Did you get Death Stranding from Epic on Christmas?
Did you get Death Stranding from Epic on Christmas?
I have been watching the Epic giveaways this week and saw this come up, figured I would give it a go. To be fair, this isn't a game I would have purchased, just not really on my search criteria/what I (think) I look for in a game. For free, well, that tends to change things.
Straight off this is a beautiful game and my system just runs with it. All the settings are at "auto", the only thing I changed was the resolution and to turn off V Sync (G Sync compat. monitor) and it's running great at 130+ FPS. I tried fiddling with a few of the settings such as DLSS and Motion Blur and things got strange fast with tearing, so I just defaulted back. System temps are well controlled but it's also colder than a witches brass bra right now so that remains to be seen.
I had no idea upon loading this that I was basically in for a three hour long intro. In essence, the first two hours of the game you have very little control over as it jumps from cut scene to cut scene. You can skip but not knowing the premise of the game I figured it was important to watch. Weird. Weird is the word I would use to describe the experience and story line. This Kojima guy must have some really good drugs onboard. I mean, who in their right mind thinks of this kind of stuff. If you haven't played, I don't want to ruin the novelty of it for you but be prepared. It is some seriously off the wall kind of stuff.
I would say that after four hours on the first experience with it with a solid 3.5 of that being cut scenes, that would be my biggest disappointment or detractor in the gameplay. If you don't skip those scenes there is basically no way to pause the game and do rational things such as going to bed. I am not exaggerating to say that you could be on this game for nearly two hours before the first chance to pause comes up. The first mission is tedious. It shares a lot in common with such games as Skyrim, Witcher where you have loads of walking to do. It (so far) "acts" like it is open world sandbox style and that may develop more as the game progresses. My first impression is that the hallways are just really big, so to speak. Still a guided tour.
Anyway, might post more on it later as I play some more and gain more insight on it...
Time is dragging. I just spent a few hours going through some scenes and watching these bizarrely named characters discuss absurd jargon about goals and tools. Most of the game focuses heavily on the artwork they created for Norman Reedus. It almost feels like an obsession with his image. One thing that stood out to me was the ad for one of his shows, "Ride." I’m not sure where this is heading, but my experience so far suggests I won’t keep playing this long.