Death Stranding: Pretentious and ridiculous, but actually gets challenging the more you progress. I like that since it isn't chiefly focused on combat but rather delivery, you actually have to tactically adjust your equipment and prep for the task at hand. Can be both relaxing and stressful depending on the mission.
Days Gone: Wanted to play something involving a masculine, straight-white male as the lead kicking butt and taking names. There's a huge dearth of these of the AAA variety these days, so this was a nice touch. A gritty post-apoc zombie survival, story-driven action game. It's got a lot of busy-work when it comes to collecting scraps for crafting, but the combat feels decent enough and I like the focus on motorcycle traversal.
Ride 3: Another fun game about motorcycles. I occasionally dip in just to ride some of the more rare motorcycles they have, which is quite extensive. The designs are fantastic and the customization and upgrades available really help give this game a lot of replayability and legs.
Earth Defense Force 4/5.1: Been replaying both of these games off and on. Really love the Fencer for their high-powered weapons. It's one of the only games where the weapon size and impacts really feel heavy and impactful, and seeing bugs get blasted to pieces and buildings crumble in the wake of your massive firepower is really quite something. I love the aesthetic, enemies and missions of EDF 4, but I prefer the weapons and more intuitive upgrades available in EDF 5.1.
Star Citizen: May be in alpha but just unlike anything else out there. I strangely find myself drawn to the delivery missions, as they play out very similar to Death Stranding, where weather, location, time-of-day, or potential random encounters with enemy NPCs or friendly/enemy players can completely change the complexity of the mission. The search and investigation missions are also kind of cool because you never know when crap might hit the fan. I recently had a newbie follow me into an elevator at the hangar one time and he ended up joining me on a few bounty missions for a couple of hours, collecting gear, loot, and making some dosh. The bugs can be annoying but it's a completely different experience to everything else out there when it works.
but actually gets challenging the more you progress
I actually found it the opposite. The first time to any zone when I had to go on foot in unknown terrain was always the hardest. The second time there was always at least some left over player stuff to make things easy. The third time I'd have roads/ziplines/bridges ready and completely trivialize it all. Even more so later in the game with my exo skeletons and weapons, compared to early game where I had to actually stealth and make hard decisions about weight regarding packages vs gear I took.
That's actually my big complaint with the game. The more you play it, the less gameplay you actually get. You have to self impose challenges on yourself beyond just the extra modifiers (which are always so easy you should never skip them) to continue to have that "rugged wrestling with the terrain and nature" feel.
I still love the game, and that late game loop is incredibly relaxing regardless of how OP you become, but outside of anything with the Wind Farm* nothing in the late game holds up difficulty wise compared to the early.
*I heard the DC version added highways through the mountains and even one that reaches to the Wind Farm, which would only exacerbate my issue. Though I can't confirm any of that.
I heard the DC version added highways through the mountains and even one that reaches to the Wind Farm, which would only exacerbate my issue. Though I can't confirm any of that.
Yeah, the DC version does add highways through parts of the mountain, but the mountainous regions are still really hard to get through. Especially the parts off the grid where you can't rely on player structures to help you scale up or down the mountain.
Without giving anything away, the parts where you have to venture through the mountain, risking frostbite (which causes Sam to shiver and makes it difficult to move), and not being able to use vehicles was what really made it hard. I remember spending like an hour or two on just one mission thinking "This is actually kind of challenging" trying not to fall down the mountain or damage the cargo in the process.
You're right that some things get easier with the zip lines and whatnot, but for some missions where you're carrying fragile cargo (or cargo that requires multiple floating carriers) through BT territory and you can't use a vehicle (or doing the pizza delivery missions) it makes it a lot more challenging because of how you have to equip yourself for the terrain and potential challenges.
Especially the parts off the grid where you can't rely on player structures to help you scale up or down the mountain.
Yeah the first time into uncharted territory is always fucking terrifying. Though honestly once I had the right exo suit, and made sure to carry a few extra ladders/ropes, most mountain areas weren't too hard.
Unless the game physics took a shit and suddenly Sam slipped off something he was clearly on and fell way further than he should have due to clipping issues. Honestly the physics seem to lose a lot of their polish in the mountain zone and I noticed far more issues where gravity or friction ceased to function proper.
you can't use a vehicle
You'd be surprised at what you can manage to accomplish with a vehicle, especially in missions/zones where they very clearly intended you to not use one. I've gotten many trucks up those mountains. For as many people who complained about the vehicle physics being horrible (and they are the moment you hit rough terrain), very few of them realized that meant you could learn to abuse those physics back.
