This video was originally released on August 4th, 2023 as a patron exclusive. That's why Starfield is referred to in future-tense rather than past-tense. I did not plan for it to be patron-exclusive forever, and for transparency: there are no other 100% patron exclusive videos at this moment, only patron versions. There will be a new video about a recent game coming out fairly soon.
Idk how good the odds are but I'd love to hear your commentary on Baldurs Gate 3, the implementation of 5e mechanics, your thoughts on 5e mechanics at a baseline, thoughts on open ended design etc.
On UA-cam's mobile app, I've seen this video show up as "Member Exclusive" some times. It was like UA-cam was telling me "Hey, there's exclusive content you can watch right now if you pay for it". Just stating this here really. I'm not against it.
I was litterally just watching the “long form analysis and retrospective podcast” where you and PS were talking about this unreleased video and now I see this in my sub box- nice😂
They made a policy change after I originally put this video up where it would advertise videos flagged as members only. For that reason, I won't be using that flag anymore.
I’m a bit late to see this, but I really enjoyed seeing this game for the first time, another patrician tier Video. A note of praise on the extra crunchy footstep audio as the patrons were credited. Very stimulating ❤
Even with ziplines being a bit too good, I eventually resolved to not take them and instead did my usual high-volume treks from one location to the next. Once you've maxed out a location it does unfortunately mean there isn't much reason to deliver there except to complete every legend of legend of legends ranking.
I also gotta mention, we only need so much weird imagery. I’m okay with Odradek from Kafka and the baby. But do we need the self handcuff thing? Nothing really was cut in pre-production even story wise
The only thing that I might wanna see changed in the sequel is the world of death stranding to feel even more alive, a more intense ecosystem than we got here. Games like the Stalker's anomalies or Rainworld's livable environment. May seem counterintuitive to its setting but I think they could work something out.
11:00 Holy shoot I thought I was the only person who still just screwed around in this game like that. Idk why but MGSV is my comfort game, even though I exhausted all its content years ago
I've played a lot of Death Stranding - ending up with a full complete 100% Legend of Legend of Legend save - and I've become very frustrated at the disconnect between the chiral network and the world design. The game is designed around you playing a very particular way. There are many dialogue and musical triggers for main quests that only fire if you take the route they've laid out for you. So you deviate from the path laid out on the delivery screen, and approach Heartman's place from the rear, you miss a lovely song queue. Now that's not too bad, but if you start building the chiral network as you go, and especially if you play online, it becomes very easy to ruin many major setpieces. For example, the Lockne - Mama trek back and forth across the mountains. By the time I got that, I already had a full road network, so I just drove. It was quicker, less risk, and I wanted to use all that tarmac I'd created. And in doing so I trivialised the entire sequence, and missed out on the experience. But the worst one for me was the Mountaineer / Doctor deliveries. When I approached the valley of BTs, I found that someone else had handily placed a zipline on the other side. The wonders of multiplayer! So I dropped one of mine and simply sped across the gap, and turned a tense timed delivery into a 5 minute affair, my feet barely touching the ground. This turned one of the hardest deliveries in the entire game into an utter cakewalk. And once I'd got a full zipline network, it was so convenient that BTs soon stopped being an issue altogether. The most I'd encounter them was when a zipline path would clip the edge of a BT zone, and the game would get all moody and the music would step up, only to vanish and when the path carried me out. That was what ziplines reduced BTs to. A temporary slowdown and ominous music for a couple of seconds during zipline travel, in which I was never at risk. I go walking a lot in the middle of nowhere, and I adored how this game captured so much of that, but I feel a little sour looking back on my playthrough due to how interacting with all the mechanics it offers means that you no longer get that experience. That all being said, I personally found it a 10/10 due to my love of hiking, but I just wish that the traversal mechanics were properly balanced, and that the chiral networks didn't expand nearly as quickly, or at least had a much lower limit. As is, it's too easy to accidentally optimise the fun out of the game. Hopefully they'll fix that in DS2, but I'm not holding my breath.
Zip Lines do indeed break the game but i feel like the balance of cost in mats and bandwidth which comes with them is not perfect but good enough. When going through the game at first they allow you to industrialize the process of farming rep which gives mats, bandwidth and even some lore and useful gear recipes. Setting up a path becomes a game in itself and isn't prohibitively expensive but you still can't quite go insane with it and there is no trick to making the process of setting it up easier. Once you finish the story the game of logistics becomes your only task and if you want to engage with that then building a comprehensive zip around the whole map is very tricky and time consuming while each strategic improvements massively increase your ability to build more as it makes farming incrementally easier. I do think the main story doesn't actually require much farming at all and it's reasonable to expect most people could finish it without zip lines at all being available. But i do appreciate them being there in the post game. Building out a full network after the main story doubled my playtime and i ended up discovering like 3 or 4 settlements that are entirely ignored in the main story besides brief mentions by email.
I made my zip network before I finished the game and I do not regret doing that. Building that network took me to parts of the map I otherwise never would have explored.
True. I loved discovering new people cuz I'd be like nice, now how the hell do I get a zip line here haha Also I loved intentionally building them through BT areas cuz I'd zip right through them and they'd appear, scream and I'd just zoom past going suckerrrr haha
I didnt play this game specifically because norman reedus I just don't want to have movie/show actors in video games idk I can't ever see anything but the boondock saints guy.
It's funny, while I was playing this game I kept thinking the only part I liked was walking, but I really did like it. Unfortunately the story was horrible, the combat was pretty bad and boss fights are among the worst experiences in "recent" gaming for me. I will never understand why non combat games force combat on players. I also loved the idea of building roads, mostly because I like slow grinds toward a greater goal, but then I found out I hated using them, because driving means less walking and walking is the good part of the game. Ziplines were the coup-de-grace, especially when using them to traverse mountains. On the BT side the handcuff thingy is the same. Once you learn how to murder scores of BTs without danger all the tension just stops. It's a case of the experience not being tuned for endgame, I think. All in all I had fun during my playthrough but when I finished the game the only thoughts I had were "well that was fucking dumb" and also "if i ever hear another low roar song i'm gonna start blasting". Never played it again but i guess i wouldn't consider it a bad experience, just weird and mildly disappointing.
