See you on the beach - the thread for Hideo Kojima's DEATH STRANDING

*rocks BB way too quickly*

Death Stranding (2019) @giantbomb @jeffgerstmann @taswell #DeathStranding pic.twitter.com/CIsjHTgE47

— Jacob! (@JacobGehnert) November 9, 2019

18 hours deep, still in chapter 3. happily building roads.

the design and aesthetic are top notch. i love that HD means you can really read all the dumbass slogans kojima slathers over every surface. even the corny music works, when it swells up and the camera pulls back crossing a giant open space. the upward-floating debris, the weird tendrils hanging from the hovering overpasses, the porter bots wearing little shoes and singing to themselves.

trudging slowly over wet sand with an enormous stack of high-performance underwear crates is fun. putting ladders in stupid places is fun. getting and sending thousands of likes is fun. rocking the baby is reasonably fun (and i spend most of my day entertaining an irl toddler). feel like most reviews don't mention that the game is actually fun and satisfying to play. when you do something stupid and drop every fucking thing you are carrying (a rare occurrence unless you are not paying any attention), mashing triangle to pick stuff up is hilarious. it's got a similar feel to snake picking stuff up in mgs, it's a really fast animation and when you mash it norman reedus goes fucking nuts throwing shit back on his cargo stack. feels good.

love the bananas story and setting.

the walking simulator is my favorite game genre and this sounds fucking awful to me

it's too bad everyone established "walking sim" as a flippant term for narrative adventure games because now that there's an actual walking sim we don't have a term for it that won't cause confusion

how does the online element of this game work? online players can affect the landscape based on things they leave out for each other... but does that mean that technically you might be able to bump into each other and if enough people play it there could be thousnads of Reedus's walking around? I take it that's not the case?

i've already floated 'stumbling simulator' tbf xp

“Drudgery sim”?

xp it's asynchronous, it'll load some amount of other players' constructions into your game, prioritizing people on your PS friends list, but you're not actually in the same instance of the game world as anyone else

'Slow Gaming'

other people can contribute to your constructions and vice versa so the resource accumulation/distribution is less onerous. i like upgrading ppl's stuff when i don't feel like hauling a zillion kg of metal back to whatever knot city.

i think the cutscenes' emphasis on connections and logistics are telling but what really gives it away is calling the bandits MULEs. i feel like kojima is in direct dialogue with M.U.L.E., advancing a vision of radical generosity over that game's free market ruthlessness.

so let's go with "post apocalyptic socialism sim"

aw shit, i think by mentioning MULE you just made me buy this goddammit

it rules forks just do it

damn u

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Box4XDvBSgE

I am kind of disappointed because it seemed like I was going to finally meet Mads' character and you.. kind of encounter him? not really. I'm sure it'll come later.

This is the first game where I've gotten something that seems like it could cause lethal damage after having some random incapacitating items and I feel really hesitant about the idea of shooting people. Those MULE guys seem like assholes, but do I really need to injure them that badly?

“Drudgery sim”?

― Fuck the NRA (ulysses)

that's sort of what i like about gaming, ultimately at a certain point they all boil down to tedious drudgery. commit this otherwise useless sequence of button presses to muscle memory. this vision of gaming has been around for at least as long as pac-man - i remember as a child reading books on how to get good at pac-man and it was all rote execution of patterns. we pay money for the chance to do routine things.

This thread is the manifestation of the game I was most looking forward to, please update with tales of dystopian banality

the irony of the fact that this will take until Wednesday to deliver is not lost on me

I think the banality aspect has been oversold, to an extent. There have been a number of games with interesting landscapes, but I can't remember many details of them past rote pathfinding. Might have to jump over some rocks, may encounter an impassable area. In this game, not only is the world very beautiful, but the obstacles seem meaningful. Do I set up a ladder to make it past, or do I go around and use my tools later?

