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Death Stranding - Review Thread (see staff post for discussion guidelines)

Final predictions for Death Stranding?

  • 95-99 (Same as MGS2)

    Votes: 101 6.4%

  • 90-94 (Same as MGS, MGS3, MGS4, MGSV)

    Votes: 487 30.7%

  • 85-89 (Same as MGS: PW)

    Votes: 512 32.3%

  • 80-84

    Votes: 279 17.6%

  • 75-79

    Votes: 135 8.5%

  • <75

    Votes: 73 4.6%
  • Total voters
    1,587
  • Poll closed .
DSP

DSP

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,120
Honestly seems like a pretty good game for streaming so far, I watched a bit and people are doing dumb fun shit. It could work in its favor.

I'm convinced my decision to not play it was exactly right though, it's like they turned boredom and tediousness into a game. It's not for me but it has the potential for good player driven moments if you want to try things, just like MGSV had really.
 
JaegerDeus

JaegerDeus

Banned
Jan 25, 2018
647
After looking it up, I didn't really find the BB/stillmother reveal all that off-putting.

I mean, it's a sad, morbid thing, yes, but it makes sense within the dreamlike logic of the game. It makes as far as making a 'bridge' between death and life.
 
nanskee

nanskee

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 31, 2017
5,069
See from my initial impression I thought it would be a relaxing game, that you just join in for the ride, which I would jump in if that were the case; I want to relax after work, but hearing that it's not so relaxing is making me pass for good
 
Aztechnology

Aztechnology

Community Resettler
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
14,131
Has anyone looked at the metacritic score pulling out extreme clearly influenced review scores? Where does it settle?

All of the review sites I'd say I trust or are legit seem to be in the 60 range or lower :(

I think I'm gonna return my collectors and just pick the game up on BF
 
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HK-47

HK-47

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,573
nanskee said:
See from my initial impression I thought it would be a relaxing game, that you just join in for the ride, which I would jump in if that were the case; I want to relax after work, but hearing that it's not so relaxing is making me pass for good
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It's a game that really operates on making things less tedious as you go along rather than empowering you and then making you even better. Once you get into chapter 3 I think you'll find the mellow delivery journey you are after.
 
PennyStonks

PennyStonks

Banned
May 17, 2018
4,401
I'm enjoying this more now that I understand that input. Controls map pretty well to "low-conscious" thought while walking
 
Aztechnology

Aztechnology

Community Resettler
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
14,131
User Banned (1 Week): Conspiratorial and Xenophobic Rhetoric
More_Badass said:
Clearly influenced?
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The sheer amount of 100 or high 90's from latam, Italian and a few french and fansite news media just don't feel genuine at all. That's just me though. It happens with every PlayStation game. Either they have low standards or do so simply go insure they receive more review copies.
 
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Raonak

Raonak

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
2,170
It was quite smart of them to get reviews out early. Killed any possibility of overhyping the game.

Now people are coming in without grand expectations and just enjoying the game.

And as it turns out, its a pretty good game
 
Aztechnology

Aztechnology

Community Resettler
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
14,131
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Aztechnology

Aztechnology

Community Resettler
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
14,131
travisbickle said:
You a big Stevivor fan?
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Don't even know who that is. Clearly people are fixated on my observation of what I see in a bunch of the reviews that are in the 90's-100's. It was just an observation. Clearly this isn't going to be a fruitful discussion.

I admit that was poorly worded. My whole thing was that they seem to be fan sites. Or maybe tastes are just very different. Just feels a little suspect. I guess I'm just tinfoil hatting a bit.
 

Bundy

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
20,931
Aztechnology said:
Has anyone looked at the metacritic score pulling out extreme clearly influenced review scores? Where does it settle?

