Hideo Kojima is a visionary director, producer and designer of video games. What he was able to accomplish with Death Stranding is beautiful, hideous, confusing, horrifying, stunning, intense, campy, endearing, lonely and hopeful. That’s a lot, and so is this game! A lot is not a bad thing, it’s almost always interesting and engaging. That’s something considering the game is essentially a mail-man simulator. If anyone had told me that a video game produced around delivering packages was both interesting and fun, I wouldn’t have believed them. There’s a genius around taking something as mundane as moving a package from point a to point b and make it engaging, but the team at Kojima productions accomplished just that.
The Premise
The premise of Death Stranding is that you are Sam “Porter” Bridges, raised by the president (Bridget) of the now defunct United States. After a tragedy separated Sam from Bridget, he is summoned to the capitol because Bridget is ill. Bridget has a plan to reunite the world by connecting key points around the US after a devastating series of disasters, and needs Sam’s help because she doesn’t feel she’ll be able to see it through and would like him to get the job done.
Pros and Cons
- Graphics – Environment (Pro)
- The environments are barren and haunting, but beautiful.
- Graphics – Characters (Mid)
- I ranked this at mid because nearly all characters displayed are seen through a holographic field and distorted (appropriately). The in person characters (which outside of Sam are seen about maybe 3-5% of the game playtime) are well rendered with good facial capture which help carry forward the great performances.
- Gameplay Mechanics (Pro)
- I’m a bit torn on this, but land on mechanics being a pro. The onboarding to the items which help make deliveries easier is well-thought-out, the mechanics of the scary BT areas are intense and the mechanics of land traversal are engaging.
- Combat (Mid)
- The combat is okay and serviceable. The gun play doesn’t feel snappy or precise, though the range of weapons is nice by the time you get toward the end of the game. The boss battles aren’t amazing once you get beyond the spectacle of the moment, it devolves into ‘fire the biggest gun you have into the overly large bullet sponge until they fall down’.
- Music (Pro)
- The music is good and does a great job setting a tone. I’d like to check out the musical artists here a bit closer, very different from what I normally listen to, but the game made me interested in listening to more.
- Voice Acting (Pro)
- The performances (both mocap and voiceover) are a positive, though I sometimes struggle separating the immersion breaking dialog from the acting. Standout performances for me on reflection are Troy Baker as an over the top scenery chewing (or licking in a few cases) villain, Mads Mikkelson as the soldier and Tommie Earl Jenkins as Die-Hardman.
- Writing – Story Arc and World building (Pro)
- I landed with Pro for this because I think the story is captivating and made me ask questions I honestly wanted to know the answer to. That being said, the storytelling goes a bit overboard on intentionally being convoluted. It does land eventually and I enjoyed the experience.
- Writing – Characters and Dialog (Con)
- A trademark of Hideo Kojima’s projects are the characters he and his team develop. There’s usually something symbolic in the name of a character, this is ramped up to 11 in this game. The terminology, symbolism and pontificating the characters do toward the end crosses the border to silly. Throughout the game, the names and melodrama are immersion breaking.
- Technical Performance (Pro)
- Granted, I played the game 6 years after release, it runs great. Consistent 120fps on a 4080 super.
- Wrap up
- Death Stranding is a wild and enjoyable experience. I completed the story (i.e. reached episode 15) though there’s a tremendous (if not overwhelming) amount still to do. I wouldn’t be shocked if there was another 50 to 100 hours left for 100% completion. The game does allow you to go back and finish what you wish at the end of the story. While I enjoyed it, it’s a hard game to recommend, but if someone is in the mood for a well-made game that’s incredibly creative and different? I’d say give it a shot, I’m glad I did, and I’m looking forward to Death Stranding 2.
I played this game for 52 hours and give it an 8 out of 10.
