Monday, January 8, 2018

Death Stranding--Masterpiece? (Monday Musings 26)

Why Kojima's Death Stranding Will Be A Masterpiece

Given the cache and celebrity status of Kojima amongst us gamers, there's so much hype surrounding his upcoming game, Death Stranding. Although we're only privy to vague, but brilliant cinematic trailers, we haven't seen gameplay, so how do we know this game is going to be a piece de resistance?

Despite gameplay being the most important component of a video game, I feel that Kojima's next oeuvre will not just be a masterpiece but revolutionary, perhaps in character development and story-telling. For instance, Metal Gear Solid was revolutionary in breaking the 4th wall. The section of the game when I had to switch the controller to a different port to "Psyche out" Psycho Mantis was quite startling and unexpected, not to mention the well-characterized main bosses. I can't remember any of the bosses of Metal Gear Solid 2, whereas the bosses in the first one are unforgettable.

I feel that if Guillermo Del Toro is given full reign to direct the game, this will push Death Stranding over the edge of masterpiece, just from the story telling, character development, imagery and spiritual truths that Del Toro's films express. So even if the gameplay isn't compelling, Del Toro's direction is so brilliant that gameplay becomes irrelevant. No words can express the emotional impact and truths of Del Toro's The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth, so it's best to watch the films.

I feel that Kojima will put aside his ego, and let Del Toro direct the entirety of the game. The way Konami treated Kojima, not even giving him credit in-game or access to the game engine he created, is so appalling, immature and unprofessional (and these are understatements), that I think Kojima will give full reign to Del Toro to prove himself to Konami that they made a huge mistake by treating him so unjustly. Kojima recognizes that Del Toro is not only a professional director, but a master, so the first step in making such a masterpiece is giving Del Toro full direction. Who wouldn't let a master like Del Toro direct?
  
Another positive sign is that roadblocks will be removed. The obstacle being removed is having a great publisher backing you, as opposed to a stingy, grasping one that is Konami. Sony mentioned in so many interviews that they're allowing Kojima to do whatever he wants. Knowing all of this, I wasn't surprised when Sony was very pleased as to the progress being made with this hyperbole! It's clear that Kojima wants to snub Konami, and this is one of the best ways possible, as publishers almost always feel that the developers are "too slow".

Another stumbling block being removed is the game engine. Instead of having to build a game engine from scratch like Metal Gear Solid V, that eats away so much development time, Kojima will be using Guerrilla Games's Decima Engine, which powered Horizon: Zero Dawn. I'm sure Kojima will continue to perfect the Decima Engine, but at least he doesn't have to build from the ground up. Guerrilla Games treated Kojima with so much respect, giving him the entire engine with no strings attached, that I think Kojima will also do right by creating a masterpiece that will further showcase the power of the Decima Engine.

Further, Kojima can use that extra development time, actually developing the game.

I know the major objection is that we haven't seen the gameplay, but there are some games where gameplay isn't so important. I feel that The Last of Us is a masterpiece, even though the gameplay wasn't even fun to me. I rushed through the gameplay as quickly as possible only because I wanted to see what would happen to Joel and Ellie since I cared so much about them.  The game has brought so many powerful emotions because of the story and character development, that these aspects lifted The Last of Us to masterpiece status. Here's one of many examples of emotional impact, spoilers below.


 
So I'm happy to see that Death Stranding is moving along quite nicely, and with Del Toro as a director, this will be a masterpiece.

What are your thoughts on Death Stranding

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4 comments:

  1. Allow me to play Devil's Advocate here. I have faith that Kojima will do right by Death Stranding, it will be good, he's an experienced dev who more than knows what he's doing. However it's important to remember that even great artists make mistakes. Whilst this is fantastic for developers to be able to recognise these things, and especially learn from them, its difficult to do so until you can look back at your footsteps. Kojima is great now because he already has made mistakes, however that doesn't make him infallible, and we will have to see first hand how the game is before making any judgments. Same goes for Guillermo Del Toro, he too makes mistakes in his films, questionable decisions, things he could've done better. He isn't above scrutiny by virtue of name, and until we get more media on the game, it's impossible to jump to that conclusion without a little fantasising.