All of the review sites I'd say I trust or are legit seem to be in the 60 range or lower :(

I think I'm gonna return my collectors and just pick the game up on BF
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Aztechnology said:
The sheer amount of 100 or high 90's from latam, Italian and a few french and fansite news media just don't feel genuine at all. That's just me though. It happens with every PlayStation game. Either they have low standards or do so simply go insure they receive more review copies.
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Aztechnology said:
Maybe it just always happens with PlayStation and Xbox "first party" titles. A ton of random outlets get copies and leave massively overinflated scores. What's the joke, that exclusives should always have a -1 or something to account for inflated scores.
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jordanlaugh4dj83.gif
 
Aztechnology

Aztechnology

Community Resettler
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
14,131
Yea, I realize I'm just digging a hole now. I think I'll just accept the game is probably somewhere in the middle and move on.
 
cakely

cakely

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,149
Chicago
Aztechnology said:
The sheer amount of 100 or high 90's from latam, Italian and a few french and fansite news media just don't feel genuine at all. That's just me though. It happens with every PlayStation game. Either they have low standards or do so simply go insure they receive more review copies.
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They're not genuine because they're Latin American, Italian and French?
 
TransEuropaExpress

TransEuropaExpress

Member
Dec 6, 2017
10,982
US
Ten or so hours in and I really, really like whatever the fuck this is. This is coming from someone who only rented it from RedBox due to morbid curiosity expecting an unmitigated trainwreck.

It's flawed and the cutscenes, and story, are unintentionally funny nonsense most of the time but it's incredibly B-movie charming and the Hicking FedEx Guy Simulator gameplay is bizarrely satisfying and addictive as hell to me.

Can't remember the last time I played a game and looked at the clock and it's six hours later.
 
Nightengale

Nightengale

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,708
Malaysia
Not all outlet scores games equally. There's definitely outlets who's been far more generous with their 9s and 10s vs outlets that are known for harsher scores - this is true for *all* games, not just Death Stranding or exclusives.

There's plenty of outlets where their high scores, I don't think as highly as outlets with a historically harsher metric - or I just ignore outright because their reviews have never spoken or aligned with my personal taste/synergy with Reviewer X.

But by and large - I trust all reviewers to be honest and genuine about their scores. Whether or not I think their reviews are good or bad? That's a completely different story.
 
Blade Wolf

Blade Wolf

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
9,512
Taiwan
Game is pretty good, I find it a lot more fun than I would've imagined. Definitely loving it.

That being said, there're many things wrong with this game, especially the world building, most of the ''settlement'' just don't feel believable at all, like you really want me to believe that there're 40,000+ people living in Capital Knot City? The game didn't even bothered showing us a single imagine of people living inside.

And you are telling me that they are able to produce fucking Monster drinks with all the labels and logos and shit during a time like that?

It's just weird, humanity is on the brink of extinction and yet everything is shiny and pristine, and all the buildings just kinda feel the same as well. Sure they look different on the outside but once you enter it, it feels just like the last one.

This game honestly reminds me of No Man's Sky a little, where all the man-made structure are just kinda samey and not very interactable.

I feel like the team is too scared to speak up during gameplay designings, Kojima is a very talented person but he is only one man, of course he is gonna suck at something. From the looks of it, I think open world world-building and environmental storytelling is his absolute weakest.
 
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Dyno

Dyno

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
13,208
Blade Wolf said:
Game is pretty good, I find it a lot more fun than I would've imagined. Definitely loving it.

That being said, there're many things wrong with this game, especially the world building, most of the ''settlement'' just don't feel believable at all, like you really want me to believe that there're 40,000+ people living in Capital Knot City? The game didn't even bothered showing us a single imagine of people living inside.

And you are telling me that they are able to produce fucking Monster drinks with all the labels and logos and shit during a time like that?

It's just weird, humanity is on the brink of extinction and yet everything is shiny and pristine, and all the buildings just kinda feel the same as well. Sure they look different on the outside but once you enter it, it feels just like the last one.

This game honestly reminds me of No Man's Sky a little, where all the man-made structure are just kinda samey and not every interactable.
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I'm really loving the game but I can agree with this in many ways. My only real complaint in this aspect though is it doesn't sell me on its world due to it. There's no real sign America was ever here, let alone that this is what's left. However it does nail the feeling of isolation in many other ways so it's not totally breaking the theme for me.
 