Overdeveloping the world with roads and ziplines really hurt the pacing near the end of the game. If I ever replay the game, I think id make it a point to minimise my use of them.
4:18 Death Stranding is, categorically & definitively, NOT a walking-simulator. Edith Finch is a walking-simulator. Gone Home is a walking-simulator. Heck, Bramble is a walking-simulator. Sure you can *pun* your way to calling Death Stranding a walking-simulator, but it is not at all in that actual genre, any more than it’s in the “cozy” or “comfy” genre. Death Stranding is closer to Construction Similar 3 than it is to Gone Home. Just sayin.
Kojimbo gets it a lot because as a writer, he's not very good. To put it mildly. Also, to this day nobody could tell me why the world doesn't use underground transportation. Granted, I didn't ask many people, but still.
Ziplines are only made available what, like 75% of the way through the game? and really seemed designed to give people closure w/r/t completionist tendencies. I think the combat is by far and away the most tedious part of the game, and I say that having S-ranked the stupid racetrack shit to 100% it. The plot is utter gobbledygook but it was entertaining gobbledygook which is more than I can say for most games.
I’m so used to seeing several hour long videos from you, that when I saw 20:00 my brain immediately thought it was 20:00:00 and I just about had a heart attack.
@@timthetoolpool you said "an actual person" but I get what you mean. Any way sorry for being an "actually" guy but I couldn't stop myself to point out this one.
The story of Death Stranding is legitimately nonsensical. I watched a 7 hour White Light review that basically agreed with that position, and then proceeding to cope for seven hours.
“Welcome to post-apocalyptic America!” “You mean Iceland? Why does America look exactly like the landscape of Iceland?” “Because of the apocalypse. Shut up. We are talking about the myth of the USPS now.”
it’s actually because of the erosion to vegetation caused by the time rain. but yeah it’s just an excuse to make the landscape look like Iceland and the Scottish highlands
>Patrician releases a video >It's too short to sleep to, relying on the video still being on when I wake up My energy-wastemaxxing strat needs an update if he keeps doing this.
Well said. I think you hit on something very salient. Simple tasks can become fun and engaging ambiently if there's a flow state of constant problem solving.
This is going to sound lame but Death Stranding got me back into going for walks a couple times a week. Driving out somewhere more rural and taking the time to just walk a trail for a couple of hours (or the rare time it's longer because I got a little lost) has made me feel better in general, and I get to see some really pretty woodland or heathland or seaside.
The Lost Cargo mechanic has one great element that was not mentioned in the video: besides the crappy random generated one, if other players lose their cargo that can appear in other players' games, which places it in actually sensible locations. It created a few nice moments for me when I saw a few scattered lost packages under a cliff, looking up and seeing where probably the other player fell down and imagined a few pieces of cargo tumbled down into the creek I was going through.
I can look at the game and see why people like it, but also know with 100% certainty that it is not in any way something I would enjoy. As always appreciate the interesting and fair takes Pat!
The game is shit. You can just run away from bosses and come back and pick up your stuff. It's also a bit sick, the whole baby idea. I bought it when it came out and it was a struggle to finish. I think Kojima is overrated these days.
@@rem792why are you here lol you clicked on a death strandign video knowing you wanted to talk shit about a game that wasnt made for you. That would be like me going to a sport game youtuber and posting the game is shit in the comments randomly.
Because I watch this channel and I wanted to hear Pat's take on it. I agree with some videos and with some I don't. He does have similar opinions to mine here even though he does like it.
😂 it's in the game, people took time and used their talent and resources to implement that, there are weapons in the game and there is a combat system.
I don't think it was a jab at pathologic, I think its a reference to his Skyrim mage rant where he made a similar point of "The nords hate the magic so lets make magic shit to reinforce the narrative point"
Man i had a bunch of fun with this game, I just put on my audio books and went. I think there is value in games that are just experiences but are also challenging like this one
The best moment of DS is towards the end, when you're working your way from one end of the map to the other in one go. Same as your excursions across MGSV, that trek with minimal resources is really exciting, and puts all your gameplay knowledge to the test. The combat actually shined, starting with no equipment and scavenging guns, ammo and health mid-firefight, using the environment as cover in a mad dash to protect from enemies which actually did a good job of surrounding me. DS2 looks to be more combat focused, so hopefully we'll get more of that. Plus, more combat means more bodies, so maybe there will be more consideration for the creation of BTs this time around as you say.
Death Stranding is one of my favorite games in the last 10+ years and a true masterpiece. It’s certainly not a game for everyone that’s for sure though
It scratches the same part of my brain that truck-sims do, except it scratches way harder. Navigating traffic is cool, but if there were more games about in-depth overland navigation I'd be a happy man.
It kinda went a little bit like this ok I get why people play Destiny i dont but like i get it maybe not gameplay but the graphics and make sense there must be some people out there to get that but then I looked at risen and it's just like a disconnect like how can somebody would like this game
Honestly I never paid any attention to this game but it does look kinda cool. Would be interested in a synopsis on the story even if the video wasn't much longer than this one.
MGSV, a game with probably 30 hours of content got me to hit a playtime of over 1000 hours just because the gameplay feel was *that* enjoyable, as well the loop of traveling and collecting soldiers and resources, while challenging myself to drop in with as little as possible. It's still unmatched almost a decade later, for me at least. Death Stranding was good, and felt reminiscent of MGSV in some ways, but I found myself get burned out on the traversal and delivery loop much, much quicker. I do love the world and the tech within it. Very few Scifi settings feel as alien as the tech I see in DS/DS2.
I always find it weird that people talk about burnout. I just did the amount of deliveries that interested me and moved on. I do have to wonder if it is achievement conditioning that people get into where they expect/need things to be completionist.
@@lostsanityreturned No, I think CaffeinatedKing put it well enough. It's because when you spend 70 bucks for an open world game that promises to be a "building up the world" kind of experience, well, you expect to be able to build up the world for a while and have fun while doing it. As he said, MGSV had an amazing game loop, interweaving exploration, research, base building, combat and plot. Death Stranding, a game that promised to be focused on exploration, collection and traversal, was arguably worse than MGSV, a more generalist game, in those areas. It's not achievement hunting that drives you to want to play the game, it's the fact you spent money for it and want to get value out of it beyond the day's worth of plot missions. Also, he literally never even came close to mentioning completion in his comment. He just said he got bored of the game quicker.
