The core game is stuck an interesting idea. It boils down to a walking simulator, but it's much more ingesting than that. Roaming the game world and delivering packages while trying to figure out how to get around environmental challenges is far more interesting than it sounds like on the surface, and it's easy to get caught up in writing that. The asymmetric online component adds a fascinating layer to that, interacting indirectly with helpful objects and structures other people have placed in the world, and leaning your own for them to use and appreciate. It's all great.What lessens it for me is the supernatural and combat elements. Having to go stealthily or enter into combat from time to time just distract from the relaxing world traversal. It'd be tough to ... MoreThe core game is stuck an interesting idea. It boils down to a walking simulator, but it's much more ingesting than that. Roaming the game world and delivering packages while trying to figure out how to get around environmental challenges is far more interesting than it sounds like on the surface, and it's easy to get caught up in writing that. The asymmetric online component adds a fascinating layer to that, interacting indirectly with helpful objects and structures other people have placed in the world, and leaning your own for them to use and appreciate. It's all great.What lessens it for me is the supernatural and combat elements. Having to go stealthily or enter into combat from time to time just distract from the relaxing world traversal. It'd be tough to sell the game concept without some kind of conflict, but these really drew away from what I liked best in the game.Overall, it's such a novel type of game that it's bound to be hit or miss for people's tastes, but it has the potential to land so well that I recommend everyone give it a try.

I have greatly enjoyed playing "Death Stranding Director's Cut." The game boasts a captivating story, unique gameplay, and an innovative multiplayer system where players can help each other by building structures like roads and ladders. The graphics and sound design are top-notch, and the game's open-world environment is vast and detailed. The addition of the ability to help each other by building structures adds a sense of community and collaboration to the game. Overall, I highly recommend "Death Stranding Director's Cut" to fans of Hideo Kojima's work or anyone looking for a unique and challenging gaming experience.

Death Stranding is good example of a game that is not for everyone. It features a guy who's job is delivering stuffs. The game may seemed boring as you will be walking as stated by most people but it's not. You'll eventually get something later. The first 2 chapters focuses on teaching you how to overcome certain conditions in the game and it's crucial because for me, this 2 chapters will determine whether you'll continue this game or not, for me. It's a wise decision because I enjoy the game a lot. It's fun and addicting at some point. You'll building roads, contributing other stuffs and people will acknowledge you and starting to contribute as well. This game makes you feel appreciated and connected with other people towards one goal. The Director's Cut added more ... MoreDeath Stranding is good example of a game that is not for everyone. It features a guy who's job is delivering stuffs. The game may seemed boring as you will be walking as stated by most people but it's not. You'll eventually get something later. The first 2 chapters focuses on teaching you how to overcome certain conditions in the game and it's crucial because for me, this 2 chapters will determine whether you'll continue this game or not, for me. It's a wise decision because I enjoy the game a lot. It's fun and addicting at some point. You'll building roads, contributing other stuffs and people will acknowledge you and starting to contribute as well. This game makes you feel appreciated and connected with other people towards one goal. The Director's Cut added more features to the game to ease newer players and returning. The price also reduced a lot especially for PC. This game also teaches me something to think before judging. So far, I'm enjoying my stay in the game and if you like delivering while walking to the beautiful crafted world, I would suggest you pick this game up. I takes some time to get used to it but it is worth it.

Amazing game!

I picked Death Stranding up on sale recently. It's an awesome game. From the opening scenes and song, it had me instantly hooked. It's unique, no question and some may find it too slow, but I enjoyed the solitary journey and pace of it all. I have almost 50 hours in so far and probably have another 50-100 hours to go, maybe? I'm going to be playing this game for a while. Kojima and team have done a great job with this one. I look forward to the sequel down the road.

Great Game

I hike for my job and also have to carry equipment with me in remote areas and have to plan navigating the landscape in much the same way with equipment weight, safest paths or fastest routes, caution around bad weather, etc (minus the MulEs and BTs of course). I am therefore all about delivery games and this one blows your mind with the storyline, gameplay, and the characters. The atmosphere can be extremely stressful/suspenseful when it needs to be and also incredibly relaxing. The landscapes are beautiful. When you are hiking, the best part is getting a good view, listening to some good music and seeing a storm rolling in. That is this game.

