Yesterday, I finally beat Death Stranding and I just wanted to put together some thoughts on the game and my experience with it. I first began the game when it came out and quickly bounced off of it. I think being at the peak of COVID, the tone of the game felt maybe a little too close to what was going on in the world outside. About a month ago, I restarted the game on a whim because the DS2 trailer looked pretty bonkers.
Here are some of my thoughts about my time with the game.
Overall:
I found the experience to be a mixed bag. The game took about 15 hours to really click with me, but once it clicked, I was ready to see the game through to the end. I hit the credits last night and came away feeling slightly underwhelmed. There are aspects of the game that I like and aspects that I really, really didn't connect with. There were moments where I found myself enjoying the game, and moments when I absolutely loathed it (Oh, look my van is just spinning out or getting stuck on a rock for the 100th time). I wish the story of the game was presented in a more consistent manner, because what is there has the potential to be interesting but just feels underbaked. After completing the game, I had to go and read up on what I missed/went over my head, and the complete package of the story honestly sounds great but it's just not presented in that way within the game that's in an effective manner.
However, After re-watching the DS2 Trailer, I am honestly very excited and hopeful that they can take the common criticisms that the first game received, fix that up and ratchet the next game up to 11. Already, based on what that 10 minute trailer showed, it looks like it's already going to be a much more wild and emotional ride than the first game and I am here for it.
If I had to give the game a rating, I would say it's a solid 7/10. I'm honestly quite glad I saw the game through to the end, but it probably falls on the lower end of Kojima games for me. I'm hopeful for the future of the series and think that there's so much potential here that can be fully realized now that they've laid the framework of the game and can work the kinks out.
Pros:
Moments of Zen: Man, there are moments in this game where everything clicks into place, and it just feels good going from one location to the next, ranking up your reputation with them and unlocking equipment. Prior to heading into the mountains, I got in this zone of maxing out all of the different places just to see what I would get. Most of the time, they reward you with meaningful upgrades that make traveling easier. It can be a satisfying loop.
Style and Presentation: This game has a style to it that only Kojima could pull off. The world, the setting, the technology -- it's all very interesting and very cool to look at. Kojima's presentation still is second to none. This game is so sleek and so confident in a way that 99% of other games are not. You can immediately tell a Kojima game from virtually anything else on the market.
Graphics: These might be the best looking character models I've ever seen. The facial expressions are stellar and really add such a layer to the performances. For how desolate the landscapes are, they are pretty stunning and there are moments of beauty found throughout the environment.
The soundtrack: Kojima knows when to use music at its most effective. Low Roar are such a vibe and definitely fit in with the tone of the game.
Ziplines and Trikes: My saviors.
The end game twist: The revelation that the flashbacks you'd been viewing the entire game were not Lou,s but yours was.. honestly *chefs kiss*. Well done.
Cons:
The Traversal: On the whole, traversal is (intentionally) frustrating, especially at first: It gets better as you unlock more equipment, but it's never really a truly enjoyable experience. For me, I only found it 'fun' (I use fun loosely here), when the you unlock an area and the community has already trivialized traversal by placing roads or ziplines down. Getting the level 3 stabilizer and just jetting everywhere felt very freeing. I also enjoyed setting up my own network of Ziplines to get through the more difficult areas.
The story: There's really nothing to this story until around chapter 10 or 11. Kojima opted to go in a different direction than he has in the past with Metal Gear. Gone are the overly long cutscenes filled with drama, character development, twists and turns and insane word vomit exposition. They're replaced with a.. really minimal story. It's almost jarring to see how hard in the other direction he went. In a way, I think it serves the tone of the world with how solitary and quiet it is until you're nearly at the end of the game. Sure you get the flashbacks and maybe an occasional Higgs encounter, but it's very, very light on story as you're connecting the country. Once you hit the west coast, they then cram in a ton of cutscenes and wrap the story up but it honestly just left me confused.
They gave the story TOO much room to breathe, so much so that by not explaining much of anything until the final few hours of the game, I walked away not really understanding the impact of things or connecting with it. When I go into a Kojima game, I go in for the larger than life characters, the plot, the crazy cutscenes and the unabashedly cool style. It all felt missing from this game. I see people posting on here about how they cried at the final scene. Why? I don't think I formed an emotional connection to anybody in this game.. Which leads me to my next con.
Sam and the cast: On his best day, Norman Reedus is not a very expressive actor. He's been typecast for years precisely because, well, he's not a good actor. Sure, you could argue that he fits the tone of the game. He's a man who has been broken and isolated himself from the rest of the world because he feels he does not have a place within it. But man, Sam is so quiet, so monotone and.. frankly quite boring as a protagonist. They give him NOTHING to work with, and 95% of the game is spent with him just silently listening to somebody else with no real reaction. That works when you have a side cast to do the heavy lifting for you. But you never really get to know any of them aside from maybe Deadman and Fragile. I didn't have time to grow an attachment to Mama and once she dies and is with Lockne, she's relegated to the sidelines and almost never heard from again. Diehardman only gets really interesting in the final hour or two of the game. Heartman? Couldn't tell you a thing about him other than the fact that he dies every 20something minutes and looks for his family. Amelie? Sam supposedly has this strong connection to her, but how would you know? Their only interactions amount to her telling Sam to come find her. By throwing all of the story content into the last part of the game, it really did a disservice to the cast who are usually the highlights of any Kojima game.
Boss Fights: Combat in this game ranges from uninspired to quite awful. The boss fights are all pretty bad, but I know that is a common complaint. I get that combat isn't the point of the game, but if you're going to include it, you need to at least make the combat scenarios interesting.
Vehicles: The bike is great, but fuuuuuuuuuck that Van.
Rocks: Also fuck rocks.
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