings. [*]You won’t meet A.I. porters but you find other player’s remains. (in a singleplayer?) [*]The foundation of the genre is sound, but the delivery is rather confusing.[/olist] I respect the developers intentions and I get it. It seems it wasn’t the intention to provide an ultra realistic game, just hiking mechanics and some fighting, yet there is realism, but no. If you run too much, you can trip over a rock and fall - that’s realistic. But you can also take items from the ground at superhuman speed, or carry items tower high, so high it is ridiculous and hilarious. That’s gamey mechanics. Those types of confusing things seems to always land on the “Kojima’s style” card or whatever, sorry but writing doesn't work like that. [h1][b]Final Score: 5/10 - Refunded due disappointing perfomance[/b][/h1] I remember watching Evangelion when I was younger, but I could spot when the director was trying to act the mysterious writer, it was a downside to me. When you can spot the attempt then the magic dies. Disturbing has nothing to do with annoying. A good movie to use as an example is “Mother!” dreaded fever sequence in the house and the Matrix trilogy, people still discuss if the real world is truly real, now that's real mysteries. In games you got the Indoctrination Theory on Mass Effect. See what I mean? Death Stranding just keeps posing, forcing it down, trying to act mysterious and weird but very frequently it falls out pretentious. The main reason is a poor virtual camera direction, some gamey immaturity here and there pretending to be a movie or series or whatever. It isn’t bad, but indulgent at best. Maybe next time.