When I connect a new area, will I discover that the other way up a hill that seemed insurmountable on the map already has a series of ropes and ladders placed by someone online, making my journey that much shorter? There's a joy of discovery to it

yeah, the game isn't boring at all. in its insistence on paying attention to your surroundings and to your movements it's not at all unlike metal gear solid, just without the trappings of Tactical Espionage Action. that absence is the engine of Gamer Backlash, plus i think there's a (faulty) collective assumption of rebuke in that absence.

So it's actually fun?

what if I told you in 2019, that a video game would not only get the idea of "likes" from strangers giving that kick of dopamine, but did so in a way that made it a constructive gameplay dynamic?

there are some abuses of it, like spamming of a bunch of signs that a player has to pass through near home locations, but overall it's a well-balanced mechanic

Still looking for clarity: if you play offline, that whole aspect of the game is nullified?

You get "likes" from doing certain tasks in the game, but the abundance of physical objects in the landscape won't appear

so there's no benefit to the likes if you're offline?

my understanding is that the online components don't require playstation plus

(if that is the issue)

I'm perversely avoiding any actual reviews or gameplay videos atm because every anecdotal comment somehow confuses me further re: what this game even is/is about. Which I find fascinating.

it's possible some of the structures are put up by the NPC porters (your job) in the game, as a few appear, but I don't know that anyone reviewing or even playing the game has done it completely offline

the "likes" are what levels up one of your five metrics

i've gotten likes from NPC porters for shit i've left lying around

OL, there's a backstory that at the core establishes this post-apocalyptic world, what the precursor event was, and some of the basics that differentiate this world from our own. The story starts to answer a lot of the unknowns, but a lot of it is "we discovered this technology, it did amazing things, and something horrible happened" with some additional elements related to the fact knowledge was lost in the chaos and your NPC peers are discovering the history as you are.

fwiw the thread (strand?) title here is a reference that becomes clear not far into the game

finally a game that can breach the high watermark set by bioshock for creepiest cosplay

oh man there's gonna be a thousand norman reeduses at comicon
fat reedus, skinny reedus, buff reedus, black reedus, ups delivery uniform reedus, amazon delivery uniform reedus, DHL delivery uniform reedus, asia reedus, sexy reedus, mecha reedus, dog reedus...

I'm wondering what point in the game unlocks the Chvrches song!

The non-score musical parts so far are ok, but I feel like Kojima has found a band that's halfway between Imagine Dragons and Coldplay

I guess I should say vibe-wise, since there's not just one band

This is actually pretty fun and addictive. I don’t think the gameplay footage really sells it. There is a kind of tactile satisfaction in hauling yourself over the landscape that doesn’t really translate well to someone not holding the controller.

Not without its problems. The MULE and BT enemy encounters seem really simplistic and half-baked. I’m down with de-emphasizing combat, but I wish those systems were a little more sophisticated.

There are certain elements that seem to be deliberately irritating. Trudging through BT morass, mashing buttons as monster arms tear cargo off your back while a baby is crying in your face via the controller speaker is a good example. But that stuff is relatively minor/brief.

I've only had one BT battle encounter so far! And it was right at the beginning, before I really got the dynamic. If you're cautious and well-stocked with grenades or some of the later weapons, you can knock those suckers back to the afterlife.

I kind of want to trigger a battle because apparently if you take out one of the larger enemies that appear, they drop a ton of crystals

gameplay in the looks a bit like a walking version of spintires, would that be accurate?

THE HEART-SHAPED BUBBLE

the president's henchman is 'die hardman' who wears a leather suit, cravat and METAL SKULL MASK 24/7 i can't

i ended up just running the fuck away from the annoying BTs at the incinerator, suddenly found myself at the edge of a cliff, and somebody named igor had left.... a rope for me! at the edge! i liked the shit out of it and rappelled away, thanks igor.

thomas i think spintires is more frustrating and lets you screw yourself over. here a modicum of attention will keep you upright.

love this game. just got the "speed skeleton" and i am booking it across this rock strewn ghost-scape. also i am getting the rhythm of infiltrating BT areas so it's less of a drag. stupid MULEs not so much. i'll figure them out.

