The simplest way to tell whether somebody is going to enjoy Death Stranding, is to commit a cardinal sin of game reviews - compare it to Dark Souls.
Do you like Dark Souls/Bloodborne/Elden Ring/Demon's Souls? Do you like it for its twitchy action gameplay, variety of character builds and big beefy bosses with insane attack strings, or for its weird but captivating fantasy world, with a ton of poorly explained systems and poison swamps?
Because Death Stranding is a game about overcoming one Miyazaki poison swamp after another, except that poison swamp has (sometimes literal) hands, and will throw you like a plastic doll, if you don't respect it. Its also one of very few non-RPG open world games, that makes use of its open world for something else, than boring checklist objectives.
Its also super polished, AAA game, with top tier Hollywood talent, and extremely niche gameplay, that is super easy to undersale as a "walking simulator", that Sony was somehow convinced into financing. This is the real Kojima miracle working.
I'm not going to talk about lore, plot or the fact that Norman Reedus plays the role of main character, or that the game is about package delivery in a post-apocalyptic world, everyone and their dog knows that. This was the main marketing pitch. Instead, I want to talk about what this game is for me. And I think, it is the biggest revolution in open world game design since at least GTA3.
This might be a bit controversial, but the biggest difficulty in making open world games, is the technology. How to use enough smoke and mirrors, to convince the player that their character is in the real city, real island, something like that. This is where the biggest innovations happen, with more computing power, comes the ability to put more "real" stuff on the screen, without resorting to tricks like the Silent Hill fog.
But the games remain roughly the same. "You go to an NPC, watch a cutscene, go to a marker on a map (either on foot or via a vehicle), do some third person shooting, watch some cutscenes and go back" - can be gameplay description of GTA3, Red Dead Redemption 2 and ton of other AAA open world games. "Oh there are also checklists you can accomplish" - this can be also said about ton of open world games.
To me, that means there is very little point to an open world design. The player is going to cover kilometers of terrain, during which very little happens. Yes, you can say "that's the point, you are meant to vibe and take in the atmosphere", and I get that, I have my share of time doing that on the streets of Liberty City or Night City.
The problem with that is... That I can do that in the real world as well, and its going to be 10 times more impactful. If you like driving around open world games to immerse yourself, I recommend going out for a 2 AM nightdriving trip. Put on some moody music, pick a destination in your city, and just cruise there. The Friday/Saturday night air tastes differently once you do that.
What's most interesting abut Death Stranding, is how it sets that setup on its head. There is very little action at the destinations you go to - usually watching a cutscene and flipping through some terminal screens. The most action-packed and nerve wrecking sequences, are going to happen during transit. The game will be constantly throwing obstacles your way - be it terrifying ghostly things, "bandits" or just a really deep river. There is constant stream of interesting decisions to make - should I try to cross the river on my bike, and risk losing it along with the cargo, or do a bonus trip to a distribution centre to get materials for the bridge? Maybe I should ditch the bike, and try to carry the cargo on my back? Should I try to get through a bandits territory, or walk around it (usually a longer trip involving mountains)? Can I take some extra cargo? What if there are slippery slopes ahead of me? What if... It goes on and on.
A lot of open world games falls into trap of introducing systems, and then failing to impose any consequence for ignoring them - this is also something Death Stranding solves, because literally everything matters. Your main task will be delivering cargo from point A to point B. But unlike many other titles, everything you carry is not some abstract thing in a magical inventory system, that might introduce some slightly annoying speed penalty if you cross some arbitrary boundary. Death Stranding will allow you carry more stuff than it is necessary, and will punish you heavily if you overestimate your abilities. You've fallen into the river? Good luck catching up with the cargo, that now going down the stream. You left your bike in the rain to deal with the BTs in peace? The cargo will get damaged eventually. You don't have the repair spray? Well, good luck delivering the cargo before its lost. You have not taken spare shoes with you to carry extra cargo? You know the drill.
But if there is one thing Death Stranding is not, its cruel. There is a social strand system. Somebody will put down a ladder in their game, and it will appear in yours, just when you need it. Its a brilliant system, and has works like a charm.
Death Stranding is a GOTY contender for me. Only thing I regret, is that I used to doubt in it. I should have played it earlier!
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