Sam was born from a "stillmother" - which I expect is someone stuck in a coma or is brain dead - named Lisa Bridges. His father was Clifford Unger, a former US Spec Ops Captain. He agreed to work with President Strand to help save his son and wife, but later realized that his prematurely born baby son would be used as a prototype BB, to lay a foundation of the chiral network. The nature of baby Sam's birth meant he, as a BB, had an equal connection between the sides of the living and the dead, and the orange vessel he was kept in would maintain that state - meaning he would stay in that fashion, never growing up to be a proper child. Cliff rebelled; killing his comatose wife to put her out of her misery, and attempting to escape with BB Sam from the facility, but was cornered and gunned down. Unfortunately for President Strand, BB Sam was killed as collateral damage. In the limbo region called Beach, where's the Ka- Half of Strand, Amelie, resides, BB Sam was found. Amelie and Strand - both two halves of the same person - decided, out of maternal affection, to use their EE powers and revive the BB - which makes the revived Sam a repatriate: someone who can return from Limbo post death. The nature of the process, owing to an unforseen side-effect, triggered Death Stranding - a significant dissolution of the barriers between the realms of living and dead. Many creatures from the living plane were transported to the Beach plane, while roaming spirits from the Limbo plane, called BTs, were in turn transported to the plane of the Living. This caused sizeable apocalyptic events; the plane of death, and the BTs in essence are composed of antimatter, and when they devour someone who is alive, the reaction causes a Massive Explosion that leaves a crater. Since the events of Sam's death and revival occurred first on US, that is where the phenomenon of Death Stranding gradually began to occur, laying waste to most of the US in the process. The revived baby Sam no longer could serve as a BB, but the research data until the point were sufficient to produce artificial clones of baby Sam to be used as BT detectors and other purposes. The real baby Sam was adopted by President Strand and raised as her own son. As an adult, he marries a woman, but an unfortunate miscarriage and death causes a voidout of his wife's body, and Sam, suffering both from losing his wife, his unborn child, and public persecution, leaves his life to become a delivery guy...
I like how by hour 3 it's pretty clear that Cliff is Sam's dad and the game still has Sam explicitly spell it out in the ending after dozens of hours of being able to figure it out, lol.
Also, Cliff calling Sam "BB" to avoid spoiling this "twist" is pretty hilarious, lol.
I'm about 40 minutes into an 8 hour video of scenes from this game, and I don't know if I have the will to keep watching. It's exactly what I expected, hence why I didn't buy it.
Also, the constant close ups of Monster drinks is still blowing my mind. I don't know how gamers can be so fickle, there's basically no outrage or criticism about this intrusive immersion-breaking advertising, from players or reviewers, because: 'oh, it's just Kojima!'. If any EA game did this we'd see a mammoth thread about how evil and capitalist they are or something. Hell, if David Cage did it he'd get flak and not "well it's the only way for him to fund his passion project" bullshit excuses.
So I've only been watching streams here and there but is there an explanation as to why the world is so barren with just grass and rocks everywhere? I know it's post-apocalyptic but I wouldn't expect all the ruins of cities and suburbs across America to just up and vanish without a trace.
I do have three questions left after seeing most of the cutscenes
1. What in the world is Higgs motivation
2. What is Amelie's motivation.
3. Why did Kojima make incredible looking bosses and hype them up as the end of the world if they're completely harmless in gameplay.
