Death Stranding AKA Kojima and Friends The Game

I've wanted to make this thread for ages but always thought when should I do it as we've got no idea when the game is coming and will it even be a PS4 game.

Now I think it will be a PS4 game with stuff like Mark Cerny saying ages ago it took him 14hrs to get what was going on.

The reason I did now after TGS we found out Troy Bakers character and another person going to be in this game which brings the cast to this

Norman Reedus
Mads Mikkelsen
Guillermo del Toro
Léa Seydoux
Lindsay Wagner
Troy Baker
Margaret Qualley
Nicolas Winding Refn
Tommie Earl Jenkins

That's not all recently as Kojima himself liked and RT a game called Russia 2055 which is made from a studio that's basically popped out of thin air and the game has as well, as nothing can be found on it. Games come out of nowhere all the time and maybe Kojima saw it somehow and did like it but it is rather fishy, especially how Russia 2055 looks.

Here is the trailer for Russia and I'd would guess this is what happens before Death Stranding takes place

I'm so incredibly dubious about this, even after they've shown off in-engine gameplay. It feels like it's going to be falling into some of Kojima's worst trappings from the MGS days, namely long and overly numerous cutscenes and purposefully obtuse and frustratingly confusing storytelling. It's coming across as a vanity project, all told - an excuse for Kojima to mess about with his famous friends.

I hope I'm wrong as the MGS series is bloody brilliant and I'd love to see something of a similar quality from Death Stranding... but it's not looking good.

See I like the long cutscenes etc but I can Death Stranding either being a 10/10 or 5/10 due to it not making sense, along with Norman saying things like he's not sure if it will be appreciated in it's time.

Even if it was a 5/10, I'd get much like The Last Guardian anyway.

Considering The Last Guardian was my biggest gaming disappointment in years, that hardly fills me with confidence...!

I'm just trying to think of a comparison, and it's the first long in development highly anticipated game, that I would get no matter the score.

Yeah I'm with Jay on this and what's more after them showing it off for 2 years with not a clue of what it actually it is you do in the game I can say pretty confidently that I am not excited for this one bit.

See what you're saying is why this is my most anticipated game on anything as why do I need to know why Norman Reedus is basically a futuristic paperboy?

I think Jay will be right and this will have numerous cutscenes along with a mad plot and the that will be the core thing about DS the story, and I don't need to know the story beforehand as how many films give away the plot or something big in trailers, most famously Terminator Genisys.

That at the moment over the past 2 years it's more about learning the cast, what the world is like, along with looking for some nifty things such as Joosten being spotted in the Troy Baker trailer.

I think that's the difference between me and you Jas as I'm sort of treating this as a film that is playable and I have said time & again games don't have to be video games anymore, but I can see why if you were looking at as a game then we've had about 5mins of paperboy Norman in 2 years.

This is very much why I can see it having a very mixed reception when it comes out.

It's going to be amazing I have complete faith

I mean I'm already loving it

mas wrote:

I think that's the difference between me and you Jas as I'm sort of treating this as a film that is playable and I have said time & again games don't have to be video games anymore, but I can see why if you were looking at as a game then we've had about 5mins of paperboy Norman in 2 years

Don't get me wrong I like having story in my games and games do have more freedom in the way they can tell their stories, but in my opinion that's not the only thing they should focus on when they are trying to sell them to me because they are not films.

There's building hype for something (Rockstar have done this really well recently with RDR2) and then there's over hyping something to the point of confusing your potential audience before the game is even out. I just personally would like to know what I'll actually spend the majority of my time doing in the game, is it a stealth or action game? Is it something we haven't seen before? And most importantly is it fun to play? The fact I can't answer those questions with 100 percent certainty is why I can't get excited for it.

Two of those don't bother me the whole story shouldn't be the only thing as I can think of thing's like Gone Home which has little in the way of gameplay and it's not fun either but it's rather great.

Death Stranding might not be that but as someone who's followed Kojima for years, I sort know what I might be getting.

I guess not all things are for everyone as look at the recent Forza Horizon 4, maybe the best racing game ever but Balla doesn't see the appeal.

masofdas wrote:

Two of those don't bother me the whole story shouldn't be the only thing as I can think of thing's like Gone Home which has little in the way of gameplay and it's not fun either but it's rather great.

Death Stranding might not be that but as someone who's followed Kojima for years, I sort know what I might be getting.

I guess not all things are for everyone as look at the recent Forza Horizon 4, maybe the best racing game ever but Balla doesn't see the appeal.

