Why I HATE Death Stranding - Terrible Game

Hello, welcome back to a new video game

review. So recently I've been playing

Death Stranding because it's 70% off on

Steam now, and I wanted to play it back

when it came out a few years ago, but it

was just too expensive to justify the

price tag, and the game didn't really look

like my cup of tea, so I didn't get to

play the game up until now. And I'm kind

of glad that I waited for the 70% price

drop because without the discount, I don't

really feel like it would have been worth

the money. So the game is kind of weird,

and I've got a lot of problems with the

gameplay in general. If I had to simply

describe what kind of game this is,

imagine you're an Amazon delivery person

and you've got items to deliver. You just

carry cargo and boxes from point A to

point B, and that is almost 80% of the

gameplay. I can't think of any other game

that has this kind of gameplay. I have to

say the gameplay is very unique, and you

know there's a saying that goes, if no one

else is doing it, it might be because it's

not a very good idea. And I think it takes

a special kind of person to actually enjoy

the gameplay in Death Stranding. So apart

from carrying boxes from point A to point

B, what else do you do? There is some

combat and there are some enemy types in

the game, and there are quite a lot of

challenges that get in your way,

preventing you from traveling from point A

to point B really easily. If it was just

like walking down a road, the game would

be so easy. But the game's not like that.

There's barely any roads anywhere. You

have to spend most of the time traversing

this wild kind of scenery that's full of

rocks and streams and crags and hills.

And mountains. And if you fall over, you

damage your cargo and you damage Norman

Reedus or Sam, the main character. And

sometimes the game can get extremely

frustrating. I reckon the gameplay falls

between either very boring and tedious and

then at times extremely annoying and

frustrating. The game can get very

annoying when you're trying to get to your

destination. You've got all this cargo you

need to deliver and you've got to get over

rocks and climb over streams and avoid

enemies to prevent your cargo from getting

damaged. And you get some pretty nifty

tools to help you traverse over the

landscape. You get, you get a ladder and

you get a rope and you get some repair

kits and food items and other things to

help you along the way. Placing the

ladders and the ropes can be quite fun. I

really enjoy the physics and the few enemy

types in the game. Well, basically there's

2 types of enemies. There are these kind

of invisible ghost things that you either

crouch and hold your breath to sneak

around, or you have these grenades you can

throw at them. Then they kind of explode

in this red flash and those invisible

ghost-type enemies are really annoying

because if they grab you or detect you,

you'll get all these little black men

coming out of the ground grabbing you by

your feet. You've got to try and shake

them off. If you don't shake them off,

you get pulled into the ground and then

you kind of get dragged all the way to

some random location quite far from where

you started. And this massive big squid

thing appears, or massive big black

dolphin appears, and you can either run

away or you could try to fight it. And

then you have to make your way back to

where you started and pick up all your

stuff again. It's very frustrating

gameplay, to be honest. I don't really

find it enjoyable. The second group of

enemies are these people called mules,

and they will try and attack you and steal

your cargo. And you can't really do

anything to them in the beginning of the

game. You've got to kind of sneak around

them. As you progress further into the

game, you start unlocking weapons. First

you get this rope that you can use to kind

of strangle them from behind, and then

eventually you get this kind of gun that

shoots a wire that binds them and drops

them to the floor. Then you can kick them

in the bollocks. I quite enjoyed fighting

the mule enemies, but once you get the

rope wire gun, they don't really pose much

of a challenge. You can just one-shot take

them down with the rope, then kick them in

the back. So for the majority of the game,

you will be managing your inventory,

trying to carry as much cargo as you can

possibly carry from one point to the next

point. And as you progress in the game,

you'll get upgrades. You'll be able to get

this exoskeleton thing that attaches to

your legs so you can carry more and run

faster. There's a kind of floating

platform thing which floats behind you and

attaches to you, and you can link more

than one together and also ride it down

hills, which is pretty funny. And yeah,

it's quite nice being able to unlock these

new upgrades as you progress in the game.

Made me very incentivized and motivated to

carry on playing the game to see what new

upgrades I'll be able to get further down

the line. However, my main problem with

the gameplay is I just didn't really feel

very motivated or incentivized to actually

take on as many quests and missions and

delivery orders that I could and just

deliver stuff. The actual gameplay is not

fun. It's not really enjoyable. It's kind

of stressful and annoying. All you're

doing for the most part is running.

You're holding down the mouse buttons to

keep balance. You're trying to avoid

obstacles. You're trying to get over

things. And it's just like a running

simulator. It's not very compelling

gameplay. Yes, it is unique and kind of

interesting in the beginning, but after a

while it does start to get very tedious

and the rewards for completing a delivery

are just not that great. There's no

currency or money system in the game.

