I'm enjoying it a lot but I'm way slower than all of you since i like to take my sweet time with my games, so I've been avoiding this thread for fear of spoilers.

I'm only on chapter 3 but have played for over 20 hours, (been doing a LOT of side content, standard missions, delivering lost packages and creating structures for other players).

Since i haven't beaten the game yet i can't give my full opinión on it, but there are a couple of things i can say for certain.

1) No wonder it got such mixed reviews, the core gameplay is something that you will either enjoy or hate.

2) Graphics have blown me away so much that i honestly can't even imaginé how PS5 games are gonna look.

Sorry for the delay. I was pulled to the Beach, and I could not return until I completed the experience.

So I had planned for 15 hours a day starting the Friday I requested off. This is something I have done for countless other titles in the past. Sometimes I end up playing,  sometimes I don't get hooked, and I end up doing something else with my extended weekend. Death Stranding hooked me on par with the most hooked I have ever been. 

I ended up at 47 hours by the end of the day Sunday, and I was not even close to finishing, and even further from loosing enjoyment with the experience before me. I debated in my head what to do next, and after much thought, I did something I have never done for a game, I called in sick, because the experience had to continue. At the end of the day I was sitting at 61 hours, and still far from the finsh, and just as far from loosing excitement for every moment played.

Since the decision to commit was already made, I  decided to call in again Tuesday, at this point I had to push to the end. We are only allowed 2 sick days in a row without a doctors notice where I work, so this was the day, I had to finish. I work a late shift, so I played Monday until 20:00. I knew I had to call in at 22:00, so the alarm was set for then. Just over an hour after heading to bed I woke up. The clock was just past 21:30, there are explosions happening all around my house. It is Veterans Day, and the Local Football team just won, pushing the community into a fireworks frenzy. Well, I'm up, I think damn, an hour and a half is not enough sleep, but I had to push on. I called in, and returned to the journey.

Finally, at 19:30, Tuesday, November 11th 2019, I finished an adventure that has already claimed a spot in my top 3 favorite games of all time list. Where it lands in that list over time is still yet to be determined, but I am already certain that I will be doing a fresh start come this holiday season, to get a better idea of just where it ends up.

My previous top three where:

1. The Last of Us 

2. Horizon Zero Dawn

3. God of War (2019)

Death Stranding will now be knocking last years God of War down a notch. Still a great game, but not in the elite category of the other three. 

Keys to why I feel this way:

-Incredible Conrtols across all forms of traversal. 

-Rewarding loop of collecting and delivering, backed by a desire to reconnect the Map, and build relationships with every character encountered.

-Even more rewarding network of interacting with other players, all working together to build a better world, and seeing it all unfold.

-Boss battles, that deliver on scale, combat, and story.

-Top notch characters at all levels, that actually make you care, and deliver emotional impact. 

-The relationship between Sam and his BB.

Those things, amoung others, wrapped in the best Graphics, Animation, and Voice work of any game to date (and by a long ways), all add up to a Masterful experience. 

The thing that really shocks me, is this is the only game out of TLOU, HZD, GOW(2019), and itself, that I went into feeling very disinterested. I went back and forth over whether I was even going to take Friday off in the weeks leading to release. My full expectation going in, was that this would probably be a game I would end up walking away from after 15 or 20 hours, similar to stuff like Witcher 3 or Red Dead Redemption 2 (which are actually two titles I was extremely hype about). Instead Death Stranding grabbed me, and didn't let go until I completed the experience it presented me.

For me, Death Stranding is truly a Masterpiece. 

Still find it remarkable and most intersting, to see people speak highly enthusiastically of DS - here and on other boards - starkly constranting unfavorable reviews and metacritic trasher.

Was there ever a game this polarizing?

Your cap locks comment couldn't be more accurate. That was the case for me for 5 days in a row. There is always something you can do real quick, that leads to an E-Mail with something important, that sends you off to find something new, and the next thing you know, three hours have passed in the real world. 

