This game is such a roller coaster of emotions. Some of the most beautiful imagery I've ever seen in a video game. Genuinely awesome soundtrack (both the licensed music and original material).
There were moments when it was frustrating and boring, and the storytelling can sometimes be way to literal and explanation based.
But I truly did love the story underneath, as it was one of hope and the importance of connection to get through rough times. Some subjects hit real close to home for me, and at times it can get quite depressing, but this strong sense of hope and helping each other is always there to lift you back up.
Again, some game mechanics and cut scenes really didn't work for me, but other parts of the game will be forever in my mind.
I'm rating it a 7.5<->10.5 out of 10. I've decided conventional scales don't cut it for games like this.
I would love to know your opinions if you want to share them!
I think 3 hours in I had only "played" for about 30 minutes, and to me, most of the story at that point was just trying to be as ridiculous and disturbing as it possibly could. Most of the gameplay was just avoiding falling cause dude doesn't know how to walk. I had to go do something else at that point so I quit and never ended up coming back to it.
Maybe if I hadn't gotten it free I might have given it more of a chance, but I definitely wasn't a fan.
That's Kojima for you. But agreed, the game felt like someone took far too much inspiration from qwop. I've heard it called a 'walking simulator,' which feels apt, lol.
Felt similar, especially about Sam's difficulty in walking lol. Would be interested to hear from someone who's played longer whether the falling over stuff gets better or not? Or, if it's just my own incompetence, but iirc I was holding down L2 and R2 the whole time, just to avoid toppling head-over-heels.
When I first played the game (played on PC with keyboard and mouse), I thought, "wow, you actually have to pay attention to the terrain" and found myself falling over at times. The more you play and the more you deliver, Sam gets stronger and is able to maintain balance more often. I honestly don't even look at the scanned terrain anymore, except when I'm checking how deep water is. Making sure Sam is "bracing" by holding those buttons down, you're more than likely going to be fine unless you have a massive stack and you're overloaded. On keyboard and mouse you just hold Mouse1 and Mouse2, which I think is much easier than controller triggers.
Another thing that likely made it a little easier on PC was the movement speed setting. I can press Shift and I'm stuck at a walking speed that I have set in the settings menu (since keyboards don't have pressure sensitive movement).
The best advice I thankfully saw early on in a video about Death Stranding is just hold down L2 and R2 all the time while you're running around and you'll automatically balance yourself in 99% of situations. If you find yourself still tipping over, then just slow down or stand still for a second.
Same experience. Walked up a hill with a body. Couldn't get back down without dying. Gave up.