In this post I’m talking about Death Stranding 1 please don’t spoil anything from Death Stranding 2

I’ve always been a fan of Hideo Kojima games. I wondered what that man could possibly bring to the table after the MGS series. he experimented with Silent Hills but it didn’t quite pan out, To my disappointment, in 2019 his next video-game would be a PS4 exclusive and I didn’t have one, so much like this community I was patient and waited.

While I was waiting, I remember checking how divisive this game was, a Hideo Kojima game that didn’t crack the 90s on Metacritic. What did the game do that disappointed some people? Well, when I heard the words “Walking Simulator,” I thought, Oh no…

I held that Oh no for years until I finally played it as a free game on Epic Games Store 2 years ago, and that Oh no turned into Oh yes, this is actually good.

Story:

Story-wise, Kojima isn’t known for writing brilliance, not just with women characters. I guess in Metal Gear Solid V I liked him quite a lot he somewhat proved that he could write a gritty story with serious political undertones, until it goes back to fantasy villains. Quiet thrusting her ass at the camera to remind you that you are playing in fact a Hideo Kojima game, Dude has his fetishes as we all do I certainly do (profile says duh), you do, It’s like expecting a Tarantino movie not to have feet in it. I don’t blame the guy.

Kojima has always been portrayed as this larger than life developer, a genius a guy who can’t do no wrong and for a lot of his career we always placed him above a pedestal, people like to point out mistakes and miracles onto one person, however Kojima Productions is a team with other hundred talented developers.

But a new start for Hideo, well the story of Death Stranding is about rebuilding America, and I wish Kojima had left it at that without going into detail, because the cutscenes bore me and some of them didn’t make sense, In the MGS games I was invested with the characters so I didn’t mind long cutscenes, In Death Stranding though I don’t know why he expected us to have the same sort of connection, I personally didn’t care much about what anyone had to say, there were some highlights but not a scene I could go and watch back.

The writing at times was quite laughable specifically the “I’m not that fragile line” and “I’m Mario and you are princess beach” which sounded funny, a lot of dialogue in DS could be attributed as “Characters delivering exposition to you” which in a non gameplay context like if you compare Kojima’s writing to RDR2, Kojima’s mumbo jumbo doesn’t make any sense, I found myself laughing at it than with it. So if I didn’t like the story what did I like about it so much?

Well, Gameplay:

Okay, this is why I loved this game, and this is where the game needed to deliver and deliver it did. The game has an enjoyable gameplay loop, and it’s a really simple loop: here’s a package, deliver it there. How you do it is up to you. Do you want to walk there? Use ladders in neat areas that give other players an advantage? You do you. I’m not going to hold your hand figure it out yourself

My only gripe was that I didn’t understand how many players I was collaborating with. I’d assume there were a lot of players because I would occasionally walk by a ladder that made my distance much easier, and it would have a lot of likes.

But a fair argument would be: well, if you’re trying to skip the game with clever structures that basically skip entire terrains, what’s the point of even going through all the trouble? Well, the game doesn’t force you to take them—whether you decide to is up to you. But what I like about the game is that it’s your basic human instinct that says “I need some help,” because the deliveries feel like a journey and you just can’t wait to finally catch a rest at an outpost. And to me, that’s what mattered, you actually were immersed as if you were Sam all along.

My favorite moment and basically the part that solidified the experience for me was when I was walking down a hill when unexpectedly Low Roar’s I’m Leaving started playing, I literally felt chills and thought, Holy shit the game is absolutely beautiful when it wants to be, I immidiatelly added the song on my playlist and walked to my destination as soon as the song started to fade away.

Are the mechanics perfect? No, obviously there’s some clunky stuff. But the game, for me, delivered on what it set out to do which is a journey.

The destination, though? Was it worth it? Eh. The bosses weren’t all that great they felt needless. I wish Kojima experimented more with the ideas he had rather than just throwing some bosses your way. There was a war section I didn’t like while the setting was cool, it felt like I was playing a Third person shooter when the game tried to have a story beat instead of serving me that gameplay loop which I liked, it failed.

All and all Death Stranding for me was a gameplay marvel that saved the whole game from being disappointing and for free? What a steal, I’ll play Death Stranding 2 someday.

Thanks for the support on my Cyberpunk review I really like posting reviews here :)