Board 8 > Death Stranding Review Zone

(+) Yeah! (+)

The time we've all been waiting for

well not exactly it's still a week until it's out. Embargo in this one is weird as reviews out now cannot talk about anything past chapter 3

How far is chapter 3 into the game? Who knows! As the week goes on more and more is able to be reveal but I'm not really sure if that'll mean some reviews will be withheld until then or not.

For now we're at....*checks notes*...84% through 56 reviews!
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Easy Allies - 8/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zUxXf1k5iM" data-time="

Destructoid - 8/10
Death Stranding is not the overly-strange inaccessible walled garden the marketing has made it out to be. It's weird, don't get me wrong! But anyone with a surface-level understanding of surrealism in art should be able to acclimate to what is essentially a playable Hollywood production.

Video Gamer - 8/10
Death Stranding is filled with things that must be seen, a sprawling, genre-spanning sci-fi adventure from a developer like no other. It's tackier clumps of writing and stunt casting seem overwrought, but its direction and its stars shine brightest

We Got This Covered - 5 stars
Like any genre-pushing work of art, Death Stranding is sure to be divisive. That said, the unflinching vision of its director is a breath of fresh air in an industry increasingly unwilling to swing for the fences.
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Eurogamer
Hideo Kojma's first post-Metal Gear game is a messy, indulgent vanity project - but also a true original.

Game Informer - 7/10
The pillars of gameplay, combat, and story all bear the mark of creator Hideo Kojima, but none of them stand out or carry the experience

IGN - 6.8/10
Death Stranding delivers a fascinating world of supernatural sci-fi, but its gameplay struggles to support its weight.

Polygon
Something clicked for me after those first 10 hours, though. The basic loop of many open-world games involves starting out as a puny nobody and, over dozens of hours of exploring a wide expanse, gaining wondrous abilities to become a walking god. But that never really happens in Death Stranding. Sam essentially has the same abilities at the end of the story as he did in the beginning. A few handy gadgets and a little extra carrying capacity, maybe. But generally speaking, he's the same ordinary guy with a stack of boxes.

Kotaku
Its hard not to like Sam Bridges, who faces all of Death Strandings bizarreness with a welcome everymans weariness, encapsulated in in Norman Reedus characteristic growl.

US Gamer - 3.5/5
Death Stranding might be Kojima's boldest game to date. It may also be his most tedious. Either way, its originality outweighs its sometimes exhausting structure and poor pacing... but only just. Maybe not a game I would recommend to everyone, but certainly one of the most interesting games of 2019.
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Giant Bomb not a quick look but it is a video feature

https://www.giantbomb.com/shows/brad-and-jeff-show-off-death-stranding-for-20-minu/2970-19733
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With so many games to buy, I'll wait til Black Friday or a price drop for this.
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Jeff Gerstmann's Death Stranding Description

Truck Simulator + QWOP
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even though he thinks it's a bad game he respects it for having the audacity of existing
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ninkendo posted...

Jeff Gerstmann's Death Stranding Description

Truck Simulator + QWOP

Danny ODwyer says its like Lars Von Trier made a sequel to Noby Noby Boy

https://twitter.com/dannyodwyer/status/1190164249194024965?s=21
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Dan Ryckert: "It Fucking Sucks."

He made it 8 hours.

Jesus, he goes in. "I don't think I've ever hated a game put out by a major publisher more than this. Hated the act of playing it."
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Gamespot - 9/10
Death Stranding is dense, complex, and powerful, steadfast in its belief in the power of love and hope when faced with overwhelming adversity.

Gaming Nexus - 9.5/10
Hideo Kojima has fully weaponized the walking simulator, writing a love letter to the delivery service workers of our shipping and handling world. Death Stranding is about ending isolation, and does it so gracefully that I can't imagine it being done better than it's done here.

Push Square - 10/10
Following years of mysterious anticipation, Death Stranding delivers on all fronts. An accomplished, fascinating set of gameplay mechanics allow you to make deliveries the way you want to, while social features let the game live on once you've put the controller down. It may become slightly tiresome as you hit the halfway mark, but the phenomenal narrative is on hand to pick things back up again and its outstanding visuals are the cherry on top. Death Stranding doesn't raise the bar for any particular genre, it creates an entirely new one.

