Death Stranding (DC) [PS4, PS5, PC]

Yes, definitely got a ‘failed experiment’ vibe, which actually has been done so many times before, which would be a bit meh, considering they’re going for originality.

 

There was a rather sweet note from Kojima on the PlayStation blog.

“People have created ‘Walls’ and become accustomed to living in isolation.

“Death Stranding is a completely new type of action game, where the goal of the player is to reconnect isolated cities and a fragmented society. It is created so that all elements, including the story and gameplay, are bound together by the theme of the ‘Strand’ or connection.

“As Sam Porter Bridges, you will attempt to bridge the divides in society, and in doing create new bonds or ‘Strands’ with other players around the globe. Through your experience playing the game, I hope you’ll come to understand the true importance of forging connections with others.

“Now, please enjoy the latest Death Stranding trailer.”

 

That was a very good trailer and even with some gameplay !

I liked how realistic it looks while vistas look incredibly big (bigger than in Horizon and similar to RDR2 scale). I also like how you could climb up or down mountains (probably inspired by Far Cry 4) and some gameplay is very reminiscent of MGS5 (tight shooting + stealth), which is good.

Now the melee fighting doesn't look great, quite awkard, particularly with a static camera like shown here. And I really hope there won't be too much cutscenes with absurd plot / script / story because that's really not what Kojima is best at.

Finally the framerate was not stable here. But they still have time to improve the performance.

 

Tremendous. Astounding. Incredible. It looks like Kojima never missed a beat, like his team just continued working on FoxEngine and created brand new IP. Trailer really blew me away.

Anyhow, few more details from official game descriptions:

Face unique challenges
Arm yourself and take aim at a variety of objectives in your mission to reunite a broken nation, while balancing under the weight of your cargo as you travel. Protect your supplies from wild bandits, and stay safe from the terrifying Beached Things… or face failing those who depend on you.

Death is not the end
There is no traditional ‘game over’ state in Death Stranding. Lose your life during combat and you’ll find yourself in an upside-down realm, searching for a way back to the living. Choose your combat methods carefully, as killing your foe is > almost never the solution – and every death carries a consequence

Assist other players
Help other travellers without ever crossing paths via asynchronous online gameplay. Send supplies, share safe houses and walk in the footsteps of fellow couriers to reunite civilisation.


Online component looks to be very carefully made, no direct contact, only "passive" help from other travelers.

 

I am cautiously waiting for the reviews, but still, being fired by Konami was the best thing that could happen to Kojima.

At least his crazy characters and stories will be confined in their own crazy world and no more loosely and awkwardly tied to the real world.

 

Good graphics
terrible music
great cast of actors
not interesting looking gameplay
expecting monstrously bad story (based on Kojima's prior history)

 

I loved MGS story

 

This sounds very complex and ambitious. I wonder if they have managed to pull it of properly

 

This the most original and daring AAA of this generation, possibly ever.

My money is already on the table thanks to the first amazing trailers.

I can see why is not a "Only on PlayStation" game.
This is a very risky project and nobody is expecting to sell great on a single platform.

 

As I was saying.. It looks like Kojima is recreating the MGSV look in DS (which is disappointing to me..).. Same animation system seems to be ported to Decima and rendering is doing its best to mimic Fox Engine. Meh

 

PC version





Joking aside, wonder what inevitable PS5 patch/version will add and to what extent it it already accounted in development. To me that TGS cutscene had little heavier post processes and something about lighting/AO was a little denser too. Anyway we are slowly getting spoiled with real time graphics

 

Decent frame rate would be nice. I think I’m quickly getting really fed up with 30fps.

 

Big tech-oriented twitter thread by Insomniac Char artist

 

Whoa! That's truly a Kojima game.

Btw why the heck it looks like Mgsv?

Did the whole team move from Konami to Kojima productions? Hopefully they won't get intro trouble like carmack did with Bethesda x oculus. Did sony "smoothen" things up to ensure "peaceful" transition from Konami to kojipro? (probably getting drunk 5 nights in a row with Konami bigwigs or something)

Really don't want the game to be delayed.

Maybe it's a more fleshed out "nuke" in mgsv online invasion? (forgot the name)

So all players will contribute to something, and that something will become something that unlock special something

 

Curious, what are the flickering things?

Like in 2:14

They are very few and hard to notice but once I saw it... It looks jarring

 

Yes I suspect as such. I expect Kojima is fleshing out the ideas he had for MGSV's online function for this game.

 

Whats the problem with that? The Fox Engine's vision was on the right track. The Decima Engine combined with the previous knowledge helped it evolve to something outstanding. He is no longer held back by cross gen targets. This is definietly an improvement from Horizon and MGSV. Now if you dont like the art style that's a different matter.

 

Yeah me too! Mgs story always awesome and bonkers.

Btw true stuff: I aced one of my history exam in high-school due to MGS (forgot which one tho). Usually I need to do "remedial work" for like 5x or so.... But for that one exam, I aced it right of the bat.

 

Kojima likes to build over complicated sci-fi-fantasy barroque stories to serve as analogies or parables to real world political and cultural phenomena. Despite the excessiveness and the storytelling being too long winded and often preachy, they are reasonably clever most of the time.
I feel what he is going for is commenting on the polirized political landscape of current America, and how ghosts from the past can still affect the present, specially when people insist in clinguing to them and bring such dead ghosts back to life.
Build bridges not walls kind of thing. Can't get more in your face and clichè than that, but the fucker will still find ways to bring in some slightly less obvious ideas into it and give you some food for thought, even if most of it is fith-grade level of pseudo-intellectualism. The fact the guy is japanese migh bring some unexpected perspectives to it too, although his messaging seems to be very strongly aligned with a very particular worldview that informs 99% of western movies, tv and games nowadays.

 

Well, precedent with this team is there, ps4 vs ps3, 60vs"30" versions of MGS5.