Long time Kojima fan, but I did not like this game

First off, story has always been the draw for me when it comes to Kojima's previous games, but I found this one lacking. I felt it was ridiculous in ways no MGS game was. It often felt like the game was actively challenging my suspension of disbelief. A lot of the moments meant to be hard hitting often felt unearned. The lack of on-screen time spent developing the characters made it hard to care about what happened to them. I ended the game really only sort of liking two of the characters, maybe 3, and hating almost all the rest. Interactions with NPCs felt empty. I admit that I may have gotten more out of the characters if I read the novel worth of supplemental text and npc emails, but it's not written in a way that makes me want to really dig into the content. ... MoreFirst off, story has always been the draw for me when it comes to Kojima's previous games, but I found this one lacking. I felt it was ridiculous in ways no MGS game was. It often felt like the game was actively challenging my suspension of disbelief. A lot of the moments meant to be hard hitting often felt unearned. The lack of on-screen time spent developing the characters made it hard to care about what happened to them. I ended the game really only sort of liking two of the characters, maybe 3, and hating almost all the rest. Interactions with NPCs felt empty. I admit that I may have gotten more out of the characters if I read the novel worth of supplemental text and npc emails, but it's not written in a way that makes me want to really dig into the content. Reading an actual novel would be a more worthwhile experience imo.I was willing to give the gameplay a chance, but imo it remained tedious, frustrating, and unrewarding throughout. Spending many hours developing upgrades and equipment does ease some of the struggle the simplest actions invoke, but it still feels unrewarding when even walking in a straight line on a gentle slope in many cases still causes you to tumble over. The vehicles help, but the often inexplicable physics tend to blunt their effectiveness on anything but roads. The game always seems to stand in the way of its more interesting ideas being enjoyable. There's definitely a metaphor about life in there, but while it intent seems to be "the struggle is worth it," more often than not it left me feeling nihilistic.The online mechanics seem interesting on paper, and can make the game experience marginally more reasonable, but without the ability to actively coordinate and communicate, it often feels hollow. The placement of other player items might as well have been generated by a rogue-like randomizing algorithm. I didn't feel that the "likes" system made up for this. If you build the roads, you get buckets of likes in a batch without knowing who sent them, and the structures you try carefully placing largely get ignored by other players (which likely has to do with how your structures take time to propagate to other players' worlds and are shared randomly, preventing coordination). There's definitely a message sent about the importance of making human connections, but this is presented as "connections" ("likes" that you can't actually do anything with) with NPC characters that have paper-thin depth and the faceless internet masses.There are some upsides, hence the second star I gave this game. For one, the visuals are fantastic (with the caveat that the facial expression animations often dip well into the uncanny valley). And secondly, the music is absolutely fantastic (with the caveat that you barely ever get to hear it, since it only plays in certain points, each track plays only once, and there is a music player but it can only be used in a non-gameplay "mode"). I do greatly appreciate the game for introducing me to these musicians, however.If you approach this game with a sort of academic mindset, you might get more out of it than I did. As game for people who love both inventive and satisfying mechanics and a straightforward but rich and impactful story that doesn't require immense leaps of logic to follow, I can't recommend this game.

Oddly Compelling

The gameplay is oddly compelling in that it is mainly focused on how you navigate the world to deliver packages throughout the world. Rather than simply going from point A to point B, you also need to manage a variety of systems: health and stamina, materials for crafting and using supplies and tools, player's balance, item and equipment degradation, etc. Traveling in New areas can be daunting and stressful at times, but it's usually a cathartic feeling to finally reach your destination. Furthermore after exploring a new area and connecting it with the network, you unlock a type of shared world social feature where you can find and make use of supplies and tools that were left by other players in their game. For myself, it's the first online feature since Journey ... MoreThe gameplay is oddly compelling in that it is mainly focused on how you navigate the world to deliver packages throughout the world. Rather than simply going from point A to point B, you also need to manage a variety of systems: health and stamina, materials for crafting and using supplies and tools, player's balance, item and equipment degradation, etc. Traveling in New areas can be daunting and stressful at times, but it's usually a cathartic feeling to finally reach your destination. Furthermore after exploring a new area and connecting it with the network, you unlock a type of shared world social feature where you can find and make use of supplies and tools that were left by other players in their game. For myself, it's the first online feature since Journey that makes an otherwise single player game feel like a collaborative experience that you share with others.There are also elements of combat and stealth throughout. While they may seem simplistic in their respective ways at first, each have systems that are never directly taught to the player, but when discovered through experimentation add a new layer of depth and strategy (i.e. the ability to throw packages at human enemies during combat). That said, the game itself is not difficult, especially for those who play games regularly.Side note - at the time of writing this, I have played the game for about 10 hours. Though I have yet to see how the story plays out, I can say that so far it is intriguing and the early hours do a fair job of setting the tone and themes of the narrative, and make the otherwise complicated lore of the world relatively easy to follow and digest. Graphics are stellar in presentation, and the the sound design matches closely in its quality.This may not be a game for you if you're wanting or expecting an action packed adventure. But if you don't mind something more experimental, then I would say go in with an open mind and you will find enough to appreciate in this game.

