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The story was really the worst part of Death Stranding for me even though the gameplay is what gets noticed as bad. Unlike the MGS games, the story has so many

The story was really the worst part of Death Stranding for me even though the gameplay is what gets noticed as bad. Unlike the MGS games, the story has so many opportunities to take a nuanced stance on issues of the internet (aghem, Chiral Net), data collection and the obvious metaphor of Amazon.com. It wastes every opportunity to tell a story about how the internet is inherently good even if it's controlled by Bridges. The game is spent building bridges without any question of whether those bridges actually make us more connected or more distant. Furthermore, the "extinction event" i.e. the death stranding is presented as something which is inevitable to all species rather than something which is explicitly caused by and solved by humans. It's just really strange seeing all this low hanging fruit go to waste. There are plenty of other problems such as character names and plotlines being overly literal. The exposition dumps are way too much, even compared to MGS which is famous for them. Overall though it just comes down to the game having an utterly bizarre viewpoint on the world's problems. I had thought that to overarching theme of "rebuilding America by connecting everyone again" would at least touch on the current state of US politics where people are more divided than ever. Unfortunately, the game chalks that problem up to an inevitable event of nature rather than something humans could actually prevent. Going into the game as a huge Kojima fanboy I basically gave the story way too many chances to redeem itself and it just gets worse. So bad, unfortunately, that I'm forced to reassess his other games. Surely they have their faults which "come with the territory" of crazy anime style plotlines. But are the good parts even attributable to Kojima? Did somebody special from his Konami team not make it over to Kojima Productions? Anyway, having said all that, the gameplay was pretty cool, the world itself was beautiful and I do suggest you at least check it out if it goes on sale or something. Meanwhile I'll be waiting for Kojima to hopefully tell better stories in the horror genre as he's suggested he may do.

AmericanChopper 7y ago
It just kinda sounds like you’re mad that he made a game about his own ideas rather than your ones.
- ShamelessC 7y ago
  That's certainly true and you're right, other people may find his ideas agreeable and engaging. I personally don't. I suspect that HN's technically savvy userbase won't either but I don't really know. It also had to do with my expectations being set by the Metal Gear games. While they certainly all had a touch of absurdity in them, there are messages in those games that I largely agree with such as the notion that war begets revenge which begets war (MGS V) or massive data collection resulting in population control (MGS IV). But it's all subjective and I can totally understand other people enjoying this games story. I just personally didn't.
  - AmericanChopper 7y ago
    Yeah, I can appreciate your perspective. Given the obvious technology-orientation of the story, if you're expecting it to be about some of the more topical technology-oriented issues, you're probably going to be disappointed. That said, if you're expecting the story itself to make perfect sense, then you're also going to be a bit disappointed. I've learnt to not have any expectations about what I'm going to get from a Kojima game, and instead just follow along whatever journey it is he wants to take me on.
    - ShamelessC 7y ago
      Thanks for saying that! I always feel bad when I give honest reviews about any form of entertainment really because ultimately it's incredibly subjective and someone definitely will have enjoyed it. I hate that people might perceive that as a personal attack although I totally understand because some of these stories are just super personal to each of us. I will say that I was pretty disappointed by the massive amounts of reviews claiming it was a walking simulator when they clearly put a lot of work into making the balance system a pretty innovative mechanic. Furthermore, games like Red Dead Redemption 2 (which I absolutely love, btw) consist of large portions of traveling and get little criticism for it. I think one time that could have been better is the occurrence of encountering "random side quests" as was done in rdr2 often was extremely successful in making the world feel alive as you traverse it. But that mechanic doesn't really belong in the mostly empty world of Death Stranding.
jstarfish 7y ago
> here are plenty of other problems such as character names and plotlines being overly literal. The character names seemed cheesy at first but I get the impression many of them were selected for their mnemonic worth. You don't need to look up where Alex Weatherstone is or where to find Jake Wind-- their names suggest they're at the weather station and wind farm. The Southlake guy is at South Lake City. Heartman is at the heart-shaped lake. Etc. It's not even unrealistic either. Ever met anybody surnamed Smith? Shumacher? Ericsson? Literal surnames used to be used to identify peoples' roles in the community.

AmericanChopper 7y ago

It just kinda sounds like you’re mad that he made a game about his own ideas rather than your ones.

ShamelessC 7y ago
That's certainly true and you're right, other people may find his ideas agreeable and engaging. I personally don't. I suspect that HN's technically savvy userbase won't either but I don't really know. It also had to do with my expectations being set by the Metal Gear games. While they certainly all had a touch of absurdity in them, there are messages in those games that I largely agree with such as the notion that war begets revenge which begets war (MGS V) or massive data collection resulting in population control (MGS IV). But it's all subjective and I can totally understand other people enjoying this games story. I just personally didn't.
- AmericanChopper 7y ago
  Yeah, I can appreciate your perspective. Given the obvious technology-orientation of the story, if you're expecting it to be about some of the more topical technology-oriented issues, you're probably going to be disappointed. That said, if you're expecting the story itself to make perfect sense, then you're also going to be a bit disappointed. I've learnt to not have any expectations about what I'm going to get from a Kojima game, and instead just follow along whatever journey it is he wants to take me on.
  - ShamelessC 7y ago
    Thanks for saying that! I always feel bad when I give honest reviews about any form of entertainment really because ultimately it's incredibly subjective and someone definitely will have enjoyed it. I hate that people might perceive that as a personal attack although I totally understand because some of these stories are just super personal to each of us. I will say that I was pretty disappointed by the massive amounts of reviews claiming it was a walking simulator when they clearly put a lot of work into making the balance system a pretty innovative mechanic. Furthermore, games like Red Dead Redemption 2 (which I absolutely love, btw) consist of large portions of traveling and get little criticism for it. I think one time that could have been better is the occurrence of encountering "random side quests" as was done in rdr2 often was extremely successful in making the world feel alive as you traverse it. But that mechanic doesn't really belong in the mostly empty world of Death Stranding.

jstarfish 7y ago

> here are plenty of other problems such as character names and plotlines being overly literal. The character names seemed cheesy at first but I get the impression many of them were selected for their mnemonic worth. You don't need to look up where Alex Weatherstone is or where to find Jake Wind-- their names suggest they're at the weather station and wind farm. The Southlake guy is at South Lake City. Heartman is at the heart-shaped lake. Etc. It's not even unrealistic either. Ever met anybody surnamed Smith? Shumacher? Ericsson? Literal surnames used to be used to identify peoples' roles in the community.