@@zakatalmosen5984 Don't really wanna pull the "It's subjective" card, but I personally got tired of MGSV somewhere in the middle of the Africa chapter, and not really intending to go back to the game, while Death Stranding kept me going for 200 hours on my first playthrough and I wanna do another one at some point. And I can see how if you're really into it, MGSV can hold you for much longer, having more different mechanics and interactions, however, I don't think it's fair to say that DS is not justified in it's pricing, when MGSV exists. Obviously 1000 and 200 is a big difference, but I think even reaching into 100 hours will be rare for most people in either of those games, most people won't even finish them. The logic of hours to price kinda fall off after a few dozen, and it becomes more about the quality of experience, otherwise all the rogue-like indies should be the most expensive games out there, like dedicated Noita players have several thousands of hours in it.
@@MrFr2eman oh but I agree on that point. I was just explaining the argument, I don't think is an objective thing. I thought DS was allright. My problems with the game are that it was way too easy to avoid the core mechanics, the combat felt tacked on and the plot and dialogue grated me to no end. I have no problem with the lenght of the game, in fact I felt it dragged on towards the end.
Calling Death stranding experimental is actually nice! It was an attempt to turn the most mundane mission in gaming (delivering stuff) into a Game! And I love it! Can’t wait for Part 2!
i wouldnt suggest anyone play this game, my opinion of it is entirely skewed by how much the setting vibes with me, i just wanted to see more of it. Yeah its a walking simulator, yeah the mechanics are minimal, yeah the player involvement is minimal, yeah i stopped playing 2 or 3 times because i was going to be late for a thing i was doing, only to come back and walk right into a cutscene before needing to go do something else 15minutes later, and yes there is what feels like an hour long cutscene at the end. I loved the experience the whole way. The way i like to think about the game is via inputs. If you took the game and gave it a different coat of paint, so instead of pressing buttons for balancing you were pressing buttons for reacting to an enemy throwing a grenade to kick it back? Failure to do either results in a negative outcome, theyre both minimally expected occurrences etc. Why is kicking back the 17th grenade more exciting than the possibility of tumbling down a whole ass mountain?
I've always thought that open world RPG games should take a look at DS. Making the challenge not just combat but also traversal would be extremely interesting, imagine having to plan an entire route with ropes, ladders, etc. in a dungeon. What kind of armor are you going to wear? What kind of weapons? What about utility magic? It would feel like a real adventure damnit.
Rdr2 and DS could not be farther away from each other. I just reinstalled DS because of the announcement of DS2. If DS clicks with you it really clicks, of it doesn't it doesnt. It clicks with me and I would play DS forever over Starfield any day. But DS is a very niche game but with its fans it one of the best games of all time. When you head out and the camera pulls out and the chill music starts, if you know you know. Love your vids.
I can't believe Pat has ALL my favorite games in his wost games ever list. After this crushing revelation, I will have to unsub and remove that bell, and I will go so far as to unhit that like button
"Everybody forgot about Korea, as not as many popular war films were made about conflicts post Vietnam" The Korean War was absolutely NOT "post-vietnam" ???
I played this game on PS4 however many years ago, and as much as I liked the gameplay I hated just about everything else; the characters, the plot, the combat...The idea of a game where the main "enemy" is the environment and the main gameplay is just navigating it is really interesting to me, so of course I lost a whole lot of interest when they gave me one of those big, stupid trucks to drive around in. The point where I gave the game up entirely though was when, while exploring without cargo, I was attacked by a BT and dragged to spooky ghost world. I heroically walked away from the dead whale that was flopping around in the oil and eventually the real world faded back in. I was basically done after that when I concluded that death was consequence-free. The last thing I remember trying was drinking 2 cases worth of Monster Energy to see if it changed Norman's pee color, like how such a thing would if you did that in real life...and no, clear...unless of course it was clear because I caused some kind of kidney failure.
2:16 - "I don't hate all games, I just hate 90% of them" Well, an interesting video you should watch that might make you angry, Patrician, is from Alanah Pearce titled _"I'm real sick of fake gamers"_, where she states that "real gamers don't hate video games." I'll admit I haven't watched all of it, but the first 5 minutes are really frustrating, and I think it's indicative of a worrying trend in video game critique.
Yay! Another video! I am a little sad to hear that you wont be making Death Stranding into its own analysis video as I think this is one game I would LOVE to hear you talk about, but I can understand not wanting to turn every game into a project. Keep up the great work! I am always looking forward to the next long-form video. Your stuff helps get me through work days and I can't even begin to explain how many times I have listened to the Skyrim retrospective just for that reason alone.
To me death stranding is a collectathon. The entire point of it is to collect more weird gearsets and cosmetics. Having the maxed out exosuit armor and dead sprinting across a mountain is a great experience. It also has obscure rpg mechanics.
Be kind to my favorite FedEx simulator in the post apocalypse. Looking forward to coming back to it for the director's cut. Kojima stories are a favorite for me, like diner coffee that's been on the burner al day. I don't expect everyone to be into it, but it's great for those who are. My only great gripe about the game is the later areas are very combat focused that the REAL enemy from DS: THE WORLD becomes flavor and setting. I mean, sure.. cultists are a part of the world, but come on.. to go from spooky oregon trail to full MSG future shooter was a little whiplash. The story bound combat missions are amazing, albeit they can be opaque and annoying to trail/error. +World +Mechanics +Fun Loop +Working with other players to make routes (sucks it's bound to unlocking the shelters, atleast for trails, it's a little obnoxious to see everything populate at once.) -Combat.. oh, the combat. BOLA is best. I'll fight anyone on this.. Anyone who played knows what im saying. If you haven't. open combat is a mechanical punishment. the latter half of the game is all combat.. :l Solid would recommend.
