I was surprised to learn Death Stranding sold 5 million copies and I can see how Kojima got a green light for a sequel but I feel as if the game wasn't liked very much. Personally I love the game but I was wondering what is the general sentiment. 

The game has a completion rate of just 22% on PS4, well under the average 30-35% but then sales for the PC version were strong and the PS5, people seem to have double dipped. I have to wonder who the sequel is for and will it sell close to 5 million a second time around. 

Are you excited for the sequel? What do you think it'll do in terms of sales? 

I didn't play it for two reasons. The entire concept seems tedious and just not fun. And I am not a Kojima fan, which I know is blasphemy, but great cinematics with poor gameplay.

Nah, nah. It is tedious indeed but to say it's no fun is incorrect. It really is a ball of fun in a meditative serene but yet satisfying and dopamine heavy fun. I went in for the story but stayed for the enjoyable and unique game loop which I was expecting to be a path to the next story beat. Aye, the story is good too but it's the core game that makes it shine and it's really unexplainable why it is so satisfying delivering packages where you have to manage how you walk. It doesn't work on paper but damn, it hooks you. 

I didn't like it the first time around, give it a second try with a lot more patience/just short gameplay sessions and it was good. Not mindblowing, but pretty good.

I love Death Stranding.

Amazing landscapes to explore and very fun gameplay mechanics. I've always loved 'Tycoon' games and this feels like setting up a delivery network, building roads, transport hubs, transport lines, getting more efficient all the time. Steering convoys through difficult terrain which gave me Spintires / Mudrunner vibes.

All with amazing music and visuals.



I played it twice from start to finish, first off-line, then on-line.

Then kept going to maximize all deliveries.

Best was exploring chapter 3 before taking on any missions.

A 98km survival trek exploring the map while wondering what role everything along the way would play.



Death Stranding still has the best developed game play map with chapter 3. Mountains that feel real.

I didn't spend much time in the more traditional fighting bits between the chapters. Actually I set the difficulty to Easy for those to get them out of the way and back to the main gameplay loop. I enjoy fighting the least, Death stranding had the perfect balance for me between exploration, travel and a little combat. (for the main gameplay)

Exactly, it feels like you're building something significant in the games world but what gets ya hooked is taking a route once and then optimising that route to make it easier for future deliveries. It's the perfect game to platinum, has one of the most fun plats out there that really makes you delve into every aspect of the game. I had so much fun making zipping routes. Particularly this one from one side of the map to the another which was a huge trek on foot. 

Like hours to trek it first and then you set this up and make it in 6 minutes, it's so odd how such a tedious and boring looking task like simply using the zip lines themselves can be so much fun cause you built them yourself and became a psuedo cartographer analyzing the terrain and optimizing placment. T'was a dopamine inducing loop. 

Indeed. In my first play through (off-line) I spend many hours optimizing my zip line network. As you can see in the completion stats screenshot, left side.

Unlocking the maximum number of towers and then placing them in the most efficient way at max distance to quickly get anywhere on the map. And threading them through interesting places like around the Old Volcano Observatory


At the one minute mark in in the video. That area deserved more use in the game.


The most challenging (for me) timed delivery. It was ton of fun to figure out the most optimal route to get the last legendary rank.




Overall the game really gave you the feel of rebuilding the world. Much more so than TotK manages since you make permanent and real changes to the infrastructure in Death Stranding.

And yep, big dopamine rush to deliver a ton of orders at the same time after figuring out what to combine while using the way stations to temporarily store items for further mass deliveries. Best 'Tycoon' game since Transport Tycoon :)

Did you platinum it? You have to get 20 legend of legend premium deliveries. Really takes all the use of a proper network to accomplish and because of the lack of bandwidth for structures it forces you to make your own zip lines be attached to other zip lines from online players. Makes the game even more enjoyable and there is a feeling of community even though you never see another soul.

Yeah, I enjoyed it. Different experience for sure.

Didnt love it, but thats the closest I can vote for in the poll.

Sure did

I didn't stop there though. I got all Legend of Legend premium deliveries. One of the few games I fully completed. I printed out a list of all deliveries to figure out which ones I was still missing since some only show up under specific circumstances.

Full stats after I was done with the game




Not sure now if the 496 vs 497 was a glitch or if I'm still missing one lol.

This was my network from my off-line play-through. On-line you can indeed make a bigger network with other people's towers, yet off-line you still get enough towers to fully cover the map and be able to get everywhere quickly combined with the roads.