I’ve gotten pretty good at shooting MULES in the face with my bolo gun. Drops em.

Game really starts opening up in chapter 3. Trucking my stolen MULE mobile down the highway, wind in my hair. Feels good.

just got the BRIDGES truck, really adds to the UPS vibe. loading that motherfucker up with claimed metals and ceramics all the way to south knot city.

Tracer, Igor was the guy in the truck with the corpse at the very beginning!

Ahhhh!

I've been trying to put a certain feeling into words and I think this is how one says this these days.. This game has big Tomb Raider 1 energy

It's absolutely worth doing, at the least, specific side quests and deliveries in order to get upgrades. If you get something useful from one place, by all means do a few more deliveries to get an upgrade.

I didn't get deep enough into the director's cut of the first game to get the fully upgraded stabilizer but it's insane in this game, and probably intentional that it's harder to get until the endgame. You'll believe... that a porter can fly

Update: Okay fuck the main story, I spent an entire hungover Sunday acquiring materials to build roads. Just let me build roads. I don't care

Update: Okay fuck the main story, I spent an entire hungover Sunday acquiring materials to build roads. Just let me build roads. I don't care

Oops

...but also i fear I may be making the game a bit easy for myself because I've managed to pretty much dodge most of the obstacles they're handing out to me when I do missions.
Even if my road hasn't taken me where I need to go, I'm going down the least resistant paths (which is kind if what you're meant to do), except to the extent I'm only in danger during obligatory battles.

you can always bump the difficulty up a notch if you feel like it. there are a couple things toward the end that are challenging re: deliveries but if you play while leveling up a bit, it’s not meant to be a challenging game imo

aye, but it's more the thought that by laying roads and carefully choosing my routes, I can pretty much complete a mission without even going into the danger zones; which is fine of course - why would I walk into an area thick with BTs or brigands if I can just go-around it.

I'm just conscious that the game is kind of going "This is going to be a very dangerous mission; you'll need a tar gun and a blood boomerang and a bunch of floating carriers. Oh, and you'll want to complete the training level on how to deal with this new breed of extra-deadly enemy..." but instead of all that I just drive it all there smoothly in my van in about 5 minutes on my nicely-laid road.

I mean, it's one way to play the game - a nice, relaxing way. But I also wonder if I'm doing it too correctly and missing out on some of the danger!

Things I miss from the old game, part 1 in a possible series:

- Little Easter eggs in the sleeping quarters. I haven't encountered any yet, but these were so fun. From Sam covering up his genitals if you focus the camera on his balls, to BB transforming into Deadman on rare occasion when you hallucinate. Scared the shit out of me when the hands come out and grab Sam's feet from under the bed. There used to be more to do when you rested. Maybe there'll be a return to these later in the game

- Ziplines. I'm only on Act 5, so maybe they'll reintroduce ziplines later, but I worry that the monorail has replaced them. The monorail is fine, but it's a fixed line and not that exciting to ride on. Plus one of the key elements in DeSt1 was finding the optimum placement of ziplines so you could whizz around the map at great speeds

ziplines are still a thing, they just come into play a little later. practically necessary for traversing the snowy, mountainous regions. you can bend the lines around obstacles now, which some people think makes it too easy but i was grateful for it tbh.

oh sweet!

there's some fun synergy: the monorail building stations have a zipline connection on them. so you can either zipline under the monorail, or you can connect other ziplines to it

oh maaaaannnn....

honestly, i'm as happy as a rat in a binbag just building my little porter eco-system. the missions in this game are great - a significant improvement on the first game. but still, when i got warped to a mini shooter level last night, i was like "can't you see I'm BUSY!?!"