I'm actually really excited for DS2. I liked one, but something about it felt off, or lacking. From the jumping point of a whole game, they can swing outta the gate and make something awesome, if it's not a lazy sequel, that is. A better ratio, but also a better mix of combat to traversal/delivery. Like have combat be a part of the delivery mechanics. And we can make the world more varied, exciting and worth exploring. They have a good enough base, hope Kojima goes nuts. Ooo! And more of those dream battle segments! Like different ones, not just the same guy 3 times. Kinda like Psychonaut's mindscapes. We had a WWII-ish one maybe we can get some weird ass stuff like sci-fi, fantasy, medieval, all mixed with dream logic and crap.
While, under any normal circumstances, I would believe you when you say "Your favourites are all on my worst games ever list", I'll be honest, I have never met anyone who knew my favourite game... Except that one time, but she also knew the developer personally. Anyone here who knows "A House of many Doors", by any chance?
If people like DS, good for them. I got annoyed/bored within the first 2 hours. Maybe DS2 will be better, but I think, that Kojima just should make movies or a series. The "Gameplay" is not worth my time.
Death Stranding is one of only a few games I could spent all night ranting about why I love it so much. But at the same time I feel like I could never be bothered trying to convince someone who doesn't already like it. It's one of those games that just won't click with some people, but that's typically just a sign of artistic value. Good art resonates with some people but not others, and I think we're used to that idea with paintings and films and sculptures but we're not quite ready for that happening with video games. I think that's why Deat hStranding had such a harsh reaction. The problem is not that it was a divisive game, but the idea that a AAA game CAN be divisive. AAA games are supposed to be crowd pleasers but this is the first example I can think of of a AAA game that was clearly not trying to be a crowd pleaser. It caught people off guard.
I loved this game, it’s so awesome. Different and fun. The story was great, idc what anyone says I liked it. And I’m a contrarian like the narrator here. Like I don’t like when something has a celeb just to have it, but the world was interesting and having to survive with some new apocalyptic world was nice.
Its not for everyone, id imagine a lot of people would just get bored, but I think DS is an amazing game. Idk how they made being a delivery man an interesting game, but if anyone could it was Kojima.
I think I wholeheartedly disagree with your zipline take. If you unlocked them any earlier, I'd be on you're side, but by the time you unlock them you're at least 70ish% done with the main part of the game. I felt it was the final mastery of the landscape. You still have to go to vantage and middle points to set them up or connect them with existing ones. Once they're done you've not only reconnected America with the internet, you've also built a bullet train rail system to finish off any side objectives.
This game is why I've considered making a YT channel. As beautiful and immersive as the game may be, I do not like this game. I have my bias against it when it comes to its gameplay and what it sets out to achieve. It's tedious and repetitive, and I feel nothing when I complete a quest; let alone a mainline mission. The story doesn't help when I don't understand what's going on, when the protagonist doesn't seem to have a clear motive to do what he's doing (also hardly voices his opinion on the current events of the game or speaks at all), and the world building fails to explain the nature of this world through other characters or text entries. And everyone is just weird for weird sake. And everything I've seen from the sequel's trailer reinforces that. So why should I care when the game doesn't?
I feel like a lot of the weirdness of death strandings world is just a barrier to entry for what is actually some petty compelling stuff. The weird stuff isn't the compelling stuff though, and a lot of it just feels weird for the sake of being unfamiliar to the audience. And to me it makes the world feel like an artificial setting for a story rather than an actual living world that became this way. Just my thoughts
Cloudpunk is basically the same, but there you need to learn the best route to deliver the package, taking the speed highway is not always the best option because your flying car go fast and you really not want to take damage, because credits or money is really important in this game, and you want to waste a little as possible.
This video is great! I love the tone of it, it's not bitter or headstrong, just someone talking about a game they enjoyed. Looking forward to more like this!
This video was originally released on August 4th, 2023 as a patron exclusive. That's why Starfield is referred to in future-tense rather than past-tense. I did not plan for it to be patron-exclusive forever, and for transparency: there are no other 100% patron exclusive videos at this moment, only patron versions. There will be a new video about a recent game coming out fairly soon.
Idk how good the odds are but I'd love to hear your commentary on Baldurs Gate 3, the implementation of 5e mechanics, your thoughts on 5e mechanics at a baseline, thoughts on open ended design etc.
This is an interesting take on Death Stranding. I like it. Good work.
On UA-cam's mobile app, I've seen this video show up as "Member Exclusive" some times. It was like UA-cam was telling me "Hey, there's exclusive content you can watch right now if you pay for it".
Just stating this here really. I'm not against it.
I was litterally just watching the “long form analysis and retrospective podcast” where you and PS were talking about this unreleased video and now I see this in my sub box- nice😂
They made a policy change after I originally put this video up where it would advertise videos flagged as members only. For that reason, I won't be using that flag anymore.
I regret to inform you that unfortunately, Toronto continues to be a real place.
May God have mercy on us all...
To avoid spending 45 detailing my love for Death Stranding ill just say, I love Death Stranding.
“I just hate 99% of games” 😂
based, honestly
Most are bad
Checks out tbf - shovelware spam is an issue
@@WiseOwl_1408 I mean, if you only play the AAA garbage that gets released then sure.
@@sebbo59here comes an indie clown here to force indie games down everyone's throat. Hey guys did you know indie games existed
Quickly, quietly, becoming one of my favorite channels.
Patrician TV video on death stranding is absolutely something I needed but didn’t know until seeing this
Don't coom too fast
I’m a bit late to see this, but I really enjoyed seeing this game for the first time, another patrician tier Video.
A note of praise on the extra crunchy footstep audio as the patrons were credited. Very stimulating ❤
Even with ziplines being a bit too good, I eventually resolved to not take them and instead did my usual high-volume treks from one location to the next. Once you've maxed out a location it does unfortunately mean there isn't much reason to deliver there except to complete every legend of legend of legends ranking.
One of my favourite games and game worlds of all time ❤️ great vid!
I also gotta mention, we only need so much weird imagery. I’m okay with Odradek from Kafka and the baby. But do we need the self handcuff thing? Nothing really was cut in pre-production even story wise
The only thing that I might wanna see changed in the sequel is the world of death stranding to feel even more alive, a more intense ecosystem than we got here. Games like the Stalker's anomalies or Rainworld's livable environment. May seem counterintuitive to its setting but I think they could work something out.