EGM - 10/10
In the end, Death Stranding's biggest mystery isn't any of the elements we've had teased in three-plus years of trailersit's what people are going to think of it. Even from a man known for making love-them-or-hate-them projects, this may end up being one of the most divisive games ever created. For me, it was an experience that I can truly say was unlike any other I remember. And, if nothing else, Death Stranding makes me respect Hideo Kojima for convincing Sony to invest millions into a game that's about a man delivering packages to holograms.

Stevivor - 3.5/10
Even if Death Strandings narrative was good and its not a game needs to have actual gameplay. What you find within is abysmal; frustrating, tedious and beyond repair, it is to be avoided at all costs.
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Based on reviews, I guess Resident Evil 2 Remake is going to be GOTY.
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I don't know did you see all those 10's just now

and then STEVE'S 3.5
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I bet Death Stranding will be like Red Dead 2 last year

It'll win every award except the actual GotY award
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Sounds like, as expected, we've reached peak Kojima


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XIII_rocks posted...

Sounds like, as expected, we've reached peak Kojima

I'm just listening to the beastcast discussing it, and Vinny is describing the 20 minute cutscenes for each character and yeah. That sounds exactly right.
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watching the Giant Bomb coverage this seems like a game that will be better as time goes on after players build roads and generators and whatnot across the entire map
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Pretty clear that it's a very mediocre game that get a bonus score for "muh Kojima"
I trust IGN review

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the thing that excites me most is from the GB video when Brad says he can confidently say he's never played a video game like this before. It's very rare these when you get a completely new type of video game much less an entirely new genre of game.
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From what I can tell, I don't think those RDR2 comparisons are fair at all. RDR2 had one of the best narratives in any game and the story here seems like a trainwreck. RDR2 had this huge intricate world, DS seems empty. And RDR2 was the best reviewed game of the year while this has sharply divided critics. I don't think this will do well at all regarding GOTY awards, though it is a weak year. The comparisons I see more of are to No Man's Sky.

Also it's not even a new genre! It's a delivery sim. It's new for AAA games sure, but there have absolutely been these types of games before.
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Also it's not even a new genre! It's a delivery sim.

false. It is a strand game. Totally new.
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I think that while this game is probably going to be not that great, it seems exactly the type of project that a lot of game reviewers wouldn't understand how to review in the slightest. And not in the sense that they wouldn't "get" it, but that most of them are such hacks that they have no idea how to review games objectively and can only write reviews by using comparisons and describing how they feel playing it, and when faced with something so unusual and not like other video games like Death Stranding appears to be they either can only say they didn't have the same kind of entertaining experience with it like they can with other games and give it a bad review, or throw up their hands, give up, and give it a good score just for being experimental.

bryans7 posted...

Dan Ryckert: "It f***ing Sucks."

He made it 8 hours.

Jesus, he goes in. "I don't think I've ever hated a game put out by a major publisher more than this. Hated the act of playing it."

Man, watching the Quick Look of the new Story of Seasons game where he thought it was based on Stardew Valley solidified how much I don't respect his opinions on gaming at all. That guy is consistently a goddamn idiot.

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Its tracking a bit higher than I expected overall based on what Id heard through ye olde grapevine but a lot of the higher-skewing big media reviews read more negatively than their scores suggest

So I guess its about right anyway

I think it will settle at around 84-86 in the final telling but the fine print will read more like a 70

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Grand Kirby posted...

Man, watching the Quick Look of the new Story of Seasons game where he thought it was based on Stardew Valley solidified how much I don't respect his opinions on gaming at all. That guy is consistently a goddamn idiot.

He is. I remember the Crash Team Racing quick look where they spend the whole time talking about Mario Kart because none of them actually know anything about Crash Bandicoot.

UberPyro64 posted...

Based on reviews, I guess Resident Evil 2 Remake is going to be GOTY.

Nah. Outer Worlds has this.

Grand Kirby posted...

I think that while this game is probably going to be not that great, it seems exactly the type of project that a lot of game reviewers wouldn't understand how to review in the slightest. And not in the sense that they wouldn't "get" it, but that most of them are such hacks that they have no idea how to review games objectively and can only write reviews by using comparisons and describing how they feel playing it, and when faced with something so unusual and not like other video games like Death Stranding appears to be they either can only say they didn't have the same kind of entertaining experience with it like they can with other games and give it a bad review, or throw up their hands, give up, and give it a good score just for being experimental.

bryans7 posted...