🤝

God, the combat in this game is so much more fun than the first one. Unless I missed it though, I wish their were a better way to pop out from behind walls than just walking out and getting hit by ammo

Lol yes it's like they just decided cover mechanic? We don't need no steenkin cover mechanic

I'd track down the Pizza Chef if your melee and dodging skills need a boost. Get him some ingredients.

for a game that's all about prepping for stuff, it doesn't give you much of a heads-up when you're aboout to go into an intense battle sequence that you can't abort, though. I had to load a previous save so I could stock up on blood bags and weapons before Act 5 as I went in there with, like, a bunch of ceramics and a bola gun. I guess I could have plate-smashed those dudes to death, I dunno

You can do some stealth takedowns on those guys in the first few encounters if you run away and they split up. Not the leader, though.

I managed to do a takedown of the leader by throwing a smoke grenade. it was a fun level - scary though!

It would be great if I could access my own playlists instead of being subjected to Kojima's patchy and inconsistent mixtape while out doing adventures. I'm thinking of turning off the music and just having Spotify in the background, especially when I'm just building roads and doing side missions. His tastes are altogether a bit wimpy and tasteful for me - especially that Low Roar band, who are Radiohead for people who don't like any loud noises. But I must say the Caroline Polachek track is IMMENSE on this. I like 'Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head' well enough, but I never need to hear it again now.

lol otm

especially after the scene where Rainy is singing it to Tomorrow (Tomorrow, I mean...) there's something low-key highly icky about the way women are mostly portrayed in this game, which I'm not sure is entirely deliberate but grosses me out nevertheless, and the infantilisation of Tomorrow by the equally cutesy-wootsey Rainy doesn't help.

Okay WTF LOL I foudn the best Easter Egg:

There's a song that Dollman says he really loves and wants to hear again. The track is called Horizon Dreamer by Daichi Mura.

When you're in the private room of the DHV Magellan, select the song in your music player and play it

Then speak to Dollman, and the best thing happens.

I definitely LOLed and WTFed at that bit too. I have to say, I really expected Dollman to be an irritating addition to the game, but I'll be darned if he isn't quite an endearing little fellow.

"SAM!"

wowzers!

Another great Easter Egg is to play this on your birthday. It's a little tricky to pull off but there's an extended birthday sequence that is well worth your time.

Oh and speaking of which, a friend got me the Art Of Death Stranding coffee table book. Fantastic if you want to see lots of drawings of boiler suits and other gear

apples don’t ripen off the tree jfc

I'm a bit confused about the BB in this game. They keep calling it Lou - but surely this ghost BB isn't Lou at all is it? I forget exactly how it came to be in the pod and there's a whole bunch of story about the pod having a code number inside it, and I feel a bit lost. This might all be revealed soon, but it is confusing.

Also, I found out last night that the ghost BB won't necrotise. So unlike in the first game, where calming the BB in high-stress moments was a big part of the game, you can (if you want) just let the BB cry it out. There is a bit of a shock moment if you do this and then go to the DHV Magellan.

I also like how all the characters insist on calling the spaceship "the DHV Magellan" - never just "The Magellan"

There were two BBs with the same code number? And sometimes "Lou" turns into a squid?? And Higgs tells you at one point "you don't know anything about Lou"

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I try not to pay too much attention to the actual story. The women are just risible. One pregnant angel, one hott mute who sucks her thumb, one badass mother figure. Who cares about any of this?

The state of Lou and exactly what happened in the intro will be explained! Not fully until the last fifteen minutes of the game, but a number of characters will unsubtly try to make you think about it.

it makes me unreasonably excited to fix mines and repair roads. that said the stealth set pieces are MUCH more involving and i actually look forward to them. i can set aside an evening to figuring out how to do one impeccably.

haven’t really figured out yet how to make the truck-mounted gun actually useful yet. but the automatic cargo pickup is sooo sweet

*pootles along through featureless landscape*

*geta tire stuck on the only medium sized rock within half a mile*

Yeah, building roads is like the main reason I like this sequel. The story and the characters are super dumb, like, significantly more so than the first story which was kind of dumb but didn't have a guitar playing Joker guy.