That's because DS actually had design documents
Now I want a 7 hour critique and analyzation of the story. Done by Patrician. 😈
11:00 Holy shoot I thought I was the only person who still just screwed around in this game like that. Idk why but MGSV is my comfort game, even though I exhausted all its content years ago
I've played a lot of Death Stranding - ending up with a full complete 100% Legend of Legend of Legend save - and I've become very frustrated at the disconnect between the chiral network and the world design.
The game is designed around you playing a very particular way. There are many dialogue and musical triggers for main quests that only fire if you take the route they've laid out for you.
So you deviate from the path laid out on the delivery screen, and approach Heartman's place from the rear, you miss a lovely song queue.
Now that's not too bad, but if you start building the chiral network as you go, and especially if you play online, it becomes very easy to ruin many major setpieces.
For example, the Lockne - Mama trek back and forth across the mountains.
By the time I got that, I already had a full road network, so I just drove. It was quicker, less risk, and I wanted to use all that tarmac I'd created.
And in doing so I trivialised the entire sequence, and missed out on the experience.
But the worst one for me was the Mountaineer / Doctor deliveries.
When I approached the valley of BTs, I found that someone else had handily placed a zipline on the other side. The wonders of multiplayer!
So I dropped one of mine and simply sped across the gap, and turned a tense timed delivery into a 5 minute affair, my feet barely touching the ground.
This turned one of the hardest deliveries in the entire game into an utter cakewalk.
And once I'd got a full zipline network, it was so convenient that BTs soon stopped being an issue altogether.
The most I'd encounter them was when a zipline path would clip the edge of a BT zone, and the game would get all moody and the music would step up, only to vanish and when the path carried me out.
That was what ziplines reduced BTs to. A temporary slowdown and ominous music for a couple of seconds during zipline travel, in which I was never at risk.
I go walking a lot in the middle of nowhere, and I adored how this game captured so much of that, but I feel a little sour looking back on my playthrough due to how interacting with all the mechanics it offers means that you no longer get that experience.
That all being said, I personally found it a 10/10 due to my love of hiking, but I just wish that the traversal mechanics were properly balanced, and that the chiral networks didn't expand nearly as quickly, or at least had a much lower limit.
As is, it's too easy to accidentally optimise the fun out of the game.
Hopefully they'll fix that in DS2, but I'm not holding my breath.
10:38 Yeah I still turn on MGSV and do the same thing. 😅
Zip Lines do indeed break the game but i feel like the balance of cost in mats and bandwidth which comes with them is not perfect but good enough. When going through the game at first they allow you to industrialize the process of farming rep which gives mats, bandwidth and even some lore and useful gear recipes. Setting up a path becomes a game in itself and isn't prohibitively expensive but you still can't quite go insane with it and there is no trick to making the process of setting it up easier. Once you finish the story the game of logistics becomes your only task and if you want to engage with that then building a comprehensive zip around the whole map is very tricky and time consuming while each strategic improvements massively increase your ability to build more as it makes farming incrementally easier. I do think the main story doesn't actually require much farming at all and it's reasonable to expect most people could finish it without zip lines at all being available. But i do appreciate them being there in the post game. Building out a full network after the main story doubled my playtime and i ended up discovering like 3 or 4 settlements that are entirely ignored in the main story besides brief mentions by email.
I made my zip network before I finished the game and I do not regret doing that. Building that network took me to parts of the map I otherwise never would have explored.
True. I loved discovering new people cuz I'd be like nice, now how the hell do I get a zip line here haha
Also I loved intentionally building them through BT areas cuz I'd zip right through them and they'd appear, scream and I'd just zoom past going suckerrrr haha
I didnt play this game specifically because norman reedus I just don't want to have movie/show actors in video games idk I can't ever see anything but the boondock saints guy.
It's funny, while I was playing this game I kept thinking the only part I liked was walking, but I really did like it. Unfortunately the story was horrible, the combat was pretty bad and boss fights are among the worst experiences in "recent" gaming for me. I will never understand why non combat games force combat on players.
I also loved the idea of building roads, mostly because I like slow grinds toward a greater goal, but then I found out I hated using them, because driving means less walking and walking is the good part of the game. Ziplines were the coup-de-grace, especially when using them to traverse mountains.
On the BT side the handcuff thingy is the same. Once you learn how to murder scores of BTs without danger all the tension just stops. It's a case of the experience not being tuned for endgame, I think.
All in all I had fun during my playthrough but when I finished the game the only thoughts I had were "well that was fucking dumb" and also "if i ever hear another low roar song i'm gonna start blasting". Never played it again but i guess i wouldn't consider it a bad experience, just weird and mildly disappointing.
Overdeveloping the world with roads and ziplines really hurt the pacing near the end of the game. If I ever replay the game, I think id make it a point to minimise my use of them.
What?! You don't like my favourite game, Chef Boyardee Presents: Charles Barkley's Shut Up and Jam Gaiden, apart One of the Hoops Barkley Saga?!
Ive been waiting for this!
I know youre not going to comment on. the story but i think Kojima missed a massive opportunity by not making Sam an influencer as part of the story
Am I the first comment? Oh my. Also, appreciate the video, great as always.
Oh heck yes
Appreciate the unlock. Good thing I'm still early in the Starfield video!
4:48 he said it😂
4:18 Death Stranding is, categorically & definitively, NOT a walking-simulator. Edith Finch is a walking-simulator. Gone Home is a walking-simulator. Heck, Bramble is a walking-simulator.
Sure you can *pun* your way to calling Death Stranding a walking-simulator, but it is not at all in that actual genre, any more than it’s in the “cozy” or “comfy” genre.
Death Stranding is closer to Construction Similar 3 than it is to Gone Home.
Just sayin.
Kojimbo gets it a lot because as a writer, he's not very good. To put it mildly.
Also, to this day nobody could tell me why the world doesn't use underground transportation. Granted, I didn't ask many people, but still.
Ziplines are only made available what, like 75% of the way through the game? and really seemed designed to give people closure w/r/t completionist tendencies.
I think the combat is by far and away the most tedious part of the game, and I say that having S-ranked the stupid racetrack shit to 100% it. The plot is utter gobbledygook but it was entertaining gobbledygook which is more than I can say for most games.