I also just became more and more hooked as time went on. Usually with games I start getting to a point where I have done this and that, and I am ready for things to wrap up, but this was the opposite. I started to see the end in site, and the clock winding down on my available play time, and I didn't want it to end. Honestly, if I did not have to go to work today, I would have very likely spent anoth 15 - 20 hours with the game today. 

I am planning to go for the Platinum. Only a few trophies left to go, but I will take my time and savor it. Then like I said, I plan to replay it soon. With the Social Stranding, and everything I learned in this play through, I think I can have a completely unique experience in a 2nd playthrough. That is something that it has over Horizon, which is why I can see it topping that game in the end. 

One thing I can not hold back is a shout out to the Decima Engine. It has delivered my two favorite traditional games of this generation, and two worlds I absolutely love spending time in. Horizon and Death Stranding are absolutely beautiful, and the HDR is incredible. There were times in Death Stranding cutscence where my Pro was screaming, and the Image and Animation on the screen was damn near tricking my mind into thinking I was watching a live action film. 

If PS4 Pro can showcase this, what are we in store for on PS5? 

You just need to repair them. Grab some Materials and get to zipping.I jumped back to East Coast and Repaired/Upgraded my Structures there at one point. It is very easy to do later in the game, as materials are a lot more plentiful.

The only thing that is stopping me from feeeling great about getting a Platinum is the Legend of Legends Delivery Trophies. I just did performed 20 deliveries with a score of LOL, and I have not recieved either of the trophies. I will have to do a deeper dive tomorrow. Out of time for tonight.

PSN friend requests incoming.  ;)

Love to see people playing the game having the same experience as me. Really a wonderful and unique experience this game has been. Showing the game (chapter 3) to a friend that barely knew anything about the game, and discovering how the game worked, its survival and transversal mechanics, how the social strand system worked, the appearing of the BT's, ....He was so impressed that he bought the game inmediately for himself. It was fascinating to see the reaction.

I think i spent more than 20h in the central region of the game. That addicting loop of...."i just do this and i'm done for today...(10 mins later). Damn, i want to do that too to finally get that.....(1h later)....damn time flies, but now, really this time, just this and i'm done................(2h later) DAMN IT!!!".

I had to force myself to continue the game, move on and go west because i'm really interested in the story too. But yeah, this game has been a revelation for me. I did not expected the gameplay loop to grab me as much as it did. The amount of content you unlock as you progress the game is huge. Even after 20 or 30h you can still discover new gameplay mechanics that make the game interesting. You enjoy the first time you discover a new region, that journey, with all the hazards on the way, and then you enjoy the game for very different reasons once you bring "civilization" to that region and start building, connecting everything....too. It's amazing the sense of accomplishment this game gives to you.

This game is the very definition of Game of the Year. A game that truly innovates, brings something new to the table, makes people talk and think about it for days and weeks, and it's super polished in everything. And i don't know if i would classify this game as "fun", after so many hours played, but it's definitively engaging and i want to play for hours every day until i finish the game. That's the point of a "video-game".

Right now, the game is alrady a top 5 PS4 game for me. We'll see where it ends when i finish it....

I´m really pissed at the amount of annoying repetitive little scenes there are for almost everything you do....delivering your cargo?...scene!...recycling materials and items?...scene!...going to rest in your private room?...here, another scene!...drinking to increase your stamina bar in your private room?...yet another scene!...yes you can skip them but they´re still very annoying, also that little animation every single time the BTs show up...fuck that shit.

Normally when developers make a game of this scale they just play it a lot more safe and do not provide an experience as unique as this is,this is a daring project to develop with this much resources put into the project and it is very rare amongst the AAA branch of games .

I love it and i hope it is succesfull enough to keep them making experiences as this one.

Lol i got 20000 likes in half an hour yesterday just from firstly investing in the most important "structures",it is what i do first before letting others in on it :p(there might be a trophy for this idk)

Yeah see, this kind of development is the one that has a chance of making entirely new genres and if they're arent new genres then they surely bring unique experiences,it is risky and investors of massive publishing companies do not like this.(This really speaks well for Sony with how much freedom they gave him.)

Also something stupid: