[Aptorian]

Bachelor King, on 16 January 2020 - 10:33 PM, said:

Got 2 sections of highway built myself and working on another one now that seems to thankfully have had other people putting some material in. It’s the ceramic man it’s a bitch. Wind up losing a lot to as it doesn’t seem to balance out with 50 minimum but 40 then 80 etc instead. Anyway I’m kinda locked in from my above post so I can’t remember spend much fuck around time with it like normal.

You can get loads of Ceramics by raiding the mule camps. I'm almost down to South Knot city with the road.

[Traveller]

Guess what I just got Bk

[Traveller]

My god how much intro?

Death Yawning so far.

[Traveller]

I think it's just that I wanted to play and it wouldn't let me. Hideo Kajima really likes to see his name up a lot.

The world is weird - walking everywhere when there are cars parked all over the place.

I have zero idea what's going on story wise - just that there's a lot of it. I just wanted to skip it.

I had to carry a body over a hill and it fell in a stream and floated away and I had to chase it.

Why is everybody crying? And gazing tearfully at things?

Wtf with the music? It won't even let me turn it off, it's kind of invasive.

So I got up to the point where I now have a pink baby Yoda in a tub and I have to go and deliver something.

I definitely need to have another go later to give it a chance. It's just a very conflicting vibe with KC:D which I've been immersed in and love. All this weird sky stuff and black goo and invisible creatures and goddamn freaky babies in jars did not immediately grab me as an enjoyable experience.

Also staggering along over rocks trying not to fall down. That's also no fun in RL.

I guess I was also fairly convinced I was getting Fallen Order which hasn't helped.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 30 January 2020 - 04:10 PM

[Traveller]

I like the topography. The landscape does look incredible. Someone had kindly left a few ropes and bridges across streams - I liked the rock scaling with the rope.

Also I need to learn how to plot the route properly - the buttons and text are tiny and I can't always figure out which button I'm supposed to hit.

Also is the debriefing important? If you get an S rating what do you get thats better than getting a B, for example?

It's certainly piqued my curiosity, despite it being initially off-putting.

[Traveller]

I'll put it on again later. Won't even ask how shitting and showering gets you grenades.

What's BT stand for anyway? Did I miss that?

[Traveller]

Any starting out tips?

[Traveller]

Hmm just lost a couple of hours easy.

Got a few new locations, plus took a trip back as I found a load of stuff that was meant for knot city so I retraced steps to deliver - got some good feedback from that which made it worth it.

Not sure how to avoid rain damage when it won't stop goddamn raining - waiting it out in a cave doesn't seem effective.

The room scenes are funny, like how you have a shower and get out still covered in blood; and how sam lays down on that flat bed without a pillow and cuffs himself to a rail - why?! Like if you're going to include a whole shower sequence why doesn't he get clean!

But I get it, it's like a puzzle where you join stuff up but on a massive scale and you have to hike there instead of just sliding blocks or something.

The connection thing is the key - being online and being connected is now more of a priority to people than anything else, so that relief and gratitude of those being out back on the network is a real thing now.

The woman in the red dress reminds me of BG.

[Traveller]

Battlestar Galactica. Just her general look and the way she just appears, talks and disappears.

So.. you're delivering nukes.. and pizza! And what, you can link up in-game? Is that like in a subtle way like DS, where you can read signs and use bridges and stuff, or can you exchange equipment?

The tiny text and hints are the only thing bugging me now. When it says 'to do this, press * and *' I have to get up and get closer because they put the square or circle or whatever in a small white circle so it all looks the same from a couple of metres away. The map too - the map zooms nicely but the accompanying text is too small to read.

It's weird but it's definitely drawing me in. There's something about it that makes it new and different. Like an Indie game concept wrapped in AAA.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 31 January 2020 - 06:51 AM

[Aptorian]

BT stands for Beached Things. As in things, probably ghost people, that are coming in to our world because of the Death Stranding, which hasn't been explained yet as of Chapter 5 but I think we did some kind of science thingy and discovered that we could link up to some kind of beach in the death dimension and then things got screwy. Maybe.

