The story picks up big time the further along you go.

It’s fun planning and doing a bunch of mini adventures in the form of deliveries

Don’t over think it. The game is beautiful and the gameplay is a mix of relaxing and super tense.

DS is my favorite game.

I think the story, the pacing, the stunning visuals and that haunting soundtrack all combine to create the sense of wonder and immersion. I was the same way playing it thinking I should not be enjoying a walking simulator so damn much.

I just like that it does something different from any other game that I've played, actively trying not to kill people & it's quite zen.. until it's not 😂

For me it was getting to know and ‘build’ the world, there’s just no other game like it where you transform the world to your own needs, specially as you are able to rebuild roads and place ziplines to literally fly across the map.

Also the story is really, really good; I went from being skeptical about it to become one of my most favorite games of all time.

i want to know what drugs they were on when they were making the plot

As a person with Epidermolysis Bullosa, the game allows me to experience what it is like to walk without pain.

Holy crap.. this was my exact thoughts.. I could not understand why i was enjoying it.. the story def pushed me through the game.. BUT it was when I spent a day or two just doing deliveries it made me wonder "why is this fun?" "I don't know but I'm really enjoying this" .. might be a mystery we may never know

Early on for me it was generally the survival mechanics mixed with the movement system. Trying to make sure you have enough items to get from point A to point B but not taking so much it gets in the way of your ability to walk. Basic resource management really.

Things change though the deeper you get into the game. It becomes less about survival and walking and more about building infrastructure and gadgets. You get a lot of tools to interact with the world and it's really engaging setting up entire networks of stuff to make moving through the world easier.

For me it was simple: no video game has ever captured the mechanical joy of running down a hill as well as Death Stranding. I could list a bunch of other reasons I enjoyed it but when I think back to my time with the game, it all comes back to running down hills.

I spent all my time building the road so I could drive everywhere.

Do you ever get that feeling in an open world game where you're not really doing anything important, you just see something in the distance and think "Huh, what's that? Lemme check that out"? That's Death Stranding. So for people who enjoy that kind of stuff, this game is great. I enjoyed it a lot.

It really shouldn't be a mystery at all and it's a real bummer it is.

Super Mario Bros is also an entire franchise built off the foundation of "get from A to B and don't die to the obstacles along the way".

But we never got people confused asking "what? All you do is run to the right and jump on turtles? How is that supposed to be fun lmao"

Death Stranding is essentially just that idea abstracted out into a 3rd person action adventure game, and with an emphasis on inventory management/tactical problem solving with equipment.

I don't know why, but it seems like a new genre of game.

I'm playing it right now, just started chapter five. The story really picks up and becomes a bit more coherent as the game progresses. Also new resources, structures, tools etc become available that really pick up the pace of the game.

a truly beautiful ending. brought tears to my eyes. I'm so excited for the sequel!

It’s almost like the game is a work of philosophy and existentialism. Your outlook on life will change when you finish it

It's not, that's why I quit after a handful of hours.

Game can be great for a lot of reasons. Sometimes simple repetitive gameplay is zen and nice to relax to, sometimes you want to get a glimpse into a character's world, and sometimes immersing yourself in a unique game environment is a reward in it's own.

Personally I just love when people get weird with the stuff they make and just create things purely out of their own mind. Directors like David Lynch and Panos Cosmatos come to mind. It always just feels wholly unique in a way that nothing else does, and I wish more studios would give people like that real budgets to make more cool stuff we've never seen/played before.

I played it during the beginning of the pandemic, so it hit differently for me, especially when there were shortages of everything. (Good thing those days are over, right? /s)

While you might see the deliveries as just a bunch of random boxes, I saw in my head Sam Porter Bridges delivering life-saving medicine and technology, food, books, movies, music, etc. that was incredibly needed by those poor people who would have to live their entire lives underground in the bunkers. I tried to imaging how excited the recipients of those deliveries would be when Sam arrived.

I feel like I gained such an incredible appreciation for the workers in logistics and delivery in the real world, and the undoubtedly lonely and isolated (and sometimes dangerous) lives they lead, just to get me my package.

The satisfaction of completing a huge delivery or multiple in a row is what keeps me coming back. The story/themes are also very impactful to me as someone who suffers from depression and has a tendency to self isolate. Get into chapter 4 before you really get critical. The Capitol Knot City area really drags, but once it opens up and you get more gear the fun really amps up.

Most of what makes it compelling is found in many other games, it's just slightly recontextualized in DS. Traversal, inventory management, stealth, combat. It's a perfectly engaging gameplay loop.

Delivering stuff is fun.

I think it's probably the small bursts of reward in the form of the "delivery completed!" screens. Personally, I tried it twice. The first time I gave up at the end of ep2, the second time ep7-ish I think. I really liked the game engine and the controls were great. But unlike MGSV (which I really enjoyed except for the fact it was essentially unfinished), I found myself mildly irritated by the constant deliveries, and found the enemies more just an annoyance than a threat. The story was also just a bit weird/thin for me (and I liked the MGS story, more or less).

The reason the game is keeping you engaged is due to the direction of the game. Given it's a new game and some of the information you've read about it has been intriguing, this will play its part as part of your enjoyment.

Everything is always fun when it's new.

This will change in time, and whether the game will remain enjoyable is entirely up to you.

There are too many factors to list as why a game is no longer enjoyable, but this sort of bends itself to the same question of "why is it enjoyable to me?" Only you can answer that.

To emphasize this a bit more, I'm currently playing No Man's Sky. Talk about a game with a polarizing launch (pun intended!), this game has "come a long way" since it released.

I wasn't there when it released, so I have nothing to compare it to, but one thing I can say is it's hitting a breaking point with me.

There is literally nothing to do in this game which isn't tied to some ridiculous grinding or "fetch, kill, photograph, or steal from it" quest and I'm baffled as to how anyone says this game is good.

I always give a game 40 hours of my time. If I don't feel satisfied after this, I'm out, but this game may not make it this far because the interactions of what I'm supposed to do aren't aligning with what I'm expecting to do.

Someone compared this to a Mario game then lamented "what's the difference?" There's a tremendous difference because the Mario game involves skill, quick knowledge of the layout to take advantage of it, and there are secrets to be found along the way. The expectation isn't just to get to the other side, it's to do it without taking damage and obtaining the best reward for trying.

DS and NMS have this infuriating "We're doing things differently, so bear with us" mechanic in which they barely hold your hand, throw you into a world, then expect to come out better for it.

It's my belief why these games come off as polarizing because they're both changing what we typically expect, but don't seem to be doing a good job of entertaining people.

On the flip side, people are so enthralled with the change, they're finding a new way to enjoy games.

Neither opinion is wrong, but only the person playing (spoilers won't change this, by the way) can determine if the game is worth their time.

For me it was the satisfaction of traveling across this difficult terrain trying to deliver all these important items. The story also picked up the more you played. But I actually loved the delivery aspect to be honest...

Nothing, lmao.