Sam was born from a "stillmother" - which I expect is someone stuck in a coma or is brain dead - named Lisa Bridges. His father was Clifford Unger, a former US Spec Ops Captain. He agreed to work with President Strand to help save his son and wife, but later realized that his prematurely born baby son would be used as a prototype BB, to lay a foundation of the chiral network. The nature of baby Sam's birth meant he, as a BB, had an equal connection between the sides of the living and the dead, and the orange vessel he was kept in would maintain that state - meaning he would stay in that fashion, never growing up to be a proper child. Cliff rebelled; killing his comatose wife to put her out of her misery, and attempting to escape with BB Sam from the facility, but was cornered and gunned down. Unfortunately for President Strand, BB Sam was killed as collateral damage. In the limbo region called Beach, where's the Ka- Half of Strand, Amelie, resides, BB Sam was found. Amelie and Strand - both two halves of the same person - decided, out of maternal affection, to use their EE powers and revive the BB - which makes the revived Sam a repatriate: someone who can return from Limbo post death. The nature of the process, owing to an unforseen side-effect, triggered Death Stranding - a significant dissolution of the barriers between the realms of living and dead. Many creatures from the living plane were transported to the Beach plane, while roaming spirits from the Limbo plane, called BTs, were in turn transported to the plane of the Living. This caused sizeable apocalyptic events; the plane of death, and the BTs in essence are composed of antimatter, and when they devour someone who is alive, the reaction causes a Massive Explosion that leaves a crater. Since the events of Sam's death and revival occurred first on US, that is where the phenomenon of Death Stranding gradually began to occur, laying waste to most of the US in the process. The revived baby Sam no longer could serve as a BB, but the research data until the point were sufficient to produce artificial clones of baby Sam to be used as BT detectors and other purposes. The real baby Sam was adopted by President Strand and raised as her own son. As an adult, he marries a woman, but an unfortunate miscarriage and death causes a voidout of his wife's body, and Sam, suffering both from losing his wife, his unborn child, and public persecution, leaves his life to become a delivery guy...
If Sam caused the BTs to appear then what was the purpose of BBs before that event?
Story seems really simple for a 40 hours game with 9 hours of cutscenes. The twist "Sam is the baby in the flashbacks" and that Amelie and Bridget are the same person is already kind of obvious in Chapter 2
I'm only on chapter 4 but I hope they explain why Fragile couldn't connect the cities. Her ability to teleport seems much easier than clumsily walking across the map.
So I've only been watching streams here and there but is there an explanation as to why the world is so barren with just grass and rocks everywhere? I know it's post-apocalyptic but I wouldn't expect all the ruins of cities and suburbs across America to just up and vanish without a trace.
Timefall. The rain that falls ages everything extremely fast. In the years since timefall set in most simply disintegrated. It's even noticable within minutes during the game. On top of that impact craters litter the entire country, everything inside, city or forest or mountain ceased to exist. This all transformed America beyond recognition, geography, nature and man made stuff.
Sam was born from a "stillmother" - which I expect is someone stuck in a coma or is brain dead - named Lisa Bridges. His father was Clifford Unger, a former US Spec Ops Captain. He agreed to work with President Strand to help save his son and wife, but later realized that his prematurely born baby son would be used as a prototype BB, to lay a foundation of the chiral network. The nature of baby Sam's birth meant he, as a BB, had an equal connection between the sides of the living and the dead, and the orange vessel he was kept in would maintain that state - meaning he would stay in that fashion, never growing up to be a proper child. Cliff rebelled; killing his comatose wife to put her out of her misery, and attempting to escape with BB Sam from the facility, but was cornered and gunned down. Unfortunately for President Strand, BB Sam was killed as collateral damage. In the limbo region called Beach, where's the Ka- Half of Strand, Amelie, resides, BB Sam was found. Amelie and Strand - both two halves of the same person - decided, out of maternal affection, to use their EE powers and revive the BB - which makes the revived Sam a repatriate: someone who can return from Limbo post death. The nature of the process, owing to an unforseen side-effect, triggered Death Stranding - a significant dissolution of the barriers between the realms of living and dead. Many creatures from the living plane were transported to the Beach plane, while roaming spirits from the Limbo plane, called BTs, were in turn transported to the plane of the Living. This caused sizeable apocalyptic events; the plane of death, and the BTs in essence are composed of antimatter, and when they devour someone who is alive, the reaction causes a Massive Explosion that leaves a crater. Since the events of Sam's death and revival occurred first on US, that is where the phenomenon of Death Stranding gradually began to occur, laying waste to most of the US in the process. The revived baby Sam no longer could serve as a BB, but the research data until the point were sufficient to produce artificial clones of baby Sam to be used as BT detectors and other purposes. The real baby Sam was adopted by President Strand and raised as her own son. As an adult, he marries a woman, but an unfortunate miscarriage and death causes a voidout of his wife's body, and Sam, suffering both from losing his wife, his unborn child, and public persecution, leaves his life to become a delivery guy...
Sounds like it could be a fun sci-fi bullshit story, but it breaks apart by treating it like there's way more to it than there really is. Kinda like everything else about this game.
The story is really bad. Really really bad. But the gameplay. If it was like ten hours total, looks great imo. Also the 9 hours of cut scenes could literally be about 1 hour and say the same thing...pretty much nothing.