BBs are Bridge Babies, who, I think, are linked to their dead mothers, maybe??? Which enables them to see the dead because their parent is on the other side? MAYBE?!? Maybe they're undead babies.

The reason why your poop and blood works on the BTs is because your blood is toxic to them.

You also seem to have some kind of skin/genetic condition that makes physical contact painful to you. Which means Sam shuns intimacy in a lot of ways. There's probably also some meaning then to Sam being a porter since he can't connect with people emotionally but he can connect other people. Or some shit.

Like BK says you can click start and skip on a lot of the repeat cut scenes.

You can share thing between players. You do it through the shared storage solutions. Lockers built in the field or at the bases/shelters/cities you visit. Also you share buildings and vehicles, so it's cool to build bridges for other people, leave ladders in strategic places, drop your motorcycle in hard to reach places, etc.

I'll say one thing. Unlike BK, I think most of the story and character interaction in this game is a big miss. It's poorly written and poorly acted and makes little sense. But it sure is weird and cool in places.

[Traveller]

Thanks for the info.

I found the intro off-putting. I get the impression it's aiming to be complex and highbrow and emotional, but it just came over as self indulgent and long winded and made me hate it before I'd even started to play the game.

Now I'm actually playing it, the shorter cut scenes aren't so grating, and I'm starting to listen to it more as it's becoming interesting as more information is leaked in. I could have done without that whole intro and just had all the weird shit explained as you play.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 31 January 2020 - 08:11 AM

[Aptorian]

As you make "friends" or gain reputation as a good porter, you'll get a ton of emails that give your more insight into the lore.

[Traveller]

I'll check it out later!

Was probably retracing steps to pick up all the lost packages I couldn't carry on my first trip. Damn but next time I descend a mossy cliffside I'm going to think more about the return trip.

Got a bike charged up, but it's not really the terrain for it, I'll def give it a try though. I think I'm going to head back the way I came and build a few bridges on the way.

While trying to climb a difficult slope while overencumbered, I was thinking who the hell would make a game out of such a physically draining trial? But I was glad they did. Walking in the door with a load of undamaged stuff is quite a reward.

The BTs appearing remind me of the enderman in Minecraft.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 01 February 2020 - 08:21 AM

[Aptorian]

The game is definitely centered around the journeys and discoveries.

For what it's worth I highly recommend making a straight line through to chapter 3 where the game really opens up and you get some serious upgrades that make the opening area a breeze.

[Traveller]

It's incredible how they've made the landscape itself the main focus of the game. And without too many other things in it to distract, it narrows the focus down to individual steps and balance; which is really really close to what it's like hiking, especially with the wind and rain added in. I realised I was getting tired at one point and stopped for a sleep - and he just settled down against his packages for a rest.

The game physics are really impressive.

[Aptorian]

I'm cheating and playing on easy because it supposedly makes the balancing easier. Also makes avoiding or murdering the BTs easier I suspect.

[Traveller]

That was a close one... nearly got hauled down. Got black hand prints all over the cargo now though.

[Traveller]

I take it you're pretty fucked if you get dragged to black SeaWorld.

I reloaded after that happened, just getting used to grenades and it lost all my packages. The grenades didn't do much to the dolpinsquid anyway.

[Traveller]

Dont know, I've only used the blood-made ones which take out BTs in one hit.

Got caught by the black sludge corpses halfway through a long trip, but managed to shake them. Calmed down BB after, but I'd lost my repair spray!

Fortunately got in with zero damage somehow and an S rating.

Great sweeping green vistas, the distance here seems real, especially when its measured by every step.

Had to get closer to screen to link controller; theres so much more detail on the maps and icons I've been missing - I was right though, that text is tiny and unreadable from where I usually play.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 01 February 2020 - 11:37 PM

[Aptorian]

Oh dear. I'd been postponing going to the snowy mountain till I finished the highway to South Knot City. I start the trip and what do I find? More road pavers. Here I go again, robbing the mules for their ressources.