YawZah

YawZah

Member
Oct 30, 2017
591
Aztechnology said:
The sheer amount of 100 or high 90's from latam, Italian and a few french and fansite news media just don't feel genuine at all. That's just me though. It happens with every PlayStation game. Either they have low standards or do so simply go insure they receive more review copies.
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I went through all the metascores as a few days ago for an unrelated data visualization exercise I was working on, and I don't really think the data supports that bias.

Regional Averages:
  • NA: 85.3 from 32 reviews
  • EU: 87.8 from 37 reviews
  • ASIA: 83 from 5 reviews
  • SA: 92 from 2 reviews
  • AU: 74.2 from 6 reviews
Adfdi1h.png


BYTQiZO.png


Distribution:
7zA7eIA.png


Out of the 15 scores of 100 Death Stranding had received, NA constituted more than all other regions combined.
eEHSTrH.png


Women seemed to like Death Stranding more than men, but are vastly outnumbered by male reviewers.
r2OOPU2.png

wmbzNUE.png


Histogram of all reviews:
pXCTeVx.png


TLDR:
Women were vastly outnumbered by men in number of reviews, but rated Death Stranding significantly higher than men on average. Death Stranding received the majority of its 100 scores from the US. Australia hates DS.
 
Aztechnology

Aztechnology

Community Resettler
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
14,131
YawZah said:
I went through all the metascores as a few days ago for an unrelated data visualization exercise I was working on, and I don't really think the data supports that bias.

Regional Averages:
  • NA: 85.3 from 32 reviews
  • EU: 87.8 from 37 reviews
  • ASIA: 83 from 5 reviews
  • SA: 92 from 2 reviews
  • AU: 74.2 from 6 reviews
Adfdi1h.png


BYTQiZO.png


Distribution:
7zA7eIA.png


Out of the 15 scores of 100 Death Stranding had received, NA constituted more than all other regions combined.
eEHSTrH.png


Women seemed to like Death Stranding more than men, but are vastly outnumbered by male reviewers.
r2OOPU2.png

wmbzNUE.png


Histogram of all reviews:
pXCTeVx.png


TLDR:
Women were vastly outnumbered by men in number of reviews, but rated Death Stranding significantly higher than men on average. Death Stranding received the majority of its 100 scores from the US. Australia hates DS.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Nice, thank you those are excellent infographics.
 

Firefly

Member
Jul 10, 2018
8,614
Looks like there is a good chance Edge will be scoring it in the next issue?

Quite what we're supposed to make of all that is anyone's guess, but in fairness that's a recurring theme. Expect our final verdict next month - providing we can stagger over the finish line, anyway. [40-Hour Impressions; Issue#339, p.28]
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nib95

nib95

Contains No Misinformation on Philly Cheesesteaks
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
18,498
YawZah said:
I went through all the metascores as a few days ago for an unrelated data visualization exercise I was working on, and I don't really think the data supports that bias.

Regional Averages:
  • NA: 85.3 from 32 reviews
  • EU: 87.8 from 37 reviews
  • ASIA: 83 from 5 reviews
  • SA: 92 from 2 reviews
  • AU: 74.2 from 6 reviews
Adfdi1h.png


BYTQiZO.png


Distribution:
7zA7eIA.png


Out of the 15 scores of 100 Death Stranding had received, NA constituted more than all other regions combined.
eEHSTrH.png


Women seemed to like Death Stranding more than men, but are vastly outnumbered by male reviewers.
r2OOPU2.png

wmbzNUE.png


Histogram of all reviews:
pXCTeVx.png


TLDR:
Women were vastly outnumbered by men in number of reviews, but rated Death Stranding significantly higher than men on average. Death Stranding received the majority of its 100 scores from the US. Australia hates DS.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Australians with worse taste confirmed lol. Ironically the IGN review is also by someone from Sydney afaik lol.
 
Chaos2Frozen

Chaos2Frozen

Member
Nov 3, 2017
28,008
YawZah said:
I went through all the metascores as a few days ago for an unrelated data visualization exercise I was working on, and I don't really think the data supports that bias.