I think I would like a few more stealth encounters. You're right, they are fun.

Bosses and big BT encounters are always a bit sloppy. Nice set-pieces, often, but I find it's largely down to luck if I beat the boss or not.

the bosses and the BTs are super uninteresting

zip line stations have just started appearing for me and i'm wondering how/if/when i would use them. i'm kind of addicted to my off-roader, puttin it on the monorail, loading it up with as much as i can

The game really likes to throw new stuff at you. It can be hard to keep up with all the different grenades and weapons and little knick-knacks they keep telling you to try out.

I've also started feeling slightly overwhelmed by the number of side orders there are to do. I know you're meant to kind of do the story, then worry about all that later, but the shopping list of tasks is hard to ignore.

i keep meaning to try out the decoy grenades but I like sneakin around too much and snapping fools' necks

maybe i'm misremembering but honestly the stealth sections feel as well thought out to me as anything in MGS games? they're robotic in their routines, but MGS was a little robotic too

dl what's your take on say, building signs, bridges etc? i frankly don't build anything. I give everything likes like it's going out of style though. and the random postboxes everywhere, with nothing in them? why do people build those??

I'll build a ladder now and then, when I need to. Bridges are too resource-heavy to build. And I don't see a scenario where I'd ever build a postbox or a lamp post. I get the impression people build signs just for the likes. What is the point in watchtowers? Those speed ramps are fun, but I've yet to think of using one. Those jump-ramps are fun, but I rarely think of building one. Haven't used those magical warping things yet - those don't interest me. I don't get the point of the steam pools either. Ziplines remain essential and fun.

Watchtowers let you tag all enemies in one go very quickly from a much higher angle than Dollman lets you which is handy sometimes - though it does annoyingly also tag every single piece of cargo, which makes the screen very confusing

oh.... i'm not even sure what you mean by "tag"... have I missed some essential mechanic? Or are you talking about being able to see the loot they're carrying?

Once spotted by Dollman or a tower, enemies are marked with a little light blue polygon over their heads which stays there even if they go inside a building etc - and it turns yellow if they're alerted (or red if they're actually looking at you)

huh. i

i must never have noticed that! i rarely use dollman. but then there've been few stealth missions so far for me because I had been so good at buillding roads. otherwise i tend to just pick a few people off, then go in all guns blazing

tagging enemies in camps is kind of a key mechanic, imo. it walks you through that early on in both games iirc, although I can't remember if the first one gave you a big count at the top of the screen telling you how many enemies are still active. fwiw, if you scan and tag every guy in a camp, you then know exactly how many you have left to clear the camp for a while.

how can i have played so many hours of this without knowing about it? can you tag people without using the watchtowers or Dollman?

i think if you "look" (with your binoculars?) (L1) it will also do it? can't remember

I believe the "camp cleared" sound is, if not the exact same, very close to the "ding" noise from MGS that you hear when enemies are no longer looking for you.

i think if you "look" (with your binoculars?) (L1) it will also do it? can't remember

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 6 January 2026 15:45 (twenty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

LOL, I never ever do this either.

There really are too many things in your Swiss army knife here. Coming back to the game after a break away, I was a bit baffled by just how many different objects and items I had. I was trying to remember what I use to divine hot springs and just couldn't recall.

I did give the coffin board thing a go and that was fun. But I'm not sure exactly why I'd use it other than the exceptional cases when a truck won't work.

coffin board absolutely rips through some tasks and was my go-to for a while in the endgame

I can't remember if it's in the very last act you can unlock it or if that's just when I did, but the highest level stabilizer is even better. I never unlocked it in the first game's director's cut, but in DS2 you can just get to the highest area, set up a jump ramp, and then fly halfway across the map