    I've mentioned this before, but menrioning technical information, the decima engine was nothing special. It was good, does the job fine, and I'll give credit where it's due the lighting in it is pretty terrific, and will be important when making Death Stranding. However everything else we seen from it was very very average. You could've used aby other engine, Unity, Unreal, Crytek, what have you, and still had the same effects. I'd actually argue it could've looked a hell of a lot better with more particle effects used, more instances of PhysX used such as plants parting under Aloy's step, etc, however I'm willing to cut it a little slack because of the platform it released for.

    Finally, you mention The Last of Us not being particularly focused on gameplay, however this could not be further from the truth, you ha to remember that sequence where you're just walking through an empty part of town, talking to Ellie, no need for a gun, etc, that's still very much gameplay. I had the liberty of speaking to one of the devs for The Last of Us a few years back, and we talked about a technique he absolutely adores from it, and used with near reckless abandon, vignettes. They didn't just stop gameplay for these little snippets for story, either through cutscenes, lore text, etc. They cornered off a stage for you to witness a story take place. It was imperative you still had control of Joel during this time, this is a game after all, however this toll still offered them full creative freedom as a cutscene would. Whilst it is an older game, and you may struggle with shooters, I recommebd playing and analysing the opening 5 minutes of Half Life 2, and take in all the details. That game, especially at the beginning, was great for vignettes.

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    1. I didn't think about moving characters and interacting as gameplay, but it clearly is, perhaps I should specify the combat gameplay mechanics of TLOU not being fun for me,rather the story, characters, relationships, push TLOU to masterpiece status.

      Indeed, this is all conjecture, but I have a strong feeling that with Kojima being slapped in the face, you kind of want revenge against the company that treated you like garbage, and of course, the best way to do that is to put out your best work. It'll be commercially successful on name recognition alone for sure, but if it's also beloved by gamers, it'll be a big fuck you (pardon my language) to Konami.

      Decima does need work in particle effects and environmental interactivity, which I'm sure they're working and improving upon, as this is their first open world effort (impressive is an understatement), and Guerrilla Games are perfectionists. Fans complain about NG+, so guess what, they quickly came out with NG+, etc.

      That being said, gameplay here is king. I don't really care about grass parting, when I have Thunderjaw breathing down my neck, and the immaculate ranged combat is at the level of Dark Souls melee combat, and this is in an open world game! I actually look forward to fighting longlegs (those are my favorite) because of the precise combat. I know PC gamers scoff at 30FPS, but b/c it's so steady, it feels like 60fps, so Aloy moves like a dream and fun to maneuver around.

      So don't be surprised to see more environmental interactivity in both Death Stranding, and the upcoming HZD 2 Cheesus!

      Further, Kojima is working and contributing to the Decima engine, so it will be refined further in Death Stranding.

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    2. I wholeheartedly agree (mostly) gameplay is vastly more important than graphics, and Horizon Zero Dawn did that really well. It reminded me of Dragons Dogma, only a bit more well polished (and well, robot dino's). It's just that really doesn't have much to do with the engine, rather just the game being genuinly good, well programmed, well modeled and optimised. I'm gonna cut you off on that last one though, 30 doesn't feel like 60, no matter how stable or what have you it is, the truth of the matter is just 30 FPS doesn't feel all that bad. Unless it starts in 60 and drops to 30, you don't notice it, so it's fine. 60 FPS is better, 144 FPS is better than that, but it's fine at 30, especially if you aren't used to higher than that. It only starts becoming a big deal, if you get so good at a game, that your equipment is the only thing holding you back, which for 99.9% of the population, aint happening.

      I have high hopes for the game, I think it's going to be amazing given the talent already enlisted the trailer we have seen, however it is important not to jump the gun and review the game for what it is, rather than who is leading it.

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    3. yes 60 does feel smoother, I can tell when I played DS1 on console versus PC with DS fix, where the framrate is mostly 60 fps! that's interesting, perhaps the Decima engine is optimized just for the PS4, which makes it easier to optimize and program? I read about the language, and it's such that even graphic artists can code b/c it's pictorial based.

      That's so true, there's so much hype around Death Stranding, so here's hoping the game can match the hype!

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