Phew. Just beat the game. I wasn't too happy with the latter half of the game, was ready to just get it over with after genuinely enjoying the first half of it. The fetch quests became more and more shameless (imo) and there seemed to be nothing but padding during the later portions of the snow level. But the ending puts a lot of it into perspective.
It was supposed to be a teeth-gritting journey after all. It wasn't supposed to be fun. Engaging, maybe? I would say yes. Fun? As in the traditional videogamey way? Not really. We were very much "on the job" with Sam throughout the game. The good and the bad included.
Some parts really tested my patience. Mainly the snow missions and the trek back to the capital were very light on fun or rewards. But again, it was to get you in a depleted mood for when the ending goes down. It retroactively waves a lot of frustration that I had back when I wasn't 100% on whether the gameplay was supposed to be fun on its own. I have a better appreciation of it now.
I don't think I understand the story fully, despite reading all the mails, the interviews, listening to the order briefings, and generally taking my time with the game. After so much existential talk about my beach and your beach, but there's also a main beach, and oh wait, let me invite you into my beach, so we can take a stroll along the beach etc, I was seriously starting to get MGS2'd again. Luckily the ending does an admirable job of getting the main gist across and it made the final scenes really powerful imo.
I liked so many things about the ending. The pacing was a little weird, but I was glued to the screen regardless. I felt for Cliff, and realizing he's Sam's father was pretty crazy. I never felt that endangered when I fought Cliff in 3 different wars, and he seemed within his right when he's calling out for BB when I was playing. The final scenes between Sam and BB were amazing. I was actually driven to tears, which is extremely rare for me. Norman Reedus's acting is honestly the best I've seen in any videogame or movie even for that matter. Nothing comes close imo not even The Last of Us which had phenomenal acting itself. Kojima has set a whole new bar for acting in a videogame and that is of a really honest variety. I felt every word and every expression in Death Stranding and I can't see it topped for a good while by another game. At least not this generation.
Kojima sure delivered the goods with this one and it feels so good to see what Kojima is capable of when he isn't (ironically) dragging baggage from old games around trying to tell new stories with them. Hopefully Death Stranding is a one and done thing and we can see yet another amazing new IP from him. The man is 56 right now and he's only got a handful of productions in him at this point. He should know, of all people, especially with how conscious this game is with death that time is precious and I would like to see him do as many things as possible in the forseeable future, which I have no doubts that he will.
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