Building Bridget Bridge's bridges.
Ya get it!!!???
IT'S ALL CONNECTED!!!!
YOU GET IT!!!!???
I’m so used to seeing several hour long videos from you, that when I saw 20:00 my brain immediately thought it was 20:00:00 and I just about had a heart attack.
My favorite game is kenshi is it on the worst game ever list? Wondering for science
kojima predicted the covid experience with this game
I refuse to play any game that uses the face of an actual person. It just feels like Walking Dead every time I see the main character.
So you don't like max payne?
@@csabaszabo6859 Was Max Payne literally just a carbon copy of an incredibly recognizable famous person?
@@timthetoolpool you said "an actual person" but I get what you mean.
Any way sorry for being an "actually" guy but I couldn't stop myself to point out this one.
The story of Death Stranding is legitimately nonsensical. I watched a 7 hour White Light review that basically agreed with that position, and then proceeding to cope for seven hours.
Two 20 minute videos back to back? You're slipping Pat.
I was considering giving it a go until I just seen that 'snowboarding' game play.
I hate rocks
Kojima definitely went on vacation to Iceland and immediately wanted to make a game about it.
“Welcome to post-apocalyptic America!”
“You mean Iceland? Why does America look exactly like the landscape of Iceland?”
“Because of the apocalypse. Shut up. We are talking about the myth of the USPS now.”
it’s actually because of the erosion to vegetation caused by the time rain. but yeah it’s just an excuse to make the landscape look like Iceland and the Scottish highlands
>Patrician releases a video
>It's too short to sleep to, relying on the video still being on when I wake up
My energy-wastemaxxing strat needs an update if he keeps doing this.
DS is a game based on how it is walking in the woods, how you have to be engaged in something as simple as how you plant your feet
Well said. I think you hit on something very salient. Simple tasks can become fun and engaging ambiently if there's a flow state of constant problem solving.
This is going to sound lame but Death Stranding got me back into going for walks a couple times a week. Driving out somewhere more rural and taking the time to just walk a trail for a couple of hours (or the rare time it's longer because I got a little lost) has made me feel better in general, and I get to see some really pretty woodland or heathland or seaside.
I don’t think it’s lame at all… Art is meant to inspire ❤
The Lost Cargo mechanic has one great element that was not mentioned in the video: besides the crappy random generated one, if other players lose their cargo that can appear in other players' games, which places it in actually sensible locations.
It created a few nice moments for me when I saw a few scattered lost packages under a cliff, looking up and seeing where probably the other player fell down and imagined a few pieces of cargo tumbled down into the creek I was going through.
This game is so Inspired and fun, such a shame that the internet has totally boiled it down to “haha silly kojima”
The "Its like a movie" guy finally returns! Praise Jesus
I can look at the game and see why people like it, but also know with 100% certainty that it is not in any way something I would enjoy. As always appreciate the interesting and fair takes Pat!
The game is shit. You can just run away from bosses and come back and pick up your stuff. It's also a bit sick, the whole baby idea. I bought it when it came out and it was a struggle to finish. I think Kojima is overrated these days.
@@rem792why are you here lol you clicked on a death strandign video knowing you wanted to talk shit about a game that wasnt made for you. That would be like me going to a sport game youtuber and posting the game is shit in the comments randomly.
Because I watch this channel and I wanted to hear Pat's take on it. I agree with some videos and with some I don't. He does have similar opinions to mine here even though he does like it.
@@rem792 DS is not a combat game and thats why you can run away
😂 it's in the game, people took time and used their talent and resources to implement that, there are weapons in the game and there is a combat system.
I love the little "bad combat" jab at pathologic
Tbh Pathologic combat is more intuitive and learnable than melee/brawling in RDR2. At least in the remaster anyway.
I don't think it was a jab at pathologic, I think its a reference to his Skyrim mage rant where he made a similar point of "The nords hate the magic so lets make magic shit to reinforce the narrative point"
Man i had a bunch of fun with this game, I just put on my audio books and went. I think there is value in games that are just experiences but are also challenging like this one
I think the weakest point of the game is not to randomise BT locations
A PatTV video I haven't seen yet? That's like finding a hundred dollars in the couch cushions.
The best moment of DS is towards the end, when you're working your way from one end of the map to the other in one go. Same as your excursions across MGSV, that trek with minimal resources is really exciting, and puts all your gameplay knowledge to the test. The combat actually shined, starting with no equipment and scavenging guns, ammo and health mid-firefight, using the environment as cover in a mad dash to protect from enemies which actually did a good job of surrounding me. DS2 looks to be more combat focused, so hopefully we'll get more of that. Plus, more combat means more bodies, so maybe there will be more consideration for the creation of BTs this time around as you say.
Death Stranding is one of my favorite games in the last 10+ years and a true masterpiece. It’s certainly not a game for everyone that’s for sure though
It scratches the same part of my brain that truck-sims do, except it scratches way harder. Navigating traffic is cool, but if there were more games about in-depth overland navigation I'd be a happy man.
Seen people write same comment but comment not able to get it, was on people risen 1 xbox angry Joe review
It kinda went a little bit like this ok I get why people play Destiny i dont but like i get it maybe not gameplay but the graphics and make sense there must be some people out there to get that but then I looked at risen and it's just like a disconnect like how can somebody would like this game
Honestly I never paid any attention to this game but it does look kinda cool. Would be interested in a synopsis on the story even if the video wasn't much longer than this one.
LOL a synapse vid would be like 2 plus hours long.....so bring it on!
MGSV, a game with probably 30 hours of content got me to hit a playtime of over 1000 hours just because the gameplay feel was *that* enjoyable, as well the loop of traveling and collecting soldiers and resources, while challenging myself to drop in with as little as possible. It's still unmatched almost a decade later, for me at least.
Death Stranding was good, and felt reminiscent of MGSV in some ways, but I found myself get burned out on the traversal and delivery loop much, much quicker. I do love the world and the tech within it. Very few Scifi settings feel as alien as the tech I see in DS/DS2.
I always find it weird that people talk about burnout. I just did the amount of deliveries that interested me and moved on.
I do have to wonder if it is achievement conditioning that people get into where they expect/need things to be completionist.
