Its easy to be cynical of just about every aspect DEATH STRANDING has on offer, but against all odds it is an extremely charming, emotional, and satisfying game.
At some point it is tempting to ask "Why is this not a movie?", or to reduce it to a "walking simulator" - Only fair considering the sheer magnitude of cutscenes on offer, and the gameplay is quite literally walking, but DEATH STRANDING as a whole has so many quirks and habits in stylization and storytelling that make it something you could not experience in any other medium, and something not experienced before in video games.
The level of detail, sense of scale, amount of self-aware charm and absurdity elevate DEATH STRANDING from a generic open world title to something that oozes uniquity. It can be frustrating, demanding, confusing, or just straight up goofy, but not once did it bore me. Likewise it can be meditative, immersive, intimate, impressive, and genuinely hilarious.
The social collaboration aspect of the structure building is immensely satisfying and relieving, and the strategic planning for each other-wise-would-be-dull fetch quest is stimulating. The grand plot of the game is nonsense in spite of every detail being over-explained to exhaustion, but the performance of the cast and exceptional direction keep me invested anyway, and often leads to genuinely emotional moments that wow, even if they can be undercut by relentless exposition mere seconds later.
The product placements (There's more than one) should be an artistic compromise, and I don't feel its wrong to criticize those aspects, but something about the sheer absurdity of them miraculously sells me on the tone of the world and its storytelling just a little bit more.
I find it likely I could read just about any criticism of DEATH STRANDING, understand it, probably agree with it, and still somehow love the game for it:
The dialogue is corny, the game is overlong and ends about 15 times, the combat is primitive, off-road vehicle handling is atrocious, the best structures are the ones that circumvent the main gameplay, The game is endless "Go From Point A to Point B" bookended by hours of cutscenes, most of the boss fights aren't great, etc., etc.
But at the end of the day, the only disdain I have towards the game without an asterisk of some kind is Troy Baker's gaudy and unlikeable-in-every-scene Higgs.
DEATH STRANDING is the first Hideo Kojima game I've experienced and I'm only looking forward to more.
DEATH STRANDING is entirely overconfident in itself to a degree that is almost impossible for me to not admire. If nothing else, it is the most unique game that I've had the pleasure of playing.
At some point it is tempting to ask "Why is this not a movie?", or to reduce it to a "walking simulator" - Only fair considering the sheer magnitude of cutscenes on offer, and the gameplay is quite literally walking, but DEATH STRANDING as a whole has so many quirks and habits in stylization and storytelling that make it something you could not experience in any other medium, and something not experienced before in video games.
The level of detail, sense of scale, amount of self-aware charm and absurdity elevate DEATH STRANDING from a generic open world title to something that oozes uniquity. It can be frustrating, demanding, confusing, or just straight up goofy, but not once did it bore me. Likewise it can be meditative, immersive, intimate, impressive, and genuinely hilarious.
The social collaboration aspect of the structure building is immensely satisfying and relieving, and the strategic planning for each other-wise-would-be-dull fetch quest is stimulating. The grand plot of the game is nonsense in spite of every detail being over-explained to exhaustion, but the performance of the cast and exceptional direction keep me invested anyway, and often leads to genuinely emotional moments that wow, even if they can be undercut by relentless exposition mere seconds later.
The product placements (There's more than one) should be an artistic compromise, and I don't feel its wrong to criticize those aspects, but something about the sheer absurdity of them miraculously sells me on the tone of the world and its storytelling just a little bit more.
I find it likely I could read just about any criticism of DEATH STRANDING, understand it, probably agree with it, and still somehow love the game for it:
The dialogue is corny, the game is overlong and ends about 15 times, the combat is primitive, off-road vehicle handling is atrocious, the best structures are the ones that circumvent the main gameplay, The game is endless "Go From Point A to Point B" bookended by hours of cutscenes, most of the boss fights aren't great, etc., etc.
But at the end of the day, the only disdain I have towards the game without an asterisk of some kind is Troy Baker's gaudy and unlikeable-in-every-scene Higgs.
DEATH STRANDING is the first Hideo Kojima game I've experienced and I'm only looking forward to more.
DEATH STRANDING is entirely overconfident in itself to a degree that is almost impossible for me to not admire. If nothing else, it is the most unique game that I've had the pleasure of playing.