Lots of "a great emotional story bogged down by repetitive gameplay"
Regardless, I think it's kind of dumb that lots of people in this thread are just watching cutscenes on YouTube without playing the game and think they actually have a good grip on the games storytelling, but to each their own.
That's not a common take from what I've seen. I think people that love or hate the game generally agree that what it's doing with its world and how the player interacts with it is better than what it's doing with its characters.
That's not a common take from what I've seen. I think people that love or hate the game generally agree that what it's doing with its world and how the player interacts with it is better than what it's doing with its characters.
"A fascinating sci-fi world and lore that is brought down by repetitive gameplay"
Sydney morning herald
"Interesting lore and characters bought down by a mind-crushingly full gameplay loop"
And then most of the misgivings the positive reviews had were the gameplay sometimes being boring. Still not seeing what y'all are.
Lots of people in the review thread and discussion thread were reassured by the reviews for the story as well, everyone was mainly worried about the gameplay.
I have seen some leftists arguing that this game is a criticism of America because the character called America is the main villain of the game but uhhhhhhhh
The villain is a demigod created by the universe to end life because the universe hates life. The villain and Troy Baker want to end all life because, I don't know, we're gonna die in like 100k years so why not do it now?
If the villain did have some metaphorical similarities to America, I mean, maybe that could be interpretation?
But she doesn't and is instead a really stupid anime villain.
Also, Sony really needed to tell Kojima what the word "extinction" means because the exposition dump at the end comes as really stupid because Kojima clearly doesn't know the meaning of the word.
"A fascinating sci-fi world and lore that is brought down by repetitive gameplay"
Sydney morning herald
"Interesting lore and characters bought down by a mind-crushingly full gameplay loop"
And then most of the misgivings the positive reviews had were the gameplay sometimes being boring. Still not seeing what y'all are.
Lots of people in the review thread and discussion thread were reassured by the reviews for the story as well, everyone was mainly worried about the gameplay.
Well I kinda avoided the word story in my second sentence because one of the things people seem to like most about the gameplay is the interactive storytelling about connecting the world together. But I don't see much focus at all on emotional character arcs or shocking plot twists, except when people point out how bad they are.
Hey everyone,
I finished Death Stranding a little while back and decided I wanted to write up my impressions here for the OT. I'm keeping this spoiler free except for the section below past the RED LIGHT BB but everything there will be in named spoiler tags so you can avoid them all or just specific things.
The one thing that has alluded me… maybe even us all – is what the hell is Death Stranding about? I legitimately wasn't going to even play this game until something clicked with me when I watched the 7 minute long launch trailer a few weeks ago. Playing this game has been an absolute treat and I will put it up there with God of War as one of my favourite PS4 titles. It's story seems convoluted at times and even by the end can somewhat still feel like that but if you embrace it – understand the terminology and sink into the world of Death Stranding it all seems rather simple. I'm genuinely surprised how much I enjoyed the story and by the end, just how much I cared. It can seem a little ham fisted and cliché at times (and it is) and it can also seem strangely simple in light of all the complex terminology around it. I for one really like the final message it leaves you with, I look forward to hearing what other people think when they're past the credits and can start processing the game.
Characters really drive Death Stranding, they may have.. strange names – but they are often nicknames or 'roles' and you'll learn of their real names in time. Death Stranding is so well acted across the board too, from Norman Reedus to Troy Baker who both put on great performances – I was pleasantly surprised by Tommie Earl Jenkins, whenever he was on screen he really stole the scene. Mads Mikkelsen and Margaret Qualley are two of my other favourites in the cast too and really nailed their roles. While I imagine many of them confusingly reading the lines in the script, I would hope that by the end of things they gained a sort of clarity on it all… like I did. When it all comes together – it feels amazing.
I remember the first time we saw Gameplay from Death Stranding and thinking "Is that it?". I was shocked that Kojima's next game was a very pretty courier simulator. Oh boy… is it more than that – so much more. From the social strand system connecting you to other players online to the nuanced systems which let you approach combat in any way you want, it's absolutely brilliant. I loved seeing all the other structures other players built: bridges, generators, safe houses – all so useful and I too added some of my own to the world and got a ton of likes for them too. That's another thing, likes, they motivate you to actually build structures and place signs. You run around liking other players things and then see 'so and so liked your structure' pop up on the left and it fills you with a strange connection; I love it.
