Death Stranding

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peter
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Death Stranding

Post by peter »

This PS4 exclusive, now playable on PC, was released a couple of years ago to much acclaim and I was pleased to pick up a copy recently for a few quid in a second hand store.

The game, made by respected game designer Hideo Kojima (also responsible for the Metal Gear series) is a strange and unearthly telling, reminiscent of the type of atmosphere encountered in the works of H P Lovecraft.

It's a third person survival game, open world I suppose you'd describe it, in which you play the role of Sam Porter Bridges, a so-called 'porter' whose job it is to deliver technical parts and other supplies to isolated surviving communities across a desolated United States. With the help of a pre-birth foetus that is able to see otherwise invisible creatures that feed upon the remaining people with hideous effects. When in contact with these other dimensional beings, and if unable to avoid or hide from them via stealth, very weird things start to happen indeed (think inter-dimensional sea-slugs bursting out of oil-spills in a landscape that twists and sinks like Krakatoa on cocaine) and one has to wade and jump and bolt for all one is worth in order to survive.

The game is playable in the offline mode, but really comes into its own when utilising an online connection, due to the ability of players to help eachother by leaving bridges, roaps and even roads to facilitate travel across the otherwise difficult and dangerous terrain. The interaction between players is limited to these structures and aids, but it is possible to leave nods of thanks and little messages which are scattered around and discovered as you play.

Sam is often on foot with an excessive amount of cargo strapped to his body, and just as one would in real life, he must adjust and balance his gear to best effect if he is not going to fall down or indeed collapse with exhaustion as he makes his rounds. Things are not helped by the frequent squalls of highly corrosive rain which has the property of rapidly aging any surface it lands upon (except apparently the plants and trees of the world), consequently ruining his gear. The recipients of his deliveries are not best pleased if their orders are in poor shape upon receiving them, and the system of 'likes' upon which progress is made is not thereby optimised.

It's a strange desolate game with a beautiful sound-track (really beautiful) and is story driven to a much higher degree than most other games. There are long and involved cut-scenes which gradually unfold into Sam's story (though open world, this is no RPG in the sense that you have control over the character you build - a bit like the Witcher really on this score (Geralt is Geralt really, choose what you do with him) - but these are engaging and solid and make the entire thing hang together in a way that might not otherwise work.

I'm not sure that Death Stranding is going to be everyone's cup of tea. I'm a few days into it and am really still very much at sea with the whole thing (my eyes are not good and with a game that has lots of small fine print in terms of the details given, this is proving a bit of a problem), but will certainly persevere for a while yet. I like the feel of the terrain and where some have complained about the lack of 'exploration' capabilities (in that there is nothing really to discover in the way of treasure or hidden tombs etc) for me the beauty and grandeur of the landscape is enough. You can fast travel later in the game (I read), but this would really defeat the purpose of the exercise. There are vehicles to play around in (yesterday I got my first motor trike and promptly bashed it to scrap, or near-abouts) and how much time you spend in these remains to be seen. There is a bizzare product placement of green Monster energy drink in Sam's private rooms - the cans are identical to the ones we sell in our shop - and you can drink them to refill your energy stats at will.

So far I'm about seven or eight hours into the play and am having fun, despite being totally confused most of the time and hopelessly out of my depth. My games nearly always start this way - I'm constantly having to go to YouTube to search out how to do this, or make that - but I gradually get there and Death Stranding is proving no different. But all in all, for the ten quid it cost me, the sound track alone has been worth the bung.

:)
The truth is a Lion and does not need protection. Once free it will look after itself.

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard
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Post by peter »

I'm gradually finding my feet with the game, and really enjoying it, but........

It's funny. Much as I like it I'm hankering for a bit of a break.

I love the map (and by this I mean the actual terrain you are traversing in your delivery rounds). It's varied and executed to a degree of realism that I think is unmatched in any other game I've ever played. The story itself is engrossing, the characters ones that you quickly become invested in, and the gameplay is fun and holds one's attention. But there is something missing. The endless dealing with deliveries, the organising of your loads, and the fabricating of your equipment is all a bit ........samey. I like the online aspects of your ethereal contact with other players - a use of a ladder you have placed here, a 'like' for a rope emplacement there - it makes you feel a bond with other people out there, even if you can't see them (excepting these fractal images of them you come across here and there).

But in truth, I just want to strike out and see the godamn land that has been created, and the game, whilst not actively preventing you from doing this (as far as I can see) is not built like this. There might be side quests (always in the form of deliveries - that's what you are, a delivery man) away on the other side of the map - but you are not encouraged to go out and find them. Nobody has said to me, "Right - off you go. Roam away to your heart's content." - but this is just what I want to do. Searching the internet gets you no information on what happens if you do, so I simply don't know what will happen if I just go 'walkabout'.

