Recent reviews by Eternal Eclipse

Forced myself through it due to all the praise. definitely not the type of game I normally play, very slow burn and def wasn't "fun", but the writing was way better than most games. The characters and world building will stick with me for a long time. Cool ideas abound but i wish the experience was a bit more concise.

Okay as for real criticisms, I've got this:

Most of the existentialist themes give way to melodrama between cardboard characters you don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about.
The sheer repetition of "machines emulate human behavior > character says 'this is just random they're not emulating human behavior'" is frustrating.

If you get good chips setup properly and spam and the reversal button you win. You have to spam because you cannot see ♥♥♥♥ most of the time.

• are you a coomer?
  
• are you a massive weeb?
  
• do you want to experience like 15 hours of "waah this world is so sad I have nothing to live for :(" type dialogue

If you answered yes to all of those then yeah, go for it.

ONI
THE GOAT OF IDLE GAMES DOES IT AGAIN

i don't even wear this 100% completion like a badge of honor, its just a cascade of suffering.

>get stuck in game with nowhere to go
>recognize that this is due to poor level design
>immediately uninstall the game

The lack of a create a class system and weapons skins ruined it for me. There's all that gold and treasures, but no cosmetics shop? How fun is that?

I give dusk a 0/10

Its a good game but being forced to do very specific things in very specific ways doesn't suddenly become fun just because you're doing it at high speeds. This game is baby's first flow state.

Its good game
Good atmosphere
Good music
Good dialogue
Good aesthetics

It's a great, beautiful, comfy yet exciting game.

The first 20% is slow comfy hiking simulator, and after that it becomes something I don't see many people define it as; a city building sim-like. The emphasis shifts to making as efficient a network of systems as possible, constructing the best highways, safehouses, bridges, timefall shelters, ziplines etc. to ensure you're basically sanic speed delivery boy.
This isn't "skipping gameplay" because you still make lonely treks when going to a new area, and building systems that flow like a well oiled machine IS gameplay. It's a good gameplay loop because efficiency is addictive; just like when you go from a dirt house to a self-sustaining resourceful town in a game like say Minecraft.

The game is very atmospheric, and although the dialogue is super cheesy, I can forgive that because it kinda works and the setting and world is still uncanny and intriguing.

Also the music is used to great effect.
https://youtu.be/SBwoMJNxiFo

There's also the fact lorewise that there's other deliverymen out there in the field working and building ♥♥♥♥, which is why you see other players vehicles, buildings, abandoned packages, roads etc.
Honestly for all the meme hate Kojima got for "Strand Genre", I think he really nailed it with this idea because that pretty much is seeing the strands of other players' journeys.

It's his way of mocking us and telling us to stop sitting on our asses and go out and find our purpose in life, not through likes and social media but through actually being out there, in the flesh person to person. This is why the game isolates us from the characters with holograms.

I think games like Death Stranding are good for the industry. I hope more devs can take a big budget and do whatever THEY want with it, without worrying about who the game might appeal to or chasing trends. It gives games more soul.
You don't have to love the game, but you're a zero IQ brainlet if you don't at least respect its spirit.

Death Stranding was a good game. It's a 7/10 on my scale but I rate most games 5 or below.

Honestly I'm 30 hours in and I don't know what the ♥♥♥♥ am doing but its pretty fun.