Picked this up on Friday for the PS5 and I’ve played nothing else since then. Surprisingly addictive for such a dull game. The “one more mission” mechanic is strong.
Couple of questions:
I can’t seem to figure out how to rearrange my inventory, which seems like it would be a pretty important part of the game. I can move stuff from one location to another, but not, for example, move stuff to different spots on my back.
How does one take a priority mission? I am about 15 hours in (about to trek to Port Knot City or whatever it’s called) so maybe I haven’t gotten there yet?
Also, the UI is surprisingly bad. Is there a way to know whether I am going to be overweight before I accept an order?
Also, what are those mushrooms and other things that it looks like other players have left around, but that I can’t interact with.
I have chosen to wear my Bridges cap in red because I AM MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.
So what’s the deal if I get killed by BTs? It leaves a giant crater? Is that very bad?
At the end of the game, does the beginning of the game make any sense? I’m enjoying the mix of “what” and “the fuck” in the early game, it would be nice if it ties off somehow later.
That was the rumor in the Epic thread, but I (unfortunately) got this a month ago on some super deep sale, and wasn’t able to return it.
On the other hand, I didn’t pay very much for it either, so I don’t exactly feel terrible. It’s already been different enough that I feel like I’m getting my $10 or $15 worth.
It would be a very generous offer if this is the free game tomorrow. This turned the usual Fedex filler quests into a full game, and make me LIKE those Fedex quests!
As someone who has done a lot of mountain biking and hiking, I find this game oddly appealing. When mountainbiking, you want to manage your speed to conserve energy while trying to pick a path to travel that has the least obstructions that might force you to either stop or fall off your bike. There’s a lot of fun in going as fast as you dare up or down hill while keeping your balance and navigating around or over obstacles. The route you pick to get through the next bit of trail you can see is called “picking a line”. Here’s a cool video that talks about how you do that (and this place looks exactly like where I used to bike in New England):
Death Stranding has an incredibly similar feel. I probably enjoy the game as much as I do because it engages my brain in the same way - both planning for the immediate future, as well as looking all the way out to the horizon to get closer to the final destination.
Plus, it’s always infrastructure week - it’s rewarding to build roads and ziplines, as they dramatically change how you get around in the map. Most of the time when I’m doing deliveries, it’s to unlock another part of the map / chiral network, so I can build more stuff to travel around on.
I’m still in episode 7, and so far the hardest boss I’ve encountered was the stone fragment delivery. Hiking all the way up through the mountains, enduring a blizzard that renders you almost completely snow blind, while hauling some immense stone fragments on your back. My endurance went to 0 most of the way through the climb, and all of my containers fell apart. One stumble would destroy the cargo, and I had no endurance left so I didn’t even dare to touch a small stone outcropping for fear I’d tumble over in exhaustion. With an empty canteen and no place to rest, I had to put my line picking skills on high alert, and gradually over about 10 minutes carefully wrapped up the ascent to the spiritualist.
That was way more interesting and fun then fighting a drunk Mads during World War X.
Really interesting game, and I’m glad I’m putting the time in, even though I’m sure the last set of hours is going to be exactly what I don’t want to play (boss fights).
I can live with that, I guess. At least I can play a web game on the other screen or something.
One of my biggest pet-peeves with the game is the number of animations/transitions that never change, but are shown over and over again and take a long time to play out.
Getting into/out of a vehicle
Entering a private room
Dropping off standard cargo runs
Watching drunk Mads dance around and mumble
I know I can skip these (and I mash left/right mouse buttons during the sequences, smash the “skip” button, etc), but I’d love a setting to skip them entirely.
I really strongly suggest not progressing the story much further. Chapter 7 is as good as the gameplay gets. Just stay there and enjoy it. The End of Chapter 8 is the real point of no return though.
There’s no real stealth necessary in the game, at least so far (just staring episode 8, so I’m getting near the end I guess.) I don’t want to spoil how the game plays for you, but it’s not the goofy “make one wrong move and hit failure mode” stealth stuff. There’s been very little true failure mode so far.
Wow, hitting the start of episode 8, I feel like this cutscene has lasted so long I could easily have had a heart attack or two.
Oh, ok. I’d seen some early gameplay with the phantoms you have to navigate around (don’t recall the real name). You are saying getting caught by those isn’t a big deal?
Well, there are levels of fail states. You get warned, then really warned, then they catch you and you can still escape, then you can fight or escape (or die? but I never did.)
You get ways to fight back, so you approach some areas more carefully so that you see the nasties so that you can explode them. It’s easier to do this while crouched so they don’t hear you, but it’s very freeform how you avoid or fight those guys for the most part. No “canned stealth” missions where you need to move from cover to cover, and if you mess up you get a “mission failed!” sign and you start over.
If anything, I felt like it was a nice bit of tension in certain areas to clean them up and make them more safe to walk through.
It’s far more like playing battleship than stealth - you don’t know where things are until they are close, so if you blindly run into them it sucks more.
Solution: the game copiously warns you not to do something stupid, so slow down.
I just got access to the Simple’s (ch 5?) but I haven’t really used them yet. With limited bandwidth I’m guessing I need to be strategic with them, but why would I put down zip lines when I have trucks?