@@lostsanityreturned No, I think CaffeinatedKing put it well enough. It's because when you spend 70 bucks for an open world game that promises to be a "building up the world" kind of experience, well, you expect to be able to build up the world for a while and have fun while doing it. As he said, MGSV had an amazing game loop, interweaving exploration, research, base building, combat and plot. Death Stranding, a game that promised to be focused on exploration, collection and traversal, was arguably worse than MGSV, a more generalist game, in those areas. It's not achievement hunting that drives you to want to play the game, it's the fact you spent money for it and want to get value out of it beyond the day's worth of plot missions. Also, he literally never even came close to mentioning completion in his comment. He just said he got bored of the game quicker.
@@zakatalmosen5984 Don't really wanna pull the "It's subjective" card, but I personally got tired of MGSV somewhere in the middle of the Africa chapter, and not really intending to go back to the game, while Death Stranding kept me going for 200 hours on my first playthrough and I wanna do another one at some point.
And I can see how if you're really into it, MGSV can hold you for much longer, having more different mechanics and interactions, however, I don't think it's fair to say that DS is not justified in it's pricing, when MGSV exists. Obviously 1000 and 200 is a big difference, but I think even reaching into 100 hours will be rare for most people in either of those games, most people won't even finish them.
The logic of hours to price kinda fall off after a few dozen, and it becomes more about the quality of experience, otherwise all the rogue-like indies should be the most expensive games out there, like dedicated Noita players have several thousands of hours in it.
@@MrFr2eman oh but I agree on that point. I was just explaining the argument, I don't think is an objective thing. I thought DS was allright. My problems with the game are that it was way too easy to avoid the core mechanics, the combat felt tacked on and the plot and dialogue grated me to no end. I have no problem with the lenght of the game, in fact I felt it dragged on towards the end.
i love euro truck simulator.
To me death stranding felt like Euro truck simulator on drugs... except somebody stole my god damn truck
The biggest thing I liked about Death Stranding is that it managed to make just kinda walking around fun moment to moment for me
Calling Death stranding experimental is actually nice! It was an attempt to turn the most mundane mission in gaming (delivering stuff) into a Game! And I love it! Can’t wait for Part 2!
Standard trash missing the game.
and people seem to give it another try after the new trailer, you love to see it
gamers defending slop, nothing new
@@Eorcen8310 good slop 👍 and in this day and age, I’m content
@@Ozzianmanif trying something new is good enough for you, why aren't you praising call of duty?
i wouldnt suggest anyone play this game, my opinion of it is entirely skewed by how much the setting vibes with me, i just wanted to see more of it. Yeah its a walking simulator, yeah the mechanics are minimal, yeah the player involvement is minimal, yeah i stopped playing 2 or 3 times because i was going to be late for a thing i was doing, only to come back and walk right into a cutscene before needing to go do something else 15minutes later, and yes there is what feels like an hour long cutscene at the end. I loved the experience the whole way.
The way i like to think about the game is via inputs. If you took the game and gave it a different coat of paint, so instead of pressing buttons for balancing you were pressing buttons for reacting to an enemy throwing a grenade to kick it back? Failure to do either results in a negative outcome, theyre both minimally expected occurrences etc. Why is kicking back the 17th grenade more exciting than the possibility of tumbling down a whole ass mountain?
I've always thought that open world RPG games should take a look at DS. Making the challenge not just combat but also traversal would be extremely interesting, imagine having to plan an entire route with ropes, ladders, etc. in a dungeon. What kind of armor are you going to wear? What kind of weapons? What about utility magic?
It would feel like a real adventure damnit.
Rdr2 and DS could not be farther away from each other. I just reinstalled DS because of the announcement of DS2. If DS clicks with you it really clicks, of it doesn't it doesnt. It clicks with me and I would play DS forever over Starfield any day.
But DS is a very niche game but with its fans it one of the best games of all time. When you head out and the camera pulls out and the chill music starts, if you know you know.
Love your vids.
@Patrician I imagine this has been asked before, but how do you feel about a big analysis on Fallout New Vegas?
“I dont like games.. i just make 8 hour reviews of them…” - this guy
I can't believe Pat has ALL my favorite games in his wost games ever list.
After this crushing revelation, I will have to unsub and remove that bell, and I will go so far as to unhit that like button
played DS last year. Weird game but im glad I played it
That’s funny I just started replaying this game a few days ago now my fav UA-camr makes a video, everything’s going to be all right
Death Stranding is the Gran Turismo of walking sims
"Everybody forgot about Korea, as not as many popular war films were made about conflicts post Vietnam"
The Korean War was absolutely NOT "post-vietnam" ???
And, not as.
Damn. Can't believe that Morrowind is the worst game ever. Tragedy abound.
I played this game on PS4 however many years ago, and as much as I liked the gameplay I hated just about everything else; the characters, the plot, the combat...The idea of a game where the main "enemy" is the environment and the main gameplay is just navigating it is really interesting to me, so of course I lost a whole lot of interest when they gave me one of those big, stupid trucks to drive around in. The point where I gave the game up entirely though was when, while exploring without cargo, I was attacked by a BT and dragged to spooky ghost world. I heroically walked away from the dead whale that was flopping around in the oil and eventually the real world faded back in. I was basically done after that when I concluded that death was consequence-free. The last thing I remember trying was drinking 2 cases worth of Monster Energy to see if it changed Norman's pee color, like how such a thing would if you did that in real life...and no, clear...unless of course it was clear because I caused some kind of kidney failure.
2:16 - "I don't hate all games, I just hate 90% of them"
Well, an interesting video you should watch that might make you angry, Patrician, is from Alanah Pearce titled _"I'm real sick of fake gamers"_, where she states that "real gamers don't hate video games."
I'll admit I haven't watched all of it, but the first 5 minutes are really frustrating, and I think it's indicative of a worrying trend in video game critique.
8:03 "fear of falling over"
_Sarcastic declaration:_ "So it is an Elcor simulator"
Yay! Another video! I am a little sad to hear that you wont be making Death Stranding into its own analysis video as I think this is one game I would LOVE to hear you talk about, but I can understand not wanting to turn every game into a project.
