In case the title didn't give it away, I am a Solid Kojima fan. Got introduced to the series by MGS4 in my shinning new PS4 wanting an action war game. Grave mistake. But it served to introduced me to that world and still I can say MGS1 is my favourite videogame of all time, or at least it's up there. And of course when first saw the first Death Stranding trailer I was confused yet intrigued for Kojima's new adventure. And like many of you here, I never had a PS4 and it hasn't been until I've acquired a state-of-the-art PC able to run it and the results... well, let's say they're mixed.
While I tried to shy away as hard as I could from spoilers, it was impossible to run away from overall critiques and the divisive feeling the game had on the internet. Sometimes I feel like discourse surrounding gaming has become polarised by nature: a game either is good or bad. It's difficult to articulate why something is in the middle, or disappointing, or misleading. And then we have Death Stranding, like Disco Elysium, a "game" that works better as a form of art than a game.
Ok, for the two of you who hasn't seen anything about the game more than a few trailers, Death Stranding is action-adventure, with elements of stealth, third-person-shooter, survival horror, open world... even racing. However at end of the day this game is a glorified walking simulator. It's Firewatch but stretched from 4 hours to 40 hours.
I'm not going to talk about the story because, first: spoilers; and second: this is easily the most subjective part of the whole package. It's Kojima at its Kojima-est: the character and place names spell their significance and theme, the symbology couldn't be more on the nose and the rule of "show don't tell" its non-existent, not to say that there are parts that have been made unnecessarily complex to inflate his ego. But I liked it. I've always been the quiet lonely kid, with weak but persistent streaks of depression and since the trailers Sam has struck a chord with me.
The problem I have with this game is that, the game is 30-40 hours long, of which like 10 are main plot content and the rest are filler. The first 5 hours are the best world building and the last 5 are the best character building moments I've seen in a long time, but they sandwich hours of long boring fetch quests. Some people say these hours are necessary to get attachment to the world, and I can see that But then I see other 40 hours worth of optional content and even more grinding.
Eventually the game asks you to walk all the way to the beginning, and it would feel more meaningful if I had not spent 60 hours walking back and forth, delivering and endless chain of generic boxes with little to not actual reward. Add the social duty to contribute to building roads and ziplines and it becomes a chore. The first time you have to cross a river or climb a mountain is cool, the 12th time it's boring.
And it reminded me of the MGS games. I love MGS 1-3, tolerate 4 for what it is, Peace Walker is cool, but 5, while the one with the best graphics and mechanics, dissolve it's main plot in a sea of filler content and unnecessary winks to other games. Did Death Stranding need to be an open-world AAA game? Did it need to have Norman Reedus and Mads Mikkelsen? I think that ironically it would've been better with a smaller budget and scale.
tl,dr; If you like Kojima, play Death Stranding. If you like narrative avant-guard walking simulators, play Death Stranding. But FOR THE GOD OF KOJIMA KAMINAN-DESU DON'T PLAY THE OPTIONAL STUFF. SPECIALLY THE DIRECTOR'S CUT CONTENT. The Peter Englert pizza questline is cool. That can stay. It's worth it. BUT IGNORE THE REST.
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