What side do you think you'll fall on: love it or hate it?

I suspect I'll like the gameplay more than most and absolutely hate the story.

I assume i'll love everything about it.

Sry to be that asshole complaining about poll options but I think I’ll not like aspects of the game but still love the game and think the game great. I don’t think MGSV was anywhere close to perfect but I still loved it and i still think it’s the best game of this gen.

"...it sucks because it sounds as if it's one of those games that we just won't know until we get our hands on it and see how it feels"

Isn't this actually exactly what you'd want out of an entertainment product?

The game getting good after 8 hours says a lot about the game itself IMO.

Getting a tomorrow children vibe.

It sounds like something I would be really into, especially after listening to Rob on the latest Waypoint podcast. Much like Rob, when everyone is slamming Kojima and Rob quietly goes "I dunno I kinda like it" that was me in that room as well.

I'll preface this by saying that I like that Kojima makes these kinds of games that nobody else is making. For that fact alone they are important.

That said I do not personally enjoy his style of games and I do not think this will be any different for me.

I know I shouldn't have but I've read about nine different reviews and opinion pieces about this and as someone who like games that give you incremental ability to move faster, carry more, then over time finding new means of travel I think I will be one of those types that is happy about being able to carry a little bit more or find shorter routes to a destination. I will say though, One thing that I won't like that people will might hate, is that aside from interesting geography there isn't much in the way of landmark exploration. Pre-strand ruins that aren't just empty static places, abandoned buildings explore, places that are lived in based on what I've read. Just (mostly) open wilderness.

Why does the poll not have a negative option? I think the game just looks bad and all the reviews seem highly biased, basically +2 points cause Kojima.

Maybe both. Love some aspects, hate some aspects. So, it'll be an okay game. (Your vote) 10%

It sounds interesting, which is more than I can say for most games.

DMC5 was very competent, but bored me to fucking tears.

I’m really enjoying The Outer Worlds (I’d be shocked if it’s not in my top 10), but it’s all a little too familiar.

I’m happy to check out something that elicits as much reaction as Death Stranding. Hearing Vinny talk about the game beating you over then head with the same few points for 30 hours sounds...fucking awful, but I like a lot about the little I heard.

I don’t expect to love it, I’m open to liking it, but I’m certainly interested to experience it.

@silversaint: The poll seems to be made to gauge the expectations of those who are going to buy it, so you want 'i'm going to play it and I expect to hate it!' That's a weird option but fair enough.

I think i'll love certains aspects and hate others. I dont really worry about hating it, if it's bad i'll sell it and move on. Hell, if it's good i'll probably sell it and move on.

Everything about it seems right up my alley. Then again I was also one who was still pretty enraptured with No Man's Sky even after hearing about the initial dosappointments.

I mean, I'm not really gonna know until June or July next year, so... I have some time to figure out how I'll feel about this.

Interesting to see that "not gonna play it" came first at 42% and "gonna love it" second at 23% when I voted. For me, Jonathon Dornbush of ign.com saying that the activities are more sparse in Death Stranding than in MGSV on the latest episode of Podcast Beyond was what unsold the game. I personally find the ops in MGSV sparse as shit, so thank you and fuck no thank you, Kojiam Production and Sony Interactive Entertainment.

At this point it's just the world that turns me off. I could really get down with the postman loop and all those management systems if there was anything out there worth exploring, even just visually.

I still have no idea what that game even is. I watched reviews and had people try to explain it to me but I still just don't get it. Like, I understand the gameplay and the general concept of it, but it's so far out there... Kojima managed to out-Kojima himself on this one.

I don't think I'm gonna play it, probably just watch the cut scenes on YouTube.

I have 0 interest in playing it. More so now that its a UPS simulator

It has some things in it that sound interesting, but they're easily drowned by all the things that make it sound like I'd just dislike/hate playing it. So definitely a no-go for me at least at full price.

Yeah, give me a giant alien world with outlandish wilderness and cool cities/towns filled with life, while still letting me just deliver packages. Maybe throw the dumb plot out the window too and I'll be there on day one.

Will be one of the best games of the gen

I think I was in the minority when I saw the TGS footage and thought "this is pretty much the game I've been waiting for someone to make". My favourite parts of Breath of the Wild were climbing some sheer rock face and having to think carefully about how to manage my stamina so I dont fall to my death. Death Strandings main loop seems to be designed around a similar feeling. I'm not traditionally a Metal Gear fan but MGSV is one of my absolute faves of this gen, so all told I think I'm going to enjoy this a lot.

I probably won't hate it, I enjoy encumbrance mechanics, inventory puzzles and have been wishing for a traversal system that allows you to make mistakes like tripping, so what I've heard of this sounds way more interesting than any of the Metal Gear games so far. I doubt I'll love it either though, but I'll probably appreciate it more than most of Kojima's other games. Ended up voting "Maybe both".

I assume it will be a chore to play but I would want to see it through to the end because of the story.

I still find it hard to believe that Kojima just made a walking-truck simulator.

