My initial hunch, that I ignored, was that Death Stranding was going to be another eye candy game with no replay value. When I saw that Kojima Productions was making the game and Norman Reedus was the main character I was floored with anticipation to think otherwise. When I saw Conan was going to have a smaller cameo I started to get cold feet again because why would the least serious talk show host be in a super serious game? Hours later after playing the game I am absolutely terrified of what the gaming industry could fall prey to, Hollywood writing and production style.
After countless theater like cut-scenes and the complex dialogue, I was asleep at the wheel. I understand that adult reverence for entertainment has more critical acclaim when it intellectually stimulates people via great character development and narrative, but that is only if the game play is FUN as well. If the game mechanics are fundamentally flawed the whole house collapses on a weak foundation. This game is beautiful ascetically and definitely makes a point to appeal to more cerebral people and their own ability to comprehend a massive puzzle of lore and mystery ,but it feels more like a movie. If I want to spend hours comprehending the novelty of a fictional world, I would go to the movie theater and watch a trilogy. Hollywood writers create massive scripts that eventually get cut down to a mere 1-2 hours. This game is like a Hollywood script that was not cut down but extended and dragged out to 9 hours. When Hollywood gets into gaming more and more the scripts will begin to be slotted and focused on more for the actors than it will be for the story and game play. Death stranding was just that, you're more compelled by the acting than the game. The whole gameplay grind is so you can focus on the acting.
The lack of people in the world is covered by the games portrayal of the future internet and augmented realities that will separate us by hologram. The world will try to comfort your suspicions of lack of combat and engagement by having spurts of enemies popping up out of no where. Overall the game is a futuristic postman simulator. You spend more time thinking about the terrain initially and the grind so you can uncover more of the ambiguous story. When you finally achieve high upgrades you obsess over inventory management more then actually fighting a big boss. The first boss fight is underwhelmingly challenging and goes by the faster you can chuck a bunch of grenades. Your more worried about stumbling over things and losing balance to the point that is the only tactic there is. The best games give you CHOICES and different avenues of tactical advantage. Cutting edge games make unlimited amounts of stat choice and character ability intermingle with story line, Red dead Redemption 2, Fallout 4, and The Witcher 3 are perfect examples of this. Death Stranding is not a new genre, because its a lack thereof
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