The pizza missions are never easier though. I honestly wish there were more of those simply because it did basically remove any options you had and forced you to play it the hard way.
Death Stranding: Pretentious and ridiculous, but actually gets challenging the more you progress. I like that since it isn't chiefly focused on combat but rather delivery, you actually have to tactically adjust your equipment and prep for the task at hand. Can be both relaxing and stressful depending on the mission.
Days Gone: Wanted to play something involving a masculine, straight-white male as the lead kicking butt and taking names. There's a huge dearth of these of the AAA variety these days, so this was a nice touch. A gritty post-apoc zombie survival, story-driven action game. It's got a lot of busy-work when it comes to collecting scraps for crafting, but the combat feels decent enough and I like the focus on motorcycle traversal.
Ride 3: Another fun game about motorcycles. I occasionally dip in just to ride some of the more rare motorcycles they have, which is quite extensive. The designs are fantastic and the customization and upgrades available really help give this game a lot of replayability and legs.
Earth Defense Force 4/5.1: Been replaying both of these games off and on. Really love the Fencer for their high-powered weapons. It's one of the only games where the weapon size and impacts really feel heavy and impactful, and seeing bugs get blasted to pieces and buildings crumble in the wake of your massive firepower is really quite something. I love the aesthetic, enemies and missions of EDF 4, but I prefer the weapons and more intuitive upgrades available in EDF 5.1.
Star Citizen: May be in alpha but just unlike anything else out there. I strangely find myself drawn to the delivery missions, as they play out very similar to Death Stranding, where weather, location, time-of-day, or potential random encounters with enemy NPCs or friendly/enemy players can completely change the complexity of the mission. The search and investigation missions are also kind of cool because you never know when crap might hit the fan. I recently had a newbie follow me into an elevator at the hangar one time and he ended up joining me on a few bounty missions for a couple of hours, collecting gear, loot, and making some dosh. The bugs can be annoying but it's a completely different experience to everything else out there when it works.
I actually found it the opposite. The first time to any zone when I had to go on foot in unknown terrain was always the hardest. The second time there was always at least some left over player stuff to make things easy. The third time I'd have roads/ziplines/bridges ready and completely trivialize it all. Even more so later in the game with my exo skeletons and weapons, compared to early game where I had to actually stealth and make hard decisions about weight regarding packages vs gear I took.
That's actually my big complaint with the game. The more you play it, the less gameplay you actually get. You have to self impose challenges on yourself beyond just the extra modifiers (which are always so easy you should never skip them) to continue to have that "rugged wrestling with the terrain and nature" feel.
I still love the game, and that late game loop is incredibly relaxing regardless of how OP you become, but outside of anything with the Wind Farm* nothing in the late game holds up difficulty wise compared to the early.
*I heard the DC version added highways through the mountains and even one that reaches to the Wind Farm, which would only exacerbate my issue. Though I can't confirm any of that.
Yeah, the DC version does add highways through parts of the mountain, but the mountainous regions are still really hard to get through. Especially the parts off the grid where you can't rely on player structures to help you scale up or down the mountain.
Without giving anything away, the parts where you have to venture through the mountain, risking frostbite (which causes Sam to shiver and makes it difficult to move), and not being able to use vehicles was what really made it hard. I remember spending like an hour or two on just one mission thinking "This is actually kind of challenging" trying not to fall down the mountain or damage the cargo in the process.
You're right that some things get easier with the zip lines and whatnot, but for some missions where you're carrying fragile cargo (or cargo that requires multiple floating carriers) through BT territory and you can't use a vehicle (or doing the pizza delivery missions) it makes it a lot more challenging because of how you have to equip yourself for the terrain and potential challenges.
Yeah the first time into uncharted territory is always fucking terrifying. Though honestly once I had the right exo suit, and made sure to carry a few extra ladders/ropes, most mountain areas weren't too hard.
Unless the game physics took a shit and suddenly Sam slipped off something he was clearly on and fell way further than he should have due to clipping issues. Honestly the physics seem to lose a lot of their polish in the mountain zone and I noticed far more issues where gravity or friction ceased to function proper.
You'd be surprised at what you can manage to accomplish with a vehicle, especially in missions/zones where they very clearly intended you to not use one. I've gotten many trucks up those mountains. For as many people who complained about the vehicle physics being horrible (and they are the moment you hit rough terrain), very few of them realized that meant you could learn to abuse those physics back.
The pizza missions are never easier though. I honestly wish there were more of those simply because it did basically remove any options you had and forced you to play it the hard way.
I’ll stan Death Stranding any time.