There's no shops where you could spend

money. Instead, you kind of get a rating

depending on how fast and how efficient

you delivered the items, and then you get

a load of likes, kind of like on Facebook

you get a like button. There's this kind

of weird social media vibe going on in the

game where you can connect with other

players who are playing the game as well.

You don't see them in the game, But you

can see the items they've left behind and

the kind of signboards they've placed,

and then you can like each other's

signboards and structures, and then you

kind of rack up likes as if it was social

media. And this is fine and everything, I

kind of like the social aspect to the

game, but I think it would have been

better if you earned money for completing

the jobs and delivering the items.

Because you're a delivery man, how come

they don't pay you any money? How come

there's no currency in the game? How come

there's no shop where you could spend your

money on? That would be way more

interesting and make the gameplay much

more addictive if they had that kind of

system in the game, but they just don't.

It just feels a bit pointless building up

all these likes. You don't get any bonuses

or helpful things in the game to assist

you by having more likes. There's nothing

to use the likes with. If they gave you

money from each job you complete, then I

would be way more motivated to actually do

as many deliveries as I could, because

then I would have money to spend on

things. And then they should let you buy

upgrades to your gear, maybe new gear,

maybe different accessories and furniture

for your house or your private room,

maybe vehicles and modifications. And

there could have been so many different

things they could have had in a shop. I

found myself skipping so many of the

delivery missions just because, because

I'm lazy and I just couldn't be bothered

to go backwards and forwards and backwards

and forwards all over the map hundreds of

times when the gameplay is not really that

fun in the first place. And I just don't

really feel this addictive dopamine hit

after I finish each delivery, which would

make me want to just carry on doing more

and more deliveries. I just think it would

be so cool if you could build a house

anywhere in the game, place it wherever

you want, maybe your favorite location in

the game, put a house there, and then you

would earn money to furnish the house and

upgrade the house and then add more items

to it. That would have been really fun.

Now maybe I'm asking too much, and maybe

this could be an idea for Death Stranding

2, but wouldn't it be cool if this game

was an MMO? It already kind of is an MMO

because you're connected with the other

players. You just just can't see them.

They're kind of like invisible ghosts.

But I think it'd be really cool if you

could see them and there were other

players in the world and you could like

run past them, interact with them,

because the world feels so empty and

lifeless. There's no life in the outside

world. There's no wildlife, there's no

animals, there's no birds, there's no

other NPCs apart from the mules and the

enemies. It just feels like a very

soulless, cold world, and it would be cool

if you could see other players running by.

Maybe it would be too much work to make

the whole game into an MMO. I just think

it'd cool idea. My other problem with the

game are the vehicles. So in the beginning

of the game, I thought there were no

vehicles and you had to run everywhere,

and it was really boring and slow and

tedious. And then later in the game, I

found out, wait, there is a bike and there

is a truck you can drive. And I was pretty

excited about this. I didn't realize you

could eventually drive the vehicles. And

in the beginning, I felt so relieved that

I didn't have to run all over the place

everywhere, and it was so much easier

driving the vehicles from point A to be.

But then you kind of realize that when you

get the vehicles, it removes a lot of the

challenge of the game. Most of the

challenge in the game before you get

vehicles involves trying to hold balance,

try not to fall over, trying to run over

landscape without damaging your cargo or

getting injured. And now you have the

vehicle, you can just drive over

everything fairly easily. You can also

carry way more cargo with the vehicle,

which means you don't really have to worry

that much about inventory management. As

much as you used to. So the main challenge

of the game kind of shifts from in the

beginning you're using your ladders and

ropes strategically and carefully to get

over the rough areas of terrain without—

and then after you get the vehicle, that

gameplay kind of changes towards making

sure you can keep your electric vehicle

charged and making sure the battery

doesn't die, making sure you can get to

the next power generator before your

battery runs out, and even building your

own power generator. On the way. And this

kind of driving aspect of the game just is

not as fun or interesting as when it was

just on foot, when you had to get over

rivers and use ropes to, to kind of abseil

down cliffs. After getting the truck and

the vehicles and the motorbike, the game

just became a lot easier, and a lot of the

challenges— a lot of the challenges in the

beginning of the game just aren't really

challenging anymore. So those are my

thoughts on the game so far. I don't think

it's an absolutely terrible game. I think

the concept of the game is very unique and

very interesting. And I am having a fairly

good time playing the game. It's currently

only £16 on Steam, 70% off discount,

and for that low, low price, it's very

hard to not recommend trying out the game.