What an experience from start to finish. Honestly, the most disappointing thing about this game is the fact that I can never play it for the first time again. This is already one of my favorite games of all time, despite its clear flaws.

Where to begin -- This feels like the ultimate undertaking from everything that FromSoftware has learned over the years. It feels like a combination of every single game they have released. The world is immense and incredible. After I began playing the game, I found that my favorite way to enjoy it was to carve out hours of a day so that I could sit and do nothing but absorb the game to its fullest.

I will add to this review later, but for now I can say that the biggest thing I was disappointed by was the back-half of the game. It really felt like the designers and developers combined were running out of steam - running out of ideas.

Wow. Capcom has absolutely outdone themselves with this remake. I have to admit, I was a little nervous after the disappointing Resident Evil 3 Remake, but my fears were dispelled very early into the game. I could gush about this game for pages and pages but, to keep things simple, this is the best combat I have felt in a Resident Evil game or in any survival-horror game. It may take a little bit of getting used to, but the fast-paced action that this game brings will constantly be giving you adrenaline rushes during some moments. The spooky atmosphere and grotesque body horror is not sacrificed, however.

This is, quite honestly, one of the best remakes ever made purely from how everything that was a nuisance in the original was clearly taken into consideration. This remake truly feels as if everything was improved or enhanced over the original with minimal cut content.

Death Stranding was a game that I had purchased on release. However, I unfortunately bought in to the "walking simulator" hate crowd and never got further than chapter 3. Over this past summer I decided to pick it up again because I thought that maybe it wasn't as bad as I remember. Boy did my second chance at the game pay off.

The story starts out confusing and convoluted, but if you allow yourself to become lost in the world, lost in what the characters are saying, and lost in the interviews and logs, (which I admit are kind of a lazy way of world-building but at least the writing is well done and captivating) you will find that the game's world unravels in such a well-paced and intriguing way. Not everything about the world gets explained, but that's a good thing as the game gives you enough information to fill in these gaps with your imagination and inference.

Death Stranding has some of the best acting I have ever seen in any video game, hands down. Without any spoilers, Tommie Earl Jenkins' performance of Die-Hardman in the final chapters of the game had me emotionally moved in a way that no other actor could have. It's honestly a shame that he did not receive an award for his performance.

I was very nervous that Kojima was going to make very pro-life allegories with the character of BB or Lou, but I'm pleased to say that that's not the point of the game's story. If anything he shows his stance for the opposite (or at worst, a neutral stance). But like I said, it doesn't seem to be a main point of the story.

The gameplay is where Death Stranding gets a little less divisive. If you play the game for more than a couple hours, it begins to tear down the argument that a lot of people have with their "walking simulator" statements. Traversing the game's world takes a lot more brain power than I would have expected. The majority of my fun comes from planning my course, deciding what equipment I need based on the terrain I'm going to encounter, whether I'm going to have to deal with MULE's, BT's or both, and whether I have to deal with Timefall. The game has a very steady difficulty curve. Eventually, enemies will have guns and will shoot to kill, you'll have to deal with stronger BT's and new terrain such as extreme mountains and heavy snow. However, the equipment you unlock and the structures you will find built by other players makes your journeys much less scary.

My only complaint about the gameplay. Like I said, the equipment you unlock and structures built by other, real, people make the game a lot easier. Almost too easy... An easy solution to this would be to set the game on hard difficulty, but I found that once I had gotten really good at the game even hard difficulty proved too easy once I got used to it. The player structures are a little too abundant as well. I never built a single bridge in my game. This is because every single spot in the world that would be a great location for a bridge already had one built by other people. Every single spot that would be nice to have a generator already has one. You don't really need to build anything outside the occasional time fall shelter. I'd say that those looking for a more difficult, intensive, and strategic experience should play on offline mode. Even though Kojima said himself that he recommends players play online, I personally recommend playing online only for your first playthrough, if even that.

This is one of the most rewarding and complex action/adventure games I have played in a very long time. I understand that this game is not for everyone but that it okay. I appreciate that opinions on Death Stranding are so divisive. Games that try to appeal to the largest audience possible get boring to talk about. I could never put everything I want to say about this game into this little review. This is one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences I have ever had and I can not wait to see what future stories and experiences Kojima pulls from his brain.

I'll be going for a platinum very soon.