Strangely addicting mailman simulator

A lot of people have written this game off as a walking sim, mailman sim, and other similar mundane descriptors. They're not entirely wrong - there's a lot of traversing landscapes. But part of the addictive formula is how you acquire equipment to make movement less of a chore.Admittedly, until you start getting these improvements, moving from facility to facility can be tedious. It's best to save optional missions until maybe a few main missions in to start seeing just how the upgrades look in this game. At its core though, you do just make delivery after delivery, slowly working your way across the country.The multiplayer aspect is a treat. Structures that other players have built can appear in your world, saving you from spending precious resources and giving ... MoreA lot of people have written this game off as a walking sim, mailman sim, and other similar mundane descriptors. They're not entirely wrong - there's a lot of traversing landscapes. But part of the addictive formula is how you acquire equipment to make movement less of a chore.Admittedly, until you start getting these improvements, moving from facility to facility can be tedious. It's best to save optional missions until maybe a few main missions in to start seeing just how the upgrades look in this game. At its core though, you do just make delivery after delivery, slowly working your way across the country.The multiplayer aspect is a treat. Structures that other players have built can appear in your world, saving you from spending precious resources and giving you ideas for how to get around by building things of your own. Players can even contribute towards each other's structures if they're lacking materials. Roads are the most exciting things to build. They require the most resources but building long stretches of roads allows you to travel quickly and safely without any wear and tear of equipment.The story was a bit too on the nose. There's only so many ways you can spout the same message. A little bit of patience will go a long way towards enjoying the experience; not just to ride out the story but also for the myriad of animations and dialog bits you'll repeatedly hear throughout. There are a lot of animations/mini-cutscenes for actions like getting out of bed, dropping off packages, activating consoles, etc.Enjoy this game for what it is: a high production value deliveryman simulator with an engaging traversal and progression system.

Walk Hard: The Video Game

Yes, you will walk hard, so hard. But never has walking felt so meaningful. I’ve spent many hours walking across a lot of different video games, and for a variety of reasons. In a lot of those worlds, I just wanted to explore, and often with others. Maybe this particular game wasn’t what I had in mind, but it’s ultimately a culmination of many aspects I love and wanted in a game. While I do agree that the whole package comes off very shallow at first - a visual feast of a story that drops the player into a delivery simulator - it unfolds into a curious and strange experience. The lonely walking is contextualized with a simple motivation, and an incredibly emotional story - then grown into an arc of meetings between other players through building and connecting ... MoreYes, you will walk hard, so hard. But never has walking felt so meaningful. I’ve spent many hours walking across a lot of different video games, and for a variety of reasons. In a lot of those worlds, I just wanted to explore, and often with others. Maybe this particular game wasn’t what I had in mind, but it’s ultimately a culmination of many aspects I love and wanted in a game. While I do agree that the whole package comes off very shallow at first - a visual feast of a story that drops the player into a delivery simulator - it unfolds into a curious and strange experience. The lonely walking is contextualized with a simple motivation, and an incredibly emotional story - then grown into an arc of meetings between other players through building and connecting across the world. Like ghosts in your isolated world, real people are an entity that can truly be felt. A constant symbiotic weave. Which is countered by the in-game threat of BT’s (ghost-like entities that occupy that world), encounters that can be tense and sometimes terrifying, and always a threat to the mission at hand. Mobility throughout the world is aided by quite a few tools, including vehicles, robots and mechanical limbs. Eventually making certain traversing rather simple and relaxing, which means a lot in the face of trekking some harsh terrain on foot. The walking itself is akin to a survival simulator more than a delivery device. Knowing about certain packages can help the story, but in all reality it’s the challenge of the environment that provides the risk/reward satisfaction of playing the game, making deliveries - as well as the delicate balance of inventory too. The venture comes with a lot of characters that provide a deep story - one of the best I’ve ever experienced. The entire experience truly comes full circle. Story and gameplay, the experience of playing through all the scenarios, traversing across such a vast environment - while many may not find this game suitable for everyone, I truly find it worthy of at least attempting the experience.