I do have to use this time to talk about stealth and horror, two things which Death Stranding dabbles in and uses to its advantage at different times. Both come into play heavily when you come across BTs in the world – you can sneak by them, choose an entirely different route or take them head on. As you go the game gives you more and more equipment to deal with them but I always found myself running in head first. See, I don't really like horror or stealth in my video games. I can deal with them in small amounts or I like playing stealth games fairly… unstealthy, in Death Stranding, I was no different. I would go charging in on my vehicle of choice, straight into BT territory and quickly find myself pulled into the tar and fighting one of the mini-bosses. I would quickly dispatch of them with my choice of anti-BT weapon or grenade. Then the entire area they were inhabiting is cleared, the timefall subsides and I can carry on. Understandably, many others won't do it this way but that was my personal approach. MULE's and other human enemies which try to snatch your cargo as you try to get from A to B, didn't pose much of a threat to me at all but I enjoyed the cat and mouse nature of their encounters.
Death Stranding has some of the most beautiful vistas… ever. It is striking and brutal in both its approach to world design and architecture, of the few buildings which do dot that harsh landscape. From the lush greens and dark rocks to the snowy peaks this game does environments beautifully. I often found myself finding a spot and holding L1 to look first person and just scanning the horizon at the beauty before me. I was also blown away by the sheer amount of detail on character models, from buckles, different fabric textures and micro-details; this game is a real looking in 4K with HDR on. I hope some of the clear advancements made to the Decima engine make their way into Horizon Zero Dawn 2 because some of the mechanics and systems in this game would be perfect to iterate upon for a sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn.
Thanks to everyone in this OT for the constant chats and back and forth messages while playing, it has felt like a little mini-social strand system right here on Era. KindekumavestanbrokeastronauttkatoShyGen X Thanks again all!
I have to say, I'm walking away from Death Stranding wanting more (I will likely dive back in to do some more deliveries) and with an extremely positive reaction. Just like The Outer Worlds, this felt like the perfect game for 'now' and it really scratched an itch I didn't know I had. I can totally see a lot of the systems in Death Stranding being copied in other games in the future, especially its Social Strand system as I honestly feel like that is revolutionary – it's like someone saw Dark Soul's online messages system and then turned that up to eleven.
If you come across this while flicking through the pages of the OT and you're unsure if you want to play this game… well let me just say if you want to play something perfectly unique, a little bat shit insane and are a fan of somewhat avant-garde art and cinema then this game is for you!
Spoilers Time!
There are 14 main chapters/episodes and then a continuation in chapter/episode 15. There are over 60 main orders to progress the story and hundreds of smaller standard missions.
I'm surprised there weren't more weird places or beaches to visit. I think the beaches we do visit (especially the ones set in specific time periods) are really amazing experiences but I would have loved to have seen what some other peoples beaches looked like.
At some point in the game (after you get all the way west) you are asked to go all the way back east again – this weirdly made the game world feel really small to me. Like it took place over one or two small mountain ranges rather than all of America.
Getting to see the full 'flashback' of Cliff trying to escape with BB was amazing. After, we had been drip fed little clips of it throughout the game, getting to see it from a new perspective and all at once was amazing.
It was somewhat predictable that the BB in the memories was different than the one Sam had but it didn't click to me until pretty late that the memories we've been seeing are actually Sam's not the BB's. That was really cool. Also Lou is an awesome name… or should I say Louise?
I felt kind of underwhelmed by the mechanics of many of the boss fights, even if some of them blew me away with their majesty. I will say though… that fighting game boss fight was top tier Kojima… I could have done without the Mario and Princess Peach references though.
Are the 5 figures we see in the sky looking at Sam throughout the game… are they the past 5 Extinction Entities?
They already knew what a repatriate is… so where their others who could come back from death like Sam? I know Heartman kind of does it but not quite.
I love Fragile… she's so fragile… but not fragile.
If anyone out there took the time to read this - thanks. I just decided to splurge my unbridled brain thoughts into a post here - but in short... I fucking loved Death Stranding.
I posted this in the OT which includes my overall impressions and some spoiler tagged stuff. I honestly think, I'm content, with the 40+ hours of game time, the story actually makes sense and is enjoyable and even becomes really good in parts.
I posted this in the OT which includes my overall impressions and some spoiler tagged stuff. I honestly think, I'm content, with the 40+ hours of game time, the story actually makes sense and is enjoyable and even becomes really good in parts.