Regional Averages:
  • NA: 85.3 from 32 reviews
  • EU: 87.8 from 37 reviews
  • ASIA: 83 from 5 reviews
  • SA: 92 from 2 reviews
  • AU: 74.2 from 6 reviews
Adfdi1h.png


BYTQiZO.png


Distribution:
7zA7eIA.png


Out of the 15 scores of 100 Death Stranding had received, NA constituted more than all other regions combined.
eEHSTrH.png


Women seemed to like Death Stranding more than men, but are vastly outnumbered by male reviewers.
r2OOPU2.png

wmbzNUE.png


Histogram of all reviews:
pXCTeVx.png


TLDR:
Women were vastly outnumbered by men in number of reviews, but rated Death Stranding significantly higher than men on average. Death Stranding received the majority of its 100 scores from the US. Australia hates DS.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

This is impressive.

Women seemed to like Death Stranding more than men
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Norman Reedus putting in the work
 

Deleted member 10737

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
49,774
British GQ (no score):
An experience of visual wonder and quite incredible ideas; an impossible elevator pitch, somehow brought to fruition; something that you have to experience for yourself, just to see if you like it. All brought down by the underpinnings of a game isn't refined enough in its core mechanics or coherent enough in its narrative delivery to justify the hubristic run-time.
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Just Push Start (7.2/10):
Death Stranding is, without question, a divisive experience. It isn't like Mario or The Last of Us, in that it is the type of thing you either love or hate. A lot of the flaws come up in the way of delivering an immersive experience that some people simply will not like. Between exposition heavy cutscenes, minimal action and tons of challenges built around going from place to place, Death Stranding is largely just, for better or worse, more Kojima. So, if you're a fan of everything he does, odds are you'll find enough to get through it and likely be happy, whereas if you questioned some of his choices or simply hate the trailers, I'd bet on you not liking this experience.
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cowbanana

cowbanana

Member
Feb 2, 2018
13,647
a Socialist Utopia
20+ hours in, chapter 4 started. This game is utterly amazing on all levels so far. The social stuff, which I though I'd hate, is actually brilliant and everything from world building, visuals, sound design to gameplay... you name it, is top shelf gourmet gaming. <3 Death Stranding. What a ride/trek/walk/run/hike etc. :) The world they made is sooo beautiful and filled with worthwhile and interesting stuff.
 
bcatwilly

bcatwilly

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,483
I don't think that I saw this on here, but wow from Kojima - https://wccftech.com/kojima-death-s...-us-possibly-because-it-flies-above-shooters/

I must say that the game received rave reviews, especially in Europe and Japan. Here in the United States, however, we have had stronger criticisms. Perhaps it is a difficult game to understand for a certain type of critic and audience. Americans are great fans of first-person shooters and Death Stranding isn't one, it flies higher.
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SPCTRE

SPCTRE

Member
Oct 25, 2017
431
coming straight from the Giant Bomb coverage and review to this thread (and the meta scores), it's quite overwhelmingly positive - heh
 
residentgrigo

residentgrigo

Banned
Oct 30, 2019
3,726
Germany
Both the Time and the NYT have reposted on the game recently, so I'll just put them here. Sony went all out and the media interest is clearly there. His next budget will likely blow minds.

Has Lindsay Wagner given a post launch or launch interview on the game btw? The way Kojima convinced The Bionic Woman to join was wild after all.
Her likeness is even in Snatcher as your wife.
 
Last_colossi

Last_colossi

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
4,247
Australia
Just finished the game now and.... wow, god damn just fucking hell that was an amazing emotional rollercoaster.

The game has it's issues, the boss fights are shit & the vehicles can be glitchy but besides that the general gameplay of going from point A to B is fantastic and the cutscenes and story are off the charts incredible.

For me personally it's an easy 9/10, although this game definitely isn't for everyone; I can totally understand some people hating the gameplay as it's really for those that enjoy the little things and just roaming open worlds for the hell of it, but to those critics that finished the game and went through those last moments and cutscenes and still gave the game below a 5/10:

whats-wrong-with-you.gif


btw giant bombs review on metacritic with the line "Kojima's first post-Konami project is a bizarre, self-indulgent mess that never quite manages to tie its myriad pieces together." is some of the biggest horseshit I've ever read after finishing the game.
 
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