But I'm prepared to take the risk. I want to see this map, even though I know that there are no secrets to uncover other than the landscape itself. But that is enough. Because it really is beautifully done. The huge open spaces and the mountains and forests. I want to finish the story (and in truth it probably wouldn't take me long if I simply did the main orders - those upon which the main story progresses - and nothing else) but today I need something else.

I need, in fact, to feel my level fifty Warhammer in my hand and to go out and crack a few drauger deathlord nuts.

Today, I'm off to Skyrim!

:)
The truth is a Lion and does not need protection. Once free it will look after itself.

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard
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peter
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Post by peter »

Okay. I've been off sick for a few days and have gotten back into DS again. It's taken me a while to get my bearings back (it really is a very complicated game to get to grips with, and I'm only partially there at best). But now I feel that I'm actually getting the hang of things and can begin to enjoy the experience as it is meant to be enjoyed. It's very frustrating because simple things poorly explained really stymie you and waste a lot of time. But if you persevere it does actually begin to fall into place and make sense.

Maybe I'm just slow on the uptake, but the backstory that you are working through is very complex and, though explained, not easy to grasp. So you proceed with a feeling of confusion and insecurity about what is happening, what it all means and how it fits in with what you are actually doing - which is delivering stuff. The mechanics of doing the deliveries is easy enough (in its way) and so you can proceed - but you are always to a degree unsure of what it is all about. I found a few good non-spoiler YouTube vids that have put things into context and suddenly it begins to make sense.

The graphics are awesome - some of the best I've ever seen in any game - and there are these weird sequences when the rain begins to fall in which you are swept away into a sort of lovecraftian world of cthulu like monstrosities that are attempting to consume you as you fight through a black oily landscape to avoid them. All very weird and not a little disconcerting at first. I've just done a dream sequence where you go back to the first world war trenches and it is literally awesome. The dirt and blood and chaos is realistic in the extreme.

It's one of those games where the story is cut-scene driven and not having any dialogue choices, you are going where it dictates like it or not. But this is not really what it is all about. It's really about your interaction with other players online (not that you ever get to see or talk to them) via aids like ropes and ladders that you place in the environment in order to help eachother. You garner likes and give them out yourself, you see indistinct shadow forms of other players waving to you, you help eachother out by delivering mail that you and they have lost along the difficult routes you follow - and for some reason you get to like it. You build roads, put up structures to make traversing the dangerous world more viable and you get to use motorcycles to run along elevated roadways of fantastic graphic detail at high speed. Now that truly is a buzz.

So all in all I'm really liking it. I'm forty percent through the main story and have only just really got it. But it was well worth the slog. Well worth it indeed.
The truth is a Lion and does not need protection. Once free it will look after itself.

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard
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peter
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Posts: 11488
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Post by peter »

I should also note that in the game, unusually the fourth wall is occasionally breached with the main character Sam Porter Bridges (played by Norman Reedus) often refering to how well or badly the player seems to be doing as he traverses the difficult landscape. This is done less overtly than in the 'safe house' private accomodation where Sam has to regularly go in order to recuperate from his ordeals. At this point the character will often wink at the camera, indicate by pointing as to what would be a good idea for you to do and even express exasperation with you if you seem to be dawdling around or playing it too safe. He's not above pulling a trick or two on you either. It's quite refreshing actually and serves to make you feel even more involved.

The odd thing is how much making these damn deliveries gets under your skin. Part of the game revolves around a group of enemies that are as they are because they have effectively become addicted to the act of performing these deliveries, no matter what the odds against it. They will actually attack you simply in order to steal your deliveries, so that they can make them themselves. (These are NPC's, but I wonder how long it will be before the game will extend to players actually being able to join up into groups in order to do this?)

The making of deliveries is very taxing at times and requires much preparation and careful planning (right down to studying the topography of the land to plot your avoidance of enemy positions, freak weather events and natural obstacles. This is complicated and requires the use of highly detailed maps and information charts. All the more to engage you in the process of playing the game. Even a straight play through is going to take what, 90 plus hours I think - but there is side deliveries not essential for the main quest that could up the time spent here exponentially.

There is so much interactive stuff like infrastructure building - roads and bridges etc - that I have barely touched on yet, and these again would increase the playtime almost without limit.

All in all, if you want a big, deep, absorbing game to play while you wait for ES Vl, Death Stranding is your huckleberry.
The truth is a Lion and does not need protection. Once free it will look after itself.

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard
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