Keep up the great work! I am always looking forward to the next long-form video. Your stuff helps get me through work days and I can't even begin to explain how many times I have listened to the Skyrim retrospective just for that reason alone.
To me death stranding is a collectathon. The entire point of it is to collect more weird gearsets and cosmetics. Having the maxed out exosuit armor and dead sprinting across a mountain is a great experience. It also has obscure rpg mechanics.
20 minutes... Patrician's version of shorts
Patrician, I know you know this, but you NEED to make a video about MGSV. I'd enjoy hearing you talk about it.
Tetramorre made an MGSV video that Pat mentioned in the past he really likes. I recommend that one to you
Be kind to my favorite FedEx simulator in the post apocalypse. Looking forward to coming back to it for the director's cut. Kojima stories are a favorite for me, like diner coffee that's been on the burner al day. I don't expect everyone to be into it, but it's great for those who are. My only great gripe about the game is the later areas are very combat focused that the REAL enemy from DS: THE WORLD becomes flavor and setting. I mean, sure.. cultists are a part of the world, but come on.. to go from spooky oregon trail to full MSG future shooter was a little whiplash.
The story bound combat missions are amazing, albeit they can be opaque and annoying to trail/error.
+World
+Mechanics
+Fun Loop
+Working with other players to make routes (sucks it's bound to unlocking the shelters, atleast for trails, it's a little obnoxious to see everything populate at once.)
-Combat.. oh, the combat. BOLA is best. I'll fight anyone on this.. Anyone who played knows what im saying. If you haven't. open combat is a mechanical punishment. the latter half of the game is all combat.. :l
Solid would recommend.
I absolutely loved Death Stranding, no urge to ever play it again tho
10:38 I pointed at my screen like Leonardo DiCaprio when you said Metal Gear Solid *Vee*. If you know you know
I'm actually really excited for DS2. I liked one, but something about it felt off, or lacking. From the jumping point of a whole game, they can swing outta the gate and make something awesome, if it's not a lazy sequel, that is.
A better ratio, but also a better mix of combat to traversal/delivery. Like have combat be a part of the delivery mechanics. And we can make the world more varied, exciting and worth exploring. They have a good enough base, hope Kojima goes nuts.
Ooo! And more of those dream battle segments! Like different ones, not just the same guy 3 times. Kinda like Psychonaut's mindscapes. We had a WWII-ish one maybe we can get some weird ass stuff like sci-fi, fantasy, medieval, all mixed with dream logic and crap.
While, under any normal circumstances, I would believe you when you say "Your favourites are all on my worst games ever list", I'll be honest, I have never met anyone who knew my favourite game... Except that one time, but she also knew the developer personally.
Anyone here who knows "A House of many Doors", by any chance?
If people like DS, good for them. I got annoyed/bored within the first 2 hours. Maybe DS2 will be better, but I think, that Kojima just should make movies or a series. The "Gameplay" is not worth my time.
Death Stranding is one of only a few games I could spent all night ranting about why I love it so much.
But at the same time I feel like I could never be bothered trying to convince someone who doesn't already like it. It's one of those games that just won't click with some people, but that's typically just a sign of artistic value. Good art resonates with some people but not others, and I think we're used to that idea with paintings and films and sculptures but we're not quite ready for that happening with video games. I think that's why Deat hStranding had such a harsh reaction. The problem is not that it was a divisive game, but the idea that a AAA game CAN be divisive. AAA games are supposed to be crowd pleasers but this is the first example I can think of of a AAA game that was clearly not trying to be a crowd pleaser. It caught people off guard.
I loved this game, it’s so awesome. Different and fun. The story was great, idc what anyone says I liked it. And I’m a contrarian like the narrator here. Like I don’t like when something has a celeb just to have it, but the world was interesting and having to survive with some new apocalyptic world was nice.
Its not for everyone, id imagine a lot of people would just get bored, but I think DS is an amazing game. Idk how they made being a delivery man an interesting game, but if anyone could it was Kojima.
I think I wholeheartedly disagree with your zipline take. If you unlocked them any earlier, I'd be on you're side, but by the time you unlock them you're at least 70ish% done with the main part of the game. I felt it was the final mastery of the landscape. You still have to go to vantage and middle points to set them up or connect them with existing ones. Once they're done you've not only reconnected America with the internet, you've also built a bullet train rail system to finish off any side objectives.
This game is why I've considered making a YT channel. As beautiful and immersive as the game may be, I do not like this game. I have my bias against it when it comes to its gameplay and what it sets out to achieve. It's tedious and repetitive, and I feel nothing when I complete a quest; let alone a mainline mission. The story doesn't help when I don't understand what's going on, when the protagonist doesn't seem to have a clear motive to do what he's doing (also hardly voices his opinion on the current events of the game or speaks at all), and the world building fails to explain the nature of this world through other characters or text entries. And everyone is just weird for weird sake. And everything I've seen from the sequel's trailer reinforces that. So why should I care when the game doesn't?
Patrician released a short?!
30 second video? Really?
I feel like a lot of the weirdness of death strandings world is just a barrier to entry for what is actually some petty compelling stuff. The weird stuff isn't the compelling stuff though, and a lot of it just feels weird for the sake of being unfamiliar to the audience. And to me it makes the world feel like an artificial setting for a story rather than an actual living world that became this way. Just my thoughts
Pat farted in my front yard in 2013 and STILL hasn't apologized
Cloudpunk is basically the same, but there you need to learn the best route to deliver the package, taking the speed highway is not always the best option because your flying car go fast and you really not want to take damage, because credits or money is really important in this game, and you want to waste a little as possible.
This video is great! I love the tone of it, it's not bitter or headstrong, just someone talking about a game they enjoyed. Looking forward to more like this!
Am I the third comment? Oh my. Also, appreciate the video 3 times more than the first comment guy.
DS giving you the tool to trivialize your previous mission kinda irritated me since it happened so many times.
How much would it take to bribe you to do a quick retrospective on Enderal?????
I couldn't get past the cutscenes. They weren't bad, I just wanted to get to the gameplay and it was sooooo slow to get started
Thanks for making this available to us plebs, appreciate the shorter form content too
Something must be wrong here, it seems as if the other 8 hours of this video wasn't uploaded