Dan Ryckert: "It f***ing Sucks."

He made it 8 hours.

Jesus, he goes in. "I don't think I've ever hated a game put out by a major publisher more than this. Hated the act of playing it."

Man, watching the Quick Look of the new Story of Seasons game where he thought it was based on Stardew Valley solidified how much I don't respect his opinions on gaming at all. That guy is consistently a goddamn idiot.

This is just silly, if a review isn't about how you feel it isn't a review, it's a product guide. I would recommend Jim Sterling's Completely Objective FFXIII Review on this topic.

Also Dan did not do that. He said he didn't know anything about Story of Seasons before, and after playing the Doraemon game he realised just how much Stardew Valley took.

Anyway I really like the idea of a contemplative mechanically dense walking sim, but the fact that the story is getting near-universally panned is putting me off. We'll see.
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The more and more they showed of this game, the more I expected it to be awful. I don't know from all the gameplay I've seen how this could end up alright.

I'll be happy if it's mediocre, but the reviews are all over the place and making me think I'll end on the side of "the fuck was that"

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The Kotaku review is incredibly glowing and very in depth, but no score there.

MichelBollinger posted...

The Kotaku review is incredibly glowing and very in depth, but no score there.

If kotaku does not give a glowing review to a game its complete trash...

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A game about bringing people together being as divisive as this appears to be is amusing to say the least
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I love all the review excerpts on Metacritic that are like "this game is not fun at all. 10/10. 100 points. do recommend."

Not reading any in full but this is basically what I expected. I just hope it keeps my attention long enough to beat it because it sounds loooooong for this amount of bad gameplay.

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the tim rogers video is all I need.

it's a frustrating at times video game that does new things and isn't actiony. sounds good to me.

Good to see all the reviewers either

1.Afraid of Kojima and score high
2.Pander to Kojima even if they dont like the game and score high

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Game wise

The path system seems actually interesting as a fun little thing. Seems like a game that if your into boredom and fetch quests will be fun now as the public works and paths form. A year from now this games gonna look real strange with strange structures everywhere and a dirt world.
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Yes I'm sure that's every single review posted about the game, good investigation
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For a game shrouded in mystery and vague previews, there sure are a lot of people who made up their minds about it ahead of time.

Bane_Of_Despair posted...

Yes I'm sure that's every single review posted about the game, good investigation

Thanks
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https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/1190319039781863425

Oh no. Gamestop, what are you doing? Do you know what you're getting into?

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The game is over 50 hours, right? If it's good, GameStop has nothing to worry about

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Grand Kirby posted...

Oh no. Gamestop, what are you doing? Do you know what you're getting into?

they don't have to give back the money, they're just giving them store credit

it's a win/win for the store
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Back up to 86% through 75 reviews
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banananor posted...

it's a win/win for the store

No this is kind of "buy one get another one for free" kind of deal
Well, if you do send it back though

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so since when did the boards start embedding tweets
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Since a few hours ago
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I'm a pretty big fan of Polygon's review title, by the way

A+ work

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Sounds neat. I'll wait for the discounts, which should come quickly.

Tim Rodgers video about it was a trip.
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Waluigi1 posted...

Tim Rodgers video about it was a trip.

Yeah, I need to watch this.
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https://youtu.be/KXf9O0OWe54

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on the Bombcast, Brad called it Kojima's Phantom Menace
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Eh, I trust Dewgamer and The Catholic Dorito Times far more than I trust Brad. They both gave it a 10.

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Grand Kirby posted...

https://youtu.be/KXf9O0OWe54

Wtf this is awesome lol
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Death Stranding Collector's Edition has shipped

whoops I thought I did instore pickup guess I'm not grabbing it at midnight tomorrow
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SaveEstelle posted...

Eh, I trust Dewgamer and The Catholic Dorito Times far more than I trust Brad. They both gave it a 10.

ok but what did they say about it?

Ive seen multiple 90+ reviews where the writer outright says it isnt any fun, which proves that going by numbers is stupid as heck.

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