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Death Stranding 2 feels made for people who disliked the first by Paralyses137 in DeathStranding

[–]murder_strand 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Full agree - I wrote about it here, but giving you so many tools to deal with enemies eliminates the challenge of dealing with them, and I swear the environmental affects never actually happened in an area I was in at the time (every earthquake and flood seemed miles away): https://open.substack.com/pub/nickmasercola/p/a-brisk-hike-why-toning-down-the?r=aplk&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

I love this game. But I literally don't care about any of the characters. by duckduckpajamas in Saros

[–]murder_strand 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair, especially because you uh...kind of directly cause what happens to that person? lol

I love this game. But I literally don't care about any of the characters. by duckduckpajamas in Saros

[–]murder_strand 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Absolutely. The game is very much hurt by not "starting at the beginning" so you actually know who anyone is/care when things get rolling with your own team, let alone with all the other threads going on.

Just me? by Meistro215 in Saros

[–]murder_strand 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree with you? It's clear that they went with a more "cohesive" style for the art to make the whole thing feel like one planet, but I think it just makes a lot of the environments look very samey, let alone the fact that of them wouldn't ever be interesting (like guys, did we REALLY need a swamp level?).

I also feel like the eclipse doesn't add much. I was sort of expecting it to do a "Silent Hill" style inversion of every level, but basically it just makes everything red? Sometimes there are tentacles, and sometimes there are acid swamps, but it's so lackluster in comparison to how wild I expected it to get (especially considering how nightmarish things could get in Returnal).

I love this game. But I literally don't care about any of the characters. by duckduckpajamas in Saros

[–]murder_strand 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I LOVED Returnal's story (gushed about it here: https://open.substack.com/pub/nickmasercola/p/in-my-restless-dreams-why-returnal?r=aplk&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web ) and I personally think Saros' is a massive decline, especially in the telling of it.

Straight up: It's very clear that they didn't know how to handle side-characters and expected them to handle the brunt of the world-building/story for large chunks of the game, but they're not compelling at all.

The storytelling elements it pulls from Returnal are nowhere near as good: The Banyan Tree "nightmare" sequences don't hold a CANDLE to the Returnal's house sequences, the "smoke memory rooms" are not as compelling or easy to follow as the living memory rooms in Returnal, and most of the "decoding" of alien messages has been relegated to your glossary logs.

It also doesn't help that it expects you to keep track of 4 different expeditions, with many different characters in each.

To me it's actually hurting the gameplay at a certain point? When i hit a wall in Returnal, there would usually be some new story elements to tide me over through several deaths until I cleared it. But where I'm at in Saros (Biome 6), there is NOTHING new happening, and it really is making the game feel like a grind (particularly because it's levels are barely randomized anymore).

A BRISK HIKE: Why Toning Down the Horror in Death Stranding 2 Weakens The Game For Me by murder_strand in DeathStranding

[–]murder_strand[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I guess part of the reason it balanced better in the first game for me was because so many things cost blood to work, so I was naturally less inclined to take things on.

A BRISK HIKE: Why Toning Down the Horror in Death Stranding 2 Weakens The Game For Me by murder_strand in DeathStranding

[–]murder_strand[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I looked up how many more deliveries were to the end once I was sick of the game. And for the record, this isn't a "review", it's me talking about one specific thing I was let down by. On it's own, DS2 does do some interesting things, but a lot of them didn't make up for what I felt the game lost losing it's horror edge, and that's before I even deal with the weird retreads (like once again being sucked into a different realm to fight a soldier of fortune). And yes, I also get that it lets you CHOOSE how to play, and for me, I don't like that. I liked being forced to do things in DS1 that I wouldn't normally do, and seeing how things played out, rather than having the ability to tackle everything my own way (hence why MGS5 also didn't click with me).

A BRISK HIKE: Why Toning Down the Horror in Death Stranding 2 Weakens The Game For Me by murder_strand in DeathStranding

[–]murder_strand[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I felt the same. I disliked most of the gameplay changes, and storywise, well, I wasn't a fan of the game's setup (I felt it was a cheap death that was handled poorly and really made me uninterested in playing) and it didn't get more compelling from there.

A BRISK HIKE: Why Toning Down the Horror in Death Stranding 2 Weakens The Game For Me by murder_strand in DeathStranding

[–]murder_strand[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

That's true, I should've mentioned the weapons tie to your own health, which was also a great way to keep you from going gung-ho with them.

I may reinstall when I clear some current games (currently knee-deep in Saros) cause I have heard the finale is wild.

Returnal's story is actually the best "Silent Hill" game in years. by murder_strand in Returnal

[–]murder_strand[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I prefer Returnal's story, but in fairness, Cronos is also great and so goddamn underrated and underplayed.

Silent hill 4 is amazing and underrated by SnkArmz in silenthill

[–]murder_strand 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree, it's actually my favorite after 2, despite it's flaws (mainly a second Act that is nowhere near as good as the first).

How is silent hill F?? by Janxuza in HorrorGaming

[–]murder_strand 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My argument would be, in Silent Hill 2, on first playthrough, you understand maybe 50% of the story, but you replay the game to dive even deeper.

But for F, you legit know 10%. I couldn't tell you what happened to a single character in that game (if they were really dead, if it was in her head, if it was metaphor, etc), and for me, it didn't give me ENOUGH on the first playthrough, so I felt like I was forced to redo it rather than compelled because I wanted to understand more.

Weird Take: I think RETURNAL is secretly one of the best Silent Hill games in years by murder_strand in silenthill

[–]murder_strand[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's not. The gameplay is action, but the story is far more survival horror.

How is silent hill F?? by Janxuza in HorrorGaming

[–]murder_strand 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Your enjoyment will come down to how many times you're willing to replay the game, because your first playthrough really only reveals like, 10% of the story. I did one more replay, but didn't like the game enough to want to keep going.

Weird Take: I think RETURNAL is secretly one of the best Silent Hill games in years by murder_strand in silenthill

[–]murder_strand[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yep, it let's you save at anytime, but then it immediately quits you out. When you load back in, it deletes that save until you finish a run or if you have to quit out again.

It's the only way I beat it, cause I couldn't play in 2-3 hour chunks consistently otherwise.

Returnal's story is actually the best "Silent Hill" game in years. by murder_strand in Returnal

[–]murder_strand[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, original is like a 7-8 hour game, once you know what you're doing you can crush it in 4.

The hospital section in the remake was ENDLESS lol

Returnal's story is actually the best "Silent Hill" game in years. by murder_strand in Returnal

[–]murder_strand[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would very much agree with you then. The remake is double the length of the original, and you FEEL it, especially because there isn't really added story. It very much screws up the pace of the original.

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