I love games that emphasize fidelity of character control, mechanics, and how you interact with the game environment. It's why MGSV is still my game of the generation despite the half-baked story, it's just an absolute joy to play. It looks like Death Stranding is an evolution of that connection between player-character-environment design philosophy. Pretty sure the game was made for someone like me.

I have a pretty high tedium tolerance if I like other stuff about a game but when people say it's long is that like... 30 hours but repetition make its feel long or is it geniunely 50 hours+?

I decided to put my order in today. Watched/listened to hours of discussion at this point and I can't help but feel compelled to try it.

The whole delivery system, gameplay mechanics, the world etc have me interested. Like any of these niche simulator games or various survival genre things, the menial tasks can be strangely addicting. I want to see and feel how the traversal works myself. Vinny mentioned Factorio, and thats the sorta thing that I can get hooked on: Walking across the world and performing a difficult task, working towards a goal and upgrade that is cool, will make your job easier, and getting to enjoy the fruits of your labor. I'm slightly concerned that it sounds like the story stuff can kinda hinder that at times.

Anyway, I'm going in with middling expectations. I like me some Kojima games, I don't mind long cutscenes.. We'll see. At the minimum, I won't feel bad about buying it because I want it to at least be a financial success so Kojima can continue with whatever and Sony isn't like "Well jesus, we're never going to go out on a limb with a new IP like this ever again!"

Why does the only affirmative option concede any issues with the game whatsoever? I plan to unabashedly love it when I play it next year. Why they timed it with RDR2 PC is my only issue with the game.

I suspect, a bit like MGSV (which I loved top to bottom), a certain amount of 'Roleplaying' will be required from the player. If you buy into the ludicrous reality you are being presented, you may have good time. It's equally possible the dense mechanics of the mundane might just wear you out, and you'll bounce off it hard. But like so many, I think I have 'to know'.

The poll is lacking a negative option.

The moment they started showing in-game footage I was skeptical, the TGS footage killed my interest and the experience of GB crew playing buried it.

To me this reminds me of the No Man's Sky hype, it was pretty clear what the game was but people walked into it like lambs to the slaughter.

I have been avoiding talk but from the bits I've gleamed, if the biggest issue is it's slower paced with a lot of traveling and journey feeling I think I'll like it. I like games like Witcher 3, RDR 2 or Dragons Dogma that can feel like that. Hopefully the story works for me but I am here for all the weirdness.

Agreed. I also think MGSV is amazing and yeah the story isn't as great or fleshed out as the other games but it's still pretty good and enjoyable and at times hits some real high marks for me that are stand outs for the series, which has a lot of memorable moments in it. I think Kojima wanted to make a story that felt differently told and he did, which was cool to me. It actually did feel like a more honest attempt to actually make something that felt cinematic. While MGS before could have the camera angles and moments down it always was drawn out and presented like anime over feeling like a movie.

I also feel like 90 percent of the people who played it never listened to any of the tapes the way they talk about it. Which are essential to the fuller story just like Codecs were before.

The gameplay is still the best playing action or stealth game I have played. The AI and feel of every bit of it is exceptionally good.

I also am not going to kill it for being a cliffhanger when the team was rushed to make the game and thought they would get to make at least DLC if not MGS6. If the Bungie guys had been fucked over when they put out Halo 2 I would forgive them for that.

@stephen_von_cloud: I may be somewhat alone in this opinion, but I really enjoyed the narrative of MGSV the most of any MGS game. You are absolutely correct, it is fleshed out through the tapes, which could definitely be contrived as lazy. It is most probably a 'quick win' approach to reducing development and production time, reducing additional cutscenes and telling a story through audio alone.

Even if it is missing an ACT, through these restrictions and publisher pressures, it forges a very deliberate and succinct vignette.

Sometimes deadlines can be a good thing!

I'm waiting to see what the bridge meta game is like before swaying one way or the other.

@hayt: From what I understand, you can mainline the game in around 30 hours. If you're hooked on what the game offers though, that's where people say it can get into the 50 plus hours of gameplay. I don't think, no matter how far you choose to get into it, that the game loses its repetitiveness. It's just a matter of how much it hooks you.

Thinking about it, I don't think I'll have too big an issue with the traversal aspect. As long as I enjoy seeing and hearing the sights of the game, I think I'll enjoy it even if the content is repetitive. What I do worry about disliking is how much I may have to go into any type of inventory system and sift through and move things around. I don't want to spend a bunch of time on that. It would suck to sit there for five minutes every time you enter/leave one of those stations to mess with a menu. Or just in general, I don't want to be on a menu for a lot of the experience.

Also, this reminds me of some youtube vids I watched recently where the guy tried to walk directly across a country or something. It was a small one of course, but still fascinating. I think the videos were somewhat popular so maybe people here have seen it.

He was loaded up with gear and just set out walking in a straight line. Across people's property, hedge rows, water, woods, mountains/hills etc. Took him a few days, I fell off around the 4th/5th video and wanted to see more but got distracted.

