Death Stranding (PS4) - Hideo Kojima

[Starker]

And 48 hours into the game you get to fire it again? Wait, fire as in shoot or fire as in the gun is out of a job now?

[henke]

Honestly, in this game it could be either. I better not spoil it.

After a week, I'm 34 hours in, and y'know what, I gotta say it's got some pretty good truckin'.



After seeing how flimsy the bike handling was I wasn't expecting much from the trucks, but they're pretty fun. Not Spintires or anything, but they feel properly weighty, awkward to maneuver, and I especially like how they turn into stilt-trucks when you drive into water. (I'm starting to feel like the game is pandering to me at this point) After I finished paving the highway all the way from the north to the south in the Central Region, I spent a good amount of time just driving up and down it delivering packages between the different stations. Once that got boring I continued following the story missions west. It's got a great sense of being on a dangerous expedition once you have to start huffing it over the rocky mountains.

[SubJeff]

Finally started. The games has been on the table for a week.

Looks great.

The main mechanic is fun so far (though there are a lot of cutscenes so I'm 3.5 hrs in and I've hardly "played"). It somehow reminds me of Thief because you're going where no one has been, almost, and you're trying to find a way through that maybe no one else ever has.

[henke]

Yeah, exploration is definitely a big part of the appeal. Did you say you hadn't played any of the Metal Gear Solids? It's actually lighter on cutscenes than most of the MGSes, but about the same as MGS5. Lots of cutscenes at the start, but later on it eases up and just lets you play.

I'm 43 hours in, getting close to the finale.

[SubJeff]

I haven't played any MGS games, not. I've started the first one - the remake for PS3 - but haven't got very far at all.

My frustration at the moment is in overestimating the length of the ladders I try to put up, but that's me being overly optimistic about scaling cliffs! I'm still early enough in that I've not got all the tools. There is a resource I can see on the scanner but still can't pick up. I've been to the main Knot City (Central?) several times to drop off lost kit now, and I've now got other player's minor structures - ladders and ropes - in my game. Some are NPC's I'm sure.

I'm also a bit confused about the deconstruction. I seem to not get my ladder back if I deconstruct, and in my cargo management I now have a rope that is deployed or something and shows up as red instead of green like everything else. Do you not get your kit back? And if not, what is the point of deconstruction? I also still don't see what relieving yourself does, nor what certain things stand for - they use the terms but I'm just inferring the meanings from the context. E.g. BTs.

[henke]

I think deconstructing just gets you the raw materials back. Gotta use those ladders sparsely. They're useful, but also take up a lot of room so you can't carry too many.

Also, enjoy this fine video.

[Starker]

So, have you finished your journey through Iceland with inverted rainbows? How was it? Did it have the obligatory 8-hour Kojima cutscene at the end?

I mean, it totally looks like a podcast game and I'm always mildly interested in AAA games that try something other than shooting dudes in the face as their main mechanic. Once it's actually out on PC, that is.

[henke]

Haven't finished it yet! I was really into it for the first 40 hours, but I'm at hour 45 now and it's getting to be a drag, so I'm mostly limiting my sessions to weekends.

As for podcast game, it might be a bit too chatty for that. Whenever you deliver a package, people have stuff to say, but they'll also sometimes call you up when you're out and about. But here's a podcast game rec: Under The Sand. Still in EA and light on content, but also regularly updated, fun (in a Jalopy-way), and dirt-cheap.