Death Stranding

Death Stranding is creating a new game genre and therefore paves its own path towards more interactive experiences. It is a brave work thanks to its novelty, which fortunately is not a bragging right for its creators, as it may have seemed, but an exceptional title that will reward the brave who play it.

This game does manage to be fun, even if it is one of the heaviest experiences of 2019. Everything from story to gameplay is begging to be dissected, filled with imagery and symbolism -- just like so many Kojima games before this one. Entering Death Stranding, it’s likely that we all thought Kojima’s calling card was lengthy cutscenes and stealth and action gameplay.

Death Stranding stands as a powerful author’s game which drives a strong message of how our over-connected society is evolving, and how we can help other players. Unlike many AAA games, it shines on a truly spiritual level. Well written, engaging and visually magnificent, it offers, despite some pacing flaws, an astonishing solo game with elegant multiplayer elements. A unique representation of Hideo Kojima’s talent.

A lot of interesting mechanics were implemented, but ultimately left stranded by tedious core gameplay.

There is, after all, something quietly revelatory about a big-budget videogame that has as much in common with the work of Bennett Foddy as Ubisoft's boilerplate sandboxes. Far from a masterpiece, then, but Kojima's first post-Konami release HAS laid the foundations for something greater. Which is fitting, since that's what he's had us doing for 60-odd hours.