Gone Home is another game I couldn't be arsed about either and I don't think you have to sacrifice gameplay to tell a good story or vice versa, maybe when we start seeing proper gameplay demos I'll change my mind but for now regardless of who it's made by and who it stars I just don't get it.

You might be right you might be able to have both but at the moment something like Gone Home, Shadow of the Colossus, Journey, Oxenfree, MGS4 etc is where I'd place Death Stranding and you might never be arsed about those sort of games but they're some of my favourites.

Why I'm not fussed at all about seeing more gameplay as that isn't really that important to me.

Not trying to change anyone's opinion on any game just sharing my own and I just think they could have done a better job at making me interested in the game.

It's funny that you bring up MGS4 as I don't think I'm alone in thinking that Death Stranding is going to be similar in regards to its structure - cutscene heavy with some short gameplay scenes interspersed between the cinematics - which is what is concerning me most. MGS4 had three games of goodwill to ride on and I think many played that to play the conclusion - well, at the time - of the MGS series. Death Stranding doesn't have that pedigree, for me at least, to coast on when the cutscenes grow wearisome. I know the fanatics who follow Kojima's cult of personality won't mind, but I'll find it trickier to overlook.

Yeah it's not going to be for everyone as I do think Jay is going be pretty much right with it being close to MGS4, been saying that myself for the past 2 years and on here.

It's how good those cutscenes are is the question as the games I bring up even with the lack of or questionable gameplay, the story is the main thing and rise them to some of the best games in the medium.

If the story is utter pants along with limited gameplay, is when Death Stranding has a problem.

With Kojima using the decima engine and the PS4 tell his, in the same way some use animation, some live action or stop motion or a artist might use oils or watercolor. Gaming tech is just another way like those to tell a story.

The_Jaster wrote:

to the point of confusing your potential audience before the game is even out

This is very much Kojima's modus operandi

All the reasons Jay and Jas are giving for not wanting to play this are the reasons I want it. It looks weird as gell!

I recall slamming this game after last E3 for looking set to be a lame esoteric w***fest coasting by solely on the pedigree of the names attached to the project, and I stand by those views now.

The problem I have with whenever the game medium tries to go all arty-farty is that they always forget the defining aspects of what the medium is and think they should be a movie.

But ultimately it's different strokes for different blokes. Still I will be very unsurprised if this game comes out and ends up being panned for the reasons I suspect it will be. Creators like Kojima can go off the rails when given free reign (and that's ignoring how loopy MGS could be to begin with), and the promotional material so far comes off as deliberately confusing in the sort of way that feels like the bad kind of mindf***.

But we'll see.

OrangeRakoon wrote:

The_Jaster wrote:

to the point of confusing your potential audience before the game is even out

This is very much Kojima's modus operandi

I get that but that doesn't mean it's immune to me or anyone else not liking how the game is being sold/hyped up.

Drunkalilly wrote:

All the reasons Jay and Jas are giving for not wanting to play this are the reasons I want it. It looks weird as gell!

I love it when games do weird shit or are self aware as well, the MGS series had great moments like that and something like NMH is one of my all time favourite games. I just need to see more of Death Stranding before I can get on board.

See you talk about arty-farty games and I know they're not for everyone but the one's I brought up in this thread are all critically acclaimed. I see no reason why Death Stranding can't be as well, just you may have to go into it, knowing you're not getting much game.

Like I'm someone that doesn't care about SMASH coming to Switch as it's basically just gameplay, I know that and why I'm not buying it.

Athrun888 wrote:

The problem I have with whenever the game medium tries to go all arty-farty is that they always forget the defining aspects of what the medium is and think they should be a movie.

I don't think this is true at all. MGS has some huge cutscenes, sure, but it's still all about the gameplay. But look at many games commonly held up as "art" - Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, The Last Guardian, Flower, Journey, Abzu, Paper's Please, Celeste - these are all interaction driven.

I hope y'all realise Kojima would be absolutely ejaculating with delight, reading all this 'is it a game at all?' discussion.

Anyway, once you see why he's chosen to exclude gameplay, you will be ashamed of your words and deeds.

I see what you done there.

Troy recently posted for that 10 years challenge stuff Snow from FFXIII and his character in Death Stranding, hmm. Also if you have been following any of the numerous twitter accounts Kojima took the game to Guerilla as DS uses the Decima engine to show them what his team has developed.

The Guerilla guys seemed to have loved it but they had no idea what was happening and even what genre it is.