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Originally Posted by Evil Avatar
(Post 2547969)
Anyone else playing FedEx Ground Simulator Death Stranding?
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It's a good, different game. The framing you chose to be edgy is the complete opposite to the attitudes of the people you encounter and the overarching themes of the game.
Yes, I'm with you on all the Post-Apocalyptic Amazon Prime. Easy to think that in the first couple chapters when its teaching you the fundamentals about weight load, stamina, the effects of terrain, and all the other factors you take for granted in other games, not to mention all the other bizarre and potentially overwhelming elements like BTs, MULEs, etc.
But it's a game like any other. Most games involve getting a goal, travelling from Point A to B to achieve said goal, and dealing with obstacles in the way. This game gives you a different set of considerations than "point and shoot" or "face and slash." It isn't perfect, it has *tons* of shout-outs and Kojima elements (Guillermo Del Toro (model only) and Conan O'Brian (voice / model) appear as characters, blatant product placement for Monster & Ride with Normal Reedus), but it's different.
You get an Assault Rifle in Chapter 4, if you made it that far. You even get to use it, despite the games' insistence about non-lethal gameplay! Other gadgets and more of the Metal Gear utility style gameplay come out later on as well as you help people.
"Virtually no pay" -- besides the utility unlocks and other more achievement-oriented rewards you get for pursuing completionism in games by making deliveries, it's a post-capitalist, post-apocalyptic world that highlights cooperation and how appreciation for others for what they do to make our lives possible can is the more fundamental reward. The game makes subtle commentary on the foils of social media and how technology severs human connection. How many people in the supply and logistics chain get taken for granted who make your entertainment or enable people to make snarky comments through a computer or phone, both past and present?
My point is: Kojima wanted to make a point that's woven into the entire experience and might go over some people's heads if they focus too much on how this game isn't like the games they like to play. With a high stress job, playing this game is a more soothing experience. You do get something out of the game by helping others with making the world just a little bit better than you found it and showing appreciation for those that helped you -- though even that fades once you're "finished" with an area, and your impact on the world fades with time unless others after you contribute to your contribution to keep it alive (a mechanic meant to clean up the game world but also how the thing we do carry forward with the passage of time).
The game beats you over the head that human connection and the time we spend together as people are what's most important, but also, about this online digital society, which starts at the place of "where no one wants to connect, are fearful of human touch because of BTs, everyone is isolated, people are taking drugs for oxytocin to avoid depression, and society is ravaged by environmental hazards and ruins" with a main character who characterizes the starting point of the game world --
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A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.
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