 |
| Norman Reedus as Sam the delivery man from the video game Death Stranding. |
The slog of a lifetime. (Some Spoilers!)
The main thing I learned from playing Death Stranding is how good most game developers treat their players. We are given many luxuries to avoid slow pacing, levels of difficulty, updates with bug fixes, fast travel on big maps and so forth. They make the game fun for us. I didn’t how realize how much we are afforded to make playing a game efficient and enjoyable. We are babied. Not so with Death Stranding. This game is a mix of carrot and stick with more stick than carrot.
With Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding players are forced into a slog of epic proportions, sometimes getting a break with road building and vehicles only to be forced back into the slog again as the game progresses into areas not accessible with trikes and trucks. Fast travel for the main plot progression does not exist. Kojima seems bound to not make the play ability easy on the player. There is an attempt to lower the frustration of the game's mechanics so it does not become overwhelming, but the journey remains exhausting.
Another element that does help a bit is the addition of online players building on the maps. You don’t interact with them, just see their names on the things they left behind from ladders and ropes to bridges and completed highway segments. It does invoke a feeling of gratitude to find a ladder that aids in a climb left by a fellow traveler.
It is ironic how easy the boss fights are compared to hoofing packages up mountain slopes in snow, rain, fog and slippery terrain. Death Stranding’s toughness is in the journey, not the destination or physical conflicts.
So it is called by many a walking and package delivery simulator, however later in the game, it becomes a mountain climbing simulator. Imagine a huge load of packages on your back, often in knee deep snow, trudging up and down rocky crags sometimes in blizzards and whiteout conditions. On top of that you are under threat of the dreaded BT ghosts either to battle with or sneak past. Sneaking by them is a very slow process. I got to the point of dreading the next delivery and story arc. I took a break to go do some infrastructure building, mainly highways. I actually found this to be an enjoyable side occupation. One gets a sense of accomplishment going about gathering resources to complete a stretch of highway or place a bridge over a rushing stream.
Many have complained of wanting to play a game, not watch a movie. The huge amount of cut scenes are another part of the slog. Heavy on exposition; way too heavy with a mind bending plot that is a mix of reality and the paranormal. To speed thru Sam’s (Norman Reedus) shower clips you have to skip through 4 cut scenes. Other parts of the narrative require this as well. To be fair, the videos are well done with excellent motion capture rivaling a big budget movie production. Just overdone and another element of the continuous slog the player is put thru. Overall, the game's visuals are superb and probably the best of the PS4 generation.
One disappointment for me was that the main entities you battle with, the BTs, are never defeated. At the end of the game you can still go back to delivering packages and build infrastructure but the BTs are still there to torment your progress.
Worth a second play-thru? I keeping wanting to safe for the memories of the experience, which at times can be quite grueling and fill me with enough dread to cancel the notion. If I did, I would only work through my favorite chapters and never finish it.