I want to be a person going on a long hike. I have to prepare for it, figure out what I should expect, and pack accordingly. Maybe some surprises along the way. Beautiful sights and sounds. And very detailed physics and character animations. That is what I'd like to think this is and I'm going to have to try it for myself.

@sarcasticmudcrab: I hope the meta allows for something like this:

I won't be playing it. I can not stand open world games, I find them some of the most tedious and boring games and this seems to be as tedious as open world type games get.

Dan constantly shitting on it during Jackbox in the Extra Life stream and Vinny saying "It was like this for three weeks, folks." makes me feel like last year's GOTY discussions about RDR2 will pale in comparison to this year, even if there likely won't be anyone in the team to fight about this game being even in the top three.

I'll probably love to hate Death Stranding. I am in no way interested in playing it, but I think it could be highly amusing to watch someone else play it and get infuriated by some Kojima-ass choices in design and narrative. Still hoping for a Dan/Vinny or Jeff playthrough, but we'll see. I enjoyed the Beastcast crew's thoughts on it. Dan echoed one of my early concerns with this thing of "who is this game for except Kojima", which seems like a very valid concern. Vinny tried his best to defend it, but even in doing so, couldn't help but going on a mini-Shenmue-style rant against some of the nonsense.

I will say I'm really surprised by the overall reception thus far. It's kind of crazy seeing so many reviews mention what seem like major issues with the gameplay, structure, tone, pacing, etc. and then giving it like a 9 or 10. I guess those who are here for the Kojima bullshit are just fully on board with the mere experience of this regardless of its problems, and I can't help but feel like this thing would be getting judged WAY more harshly for its flaws if it weren't a Kojima product. I, too, am glad this weird shit exists, but boy, it seems like there's a lot being forgiven here.

I'm not necessarily in the camp that thinks games have to be pure fun to be good, but I imagine that I'd personally struggle to stay engaged with this for the same reason I never find myself wanting to fire up RDR 2. Both games seem to intentionally make things a frustrating slog, which is straight-up bad game design in my book. I get the intent to try and slow things down to make it more atmospheric, but when that is forced on the player, I find it fairly insulting. I will happily take in and explore cool video game worlds. However, making the character plod or clumsily trip around and have to constantly do meter maintenance survival bullshit doesn't add to the immersion; it breaks it.

Narrative-wise, I imagine that I'd probably get furious at most of it. Again, Kojima's complete and utter lack of subtlety and insistence upon repeating the same lines to the audience is fucking insulting. For me, if something is going to be framed like that, it damn well better back it up with some thought-provoking, deep commentary, but even the most glowing reviews of this thing don't claim it pulls that off. It sounds like it contains Kojima's typically problematic portrayals of women and general bumbling incoherence as well, with ultimately little of note to say.

Death Stranding certainly seems like a Kojima passion project, for better or worse. There are clearly many who love the guy and buy into all the auteur shit and that's fine. Still, it's been interesting watching some folks like Dan finally figuring out through this that maybe Kojima isn't really as "deep" or "brilliant" as he's often purported to be. He's just Kojima.

This seems like a game that no amount of review coverage will inform me whether or not I will like the game. Only through playing will I have any idea if this is for me or not. For that reason I find the game to be almost irresistible that I just have to play it.

I'm eager to see the official "Impressions" thread on here this weekend. I'll certainly contribute my thoughts if I can, though I finally got around to picking up Divinity Original Sin 2 ($20 woowoooo!) a couple weeks ago and I'm pretty addicted: About 50 hours in across two non-stop weekends and I think I'm just in the second area.. At least I assume there is a lot more. I guess I'll stop to play Death Stranding? Then I may never come back around to Divinity..

I chickened out an cancelled my preorder on the PS4. I figured that I can just wait for the PC release and mod/cheat engine any parts that I actually don't like. When it came down to it, I couldn't justify 60 bucks and 50+ hours in a game that doesn't sound like my kind of thing. If I couldn't have cancelled my preorder, I would've just ate the cost and bought it cheap on the PC at a later point to experience the game in the environment that I would prefer.

If the Beastcast was a 50/50 split, I would've played that game. But when everyone was negative to some point, I paniced.

Sorry Kojima-senpai

I think I will really like the gameplay. But I think I will hate the story.

I think I will like the parts Brad and Jeff like, and I think I will hate to the point of loathing the parts most of the crew don't like.

I hate pedantic story telling, where they explain things over and over and over like gamers are a toddlers. I think I might actually prefer a game where all the invisible monster enemies did not exist.

So, yeah, I might never play it. I have no issues with people who like it or hate it, I just sir closer to the middle of think the game play is more interesting than the story and that they told the story/narrtive very poorly --- hamfistedly.

I think the only time i might is is PSN gives it away form free at some point.

Not that interested in playing this personally, BUT, I for one applaud Kojima for doing something weird and different. I'd rather see devs take a risk on new ideas than just produce competent, samey sequels. Even if it is a failure, it will be instructive. He's certainly not playing it safe. I bet it will have its share of diehard fans.