For me at least, the first part was an absolute work of art. Apart from the crazy, not always entirely comprehensible story, it was simply beautiful. I’ll never forget the moment when I climbed through the vast landscapes for the first time and suddenly heard this phenomenal soundtrack. The amount of multiplayer influence was also just right; you got the impression that someone had been here before, but you never met anyone. Wonderful.
Didn’t expect a second part to be released, what a pleasant surprise!
Kojima is the JJ Abrams equivalent in the game industry. Great visual execution, but absolutely horrendous story-telling that will make you wish were dumb as a piece of loaf so as to not notice it.
When Kojima made a comment that he didn’t fully understand the story himself… It sort of all made sense. It’s just connotations mashed together, beach, strand, hair, cord… A big pile of nothing to create intrigue with no payout, no mystery to reveal, just more layers of confusion. Sort of like Lost. I’m sure JJ and Kojima would get along great.
But oh boy are some of those moment exceptionally beautiful and spectacular in all its illogical absurdity. Mads Mikkelsen’s acting. Got goosebumps. But then it falls apart by revealing flaws through the fourth wall. Like did… part of this mystery hinge on the double meaning of words? Whatever the fuck was going on, it’s a little bit silly for synonyms to play an important part.
Kojima has a lot of other great tastes. Using music to create moments of excellent cinematography. Motion capture and character designs have always been fantastic. There are moments in Death Stranding that made me have to put down the controller and just. Enjoy. The same goes with Metal Gear games I grew up with. The flower field in MGS3, and forcing you to pull the trigger… The attention to detail on so many gameplay mechanics. It’s just brilliant. But, the illogical and meaningless complexity for the story and world building? That part has always been the weakest part and left a bad taste. In MGS it was confusing enough, but it had a certain charm. In DS, puuh, it’s rough.
JJ and Kojima should have nothing to do with writing storylines and plots. Imagine how much brilliant stuff we would be left with? And I never understood why. In JJs case, I suspect it’s simply decent return on investment for those who fund the movies. But from a craftsmanship perspective, it’s weird. The culmantion of work from hundreds of artists, all masters in their respective fields, and it shows, yet, it comes together to tell a story, surrounding a plot that a 14-year old might put together.
Abrams writes mystery box stories where everything hinges on resolving the box and ends up with an ultimately lackluster resolution.
Kojima stories are confusing webs within webs throughout. They exist on theme and vibe, while being simultaneously incredibly well researched, intentionally absurd, and with ill advised choices that surely mean something when they were made.
Having not played the first game at all, this trailer looks even more ridiculous (in a bad way) than the first one did. The graphics certainly look amazing though.
I got burnt out on the first one. Pretty setting and some neat ideas aside, I do wonder how many people would be interested in a sequel to this. It wasn’t exactly gripping in story or gameplay to begin with. Though I’m happy it was made, it was something unique at least.
I have ~140 hours on the first game, but I’m not particularly interested in most of the content shown in this trailer. I find Kojima’s writing to be eye-rolling horrendous and cringe-worthy (I still remember this quote from the first game: “I’m fragile but not that fragile” HUH). That being said, I’m looking forward to this sequel because of the possibility of new gameplay mechanics (like that flood that wrecked the ramp). I’m excited about new weapons, vehicles, enemies and mechs! I wish the trailer has more of that instead.
Not really sure how you can roll your eyes at the dialogue from the trailer, but not from Death Stranding 1 or the Metal Gear games. This isn’t any more ridiculous than any other game he’s made.
Edit: for the record, I very much enjoy kojima games. I liked MGS games and Death Stranding 1. But there is no denying that his games are all weird as absolute fuck.
Man, I was looking forward to this and Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2, but after seeing both gameplay trailers today, I'm just... not anymore. Like wtf is this.
Somehow they managed to make the game look even stranger than the first one, which I didn’t think was possible. I remember trying to watch a playthrough of the first game and it was a bit too out there for my tastes already.
I think it’s a textbook Your Mileage May Vary game (pun mildly intended if you’ve played it). You have to have the tolerance for Kojima running wild and doing his thing, and it only works if you are engaged in the core gameplay loop, but if both are true, it’s easily a 70+ hour game. The Director’s Cut was the second game I ever took the time to Platinum.
I don’t think this trailer will sell many new players on the experience if they weren’t down for the first one, but I’m excited to play the sequel. Seems like it’s going to land some real gut punches.
Really? I I couldn’t make sense of it till I played it myself. It’s pretty grounded for the most part. There’s a lot of exposition that explains everything.
Shadow is a cool character. Gotta wonder if they are going to be as daring about this one as they were in the Shadow game, but I see no guns so probably not.
I’d honestly be happier with no guns. Not sure if that was their greatest move, in their effort to make him ‘edgier’. He was perfect in SA2 and Sonic Heroes.
Sonic Adventure 2 is great but it hurts me every time someone says how good Sonic Heroes was. Sonic Heroes was the most paper-thin every character has been in the 3D era. They just took a couple stereotypical quotes for each character and called it a day. The scant little they did with Shadow was only the barest setup for Shadow the Hedgehog.
Shadow the Hedgehog was overly edgy but at least they tried to do some character exploration and what-ifs. I got some chuckles from how over the top the Dark paths went but some routes and the True ending seemed to fit his actual character just fine.
Character-wise I'd say Sonic Battle was one of the best entries, but the gameplay had nothing to do with anything Sonic.
Different strokes for different folks, I guess. I enjoyed Heroes for what it was.
I agree that Sonic Battle was one of, if not the best entries for character building. And SB is, in fact, my all-time favourite Sonic game. Breaks me that I may never see a sequel / reboot, and get to relive Emerl’s story.
Bold to assume. After making a human girl kiss Sonic, and having him freed from years of torture only to become an OC’s best friend, they aren’t upticking anything.
It’s going to be interesting to see if this is more about the chase, and getting the other to admit their feelings, or contending with the challenges of a long term hedgehog relationship in a world that still exhibits homophobia.
Ghost Story Games is another rebranding of the same studio that made Bioshock (2K Boston) and Bioshock Infinite (Irrational Games), and is still headed by Ken Levine. Basically, this is Bioshock 3 (4?) in all but name, if the “From the creators of Bioshock” wasn’t explicit enough.
Is it still a smaller studio? I recall he shut things down and took a small amount of talent with him, but that’s when the studio was first made. He said he wanted smaller. The vibe was that he disliked the size of Infinite’s team and scope.
I’m not sure I would call it a rebranding. I believe Bioshock lives on without him still as it’s own thing.
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Aktywne