I mean... the main explanation you get is that Higgs was persuaded to do the EE's bidding due to the immense power it gave him. The EE its self is more ambiguous and just that every EE has the goal in its life to cause an extinction. It doesn't really have motivation beyond "I must cause it". Imagine being born and you know instantly you must end all life at some point in your life. Luckily, it seems like an EE can choose WHEN to do this, so it can wait thousands of years before having to cause it... or just choose to do it now if it's sick of waiting.
I have seen some leftists arguing that this game is a criticism of America because the character called America is the main villain of the game but uhhhhhhhh
The villain is a demigod created by the universe to end life because the universe hates life. The villain and Troy Baker want to end all life because, I don't know, we're gonna die in like 100k years so why not do it now?
If the villain did have some metaphorical similarities to America, I mean, maybe that could be interpretation?
But she doesn't and is instead a really stupid anime villain.
Also, Sony really needed to tell Kojima what the word "extinction" means because the exposition dump at the end comes as really stupid because Kojima clearly doesn't know the meaning of the word.
It has a pretty strong leftist view of human nature and the ideal society, but not a very strong view of the forces stoping us from achieving that ideal society.
It has a pretty strong leftist view of human nature and the ideal society, but not a very strong view of the forces stoping us from achieving that ideal society.
i think the game is about as critical of the US and US imperialism as I've seen a game in recent memory, and i'll be happy to go into full details on that in a few hours when the review embargo is over :^)
but hey, the character who is the president, named America, who says the line "America is a lie"... why would anyone think that's a representation of the US? right????
i think the game is about as critical of the US and US imperialism as I've seen a game in recent memory, and i'll be happy to go into full details on that in a few hours when the review embargo is over :^)
i think the game is about as critical of the US and US imperialism as I've seen a game in recent memory, and i'll be happy to go into full details on that in a few hours when the review embargo is over :^)
but hey, the character who is the president, named America, who says the line "America is a lie"... why would anyone think that's a representation of the US? right????
If I say "The EU is a lie" and then literally nothing in my story about why bad things happened has any relation to the EU, is this anti-EU.
The US fucks things up in this game because the president was a demigod created by the universe to end all life because the universe is like mad or something. Her main ally in her quest to end all life is a guy who likes video games and doesn't know how to aim a gun.
Well yeah, but in the ending cutscene it's actually baby Sam lol. It explicitly says so. When Sam watches what happened in the past with his father, Cliff suddenly stops everything, can touch Sam and puts Babysam into his hands. Then he gets shot and Babysam gets shot, too. That's where the scar on the stomach is from.
I have seen some leftists arguing that this game is a criticism of America because the character called America is the main villain of the game but uhhhhhhhh
The villain is a demigod created by the universe to end life because the universe hates life. The villain and Troy Baker want to end all life because, I don't know, we're gonna die in like 100k years so why not do it now?
If the villain did have some metaphorical similarities to America, I mean, maybe that could be interpretation?
But she doesn't and is instead a really stupid anime villain.
Also, Sony really needed to tell Kojima what the word "extinction" means because the exposition dump at the end comes as really stupid because Kojima clearly doesn't know the meaning of the word.
Well yeah, but in the ending cutscene it's actually baby Sam lol. It explicitly says so. When Sam watches what happened in the past with his father, Cliff suddenly stops everything, can touch Sam and puts Babysam into his hands. Then he gets shot and Babysam gets shot, too. That's where the scar on the stomach is from.
Ok i don't remember clearly, i finished the game some time ago. But the baby you're using in the game is not yourself if that was your question.
(but i might have missed something, this scene was confusing as hell).
Ok i don't remember clearly, i finished the game some time ago. But the baby you're using in the game is not yourself if that was your question.
(but i might have missed something, this scene was confusing as hell).
If I say "The EU is a lie" and then literally nothing in my story about why bad things happened has any relation to the EU, is this anti-EU.
The US fucks things up in this game because the president was a demigod created by the universe to end all life because the universe is like mad or something. Her main ally in her quest to end all life is a guy who likes video games and doesn't know how to aim a gun.
I mean, that's a very very literal explanation of what happens in the game, yes...? the game says at one point, direct quote, "this is a metaphor." it's very heavy handed and often clumsily written, but I'm baffled by the idea that we should take everything in the game and read it completely literally
