~DEATH STRANDING~ A #NagaYun Review

#Steam #HideoKojima #DeathStranding #Cyberpunk2077 #HalfLife #8bitRamen #NagaYun

The short version, you will not regret having this in your library.

This is a walking simulator, it is basically the part of MMOs that everyone seems to hate, the fetch quest, over and over. That said, the way they implemented it and the concepts they use basically make you not even notice that you are doing the part of most games that most people tend to complain about and you will enjoy it (if you are someone who likes challenges, I started the game on the hardest setting and still discovered the mechanics to get through things on the first go around).

The implementation is so good there is literally no part of it that stands out more the the rest, in essence there is no one part it is all good, they basically hit it out of the park on everything, music, graphics, story, etc. The story is one interesting thing, this seems to take place in a future version of our world where they have the tech level to light print nearly anything they want and started to use bots to handle all sorts of regular mundane activity. At most people's only social interactions with other people were online.

Then there is some sort of calamity that is not explained, mostly because the people don't really understand it itself. This leads to most tech not working, and people falling into a sort of depression because they can no longer have their social media likes interactions. In a certain light it is really an interesting commentary on big tech pushing out small businesses, what happens when they are the only shop in town and how social media might be altering us biologically and evolutionarily.

The porter ends up being a way for people to reconnect by getting things delivered, as well as putting places back on the network so they can start light printing things again.

The entire system functions around a like system, given by npcs as well as other players. You get to interact with other player signs, buildings, post office boxes, bridges, generators, watch towers, etc., you could upgrade them, repair them, it is a souls like system of interaction, other worlds, without any sort of pvp (seemingly thus far).

To the combat, I won't spoil their motives but there are human npc you end up fighting, either they want your packages, which you can get back, or you can hunt them to take packages they have as well as packages they have gotten from other players: parry, dodge, combos, block breaks, stealth take downs, the combat is solid. I was not expecting it to be there, at best I thought it would be tacked on, but again, they hit everything out of the park.

The other physical enemy you need to worry about are the BTs (don't know what that means this far into the game, this game has a lot of specific nomenclature). I have played Dark Soul (not scary but they can feature jump scares and tense moments) like games, scary games, games designed to be scary, with the exception of Freddy's nothing has generated the sense of apprehension and anxiety as this game.

There is nothing quite like trying to balance yourself down a muddy slope, nearly over your walking weight limit, only for your backpack indicator to start flipping out because you are now surrounded by BTs, it goes blue first and points in the direction of the closest one, increasing in pulses as distance shortens, when you are really close it goes orange really flips out and if you are like that too often your bridge baby (you have a baby strapped to your chest) starts to stress out and cry.

I don't know if the crying hurts your ability to avoid BTs, but you should make your character hold his breath as it does turn orange, walking away from where the indicator is pointing to, turn blue again, only for it to spin around in the direction you are currently heading and turn orange. I often find myself unconsciously holding my own breath as I make my character do the same. It is a very pulse pounding event and yet satisfying to complete, there are mechanism there, things you don't really know or understand yet nothing so esoteric that you cannot navigate the system while learning it, again they hit every ball out of the park. Buy this game.

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR:

Thanks Naga, and for those looking for the next big thing from Hideo Kojima, news has it that a Death Stranding novelization is already in the mix. Death Stranding: The Official Novelization is a serialised affair, with the English translation of volume one set to release on November 3. Weighing in at 304 pages, I think it's safe to say that this won't be a truncated take on the Death Stranding story.