izigame.me

Death Stranding is, ironically, a very divisive game. It was originally sold ONLY in the premise that it was made by Hideo Kojima, which made it look like some sort of second coming of videogame Jesus and then people met a game that has as much originality as it has flaws.
Death Stranding is, for me, the perfect representation of Kojima's approach at videogame making. Lengthy cutscenes, weird pacing, confusing story telling and genius gameplay that makes as much sense as it is infuriating some times.
I'll divide this review in several sections and then add a tl;dr at the end, hopefully after this you'll have a clear picture that'll allow you to make a decision on buying or not this game that will be meaningful and based on facts.
Story: The story begins with no background or explanation, you simply are Sam Porter Bridges (the most meta name ever), and you learn that he has a phobia that makes him be terribly scared of human touch, which instantly contrasts with the game's objective of connecting people. From there the story keeps being mysterious up until the end, where things start to be explained and end up making perfect sense, although it feels surprising that it does. The story is based on the characters, with each of the backstories having implications on the reality of the world in which the game happens and where each explanation of their beings brings revelations and interesting implications about the lore of the game.
Storytelling: The exposition happens around a 80% in cutscenes, emails, interviews and "cuff-link" calls. Kojima as always uses lengthy cutscenes and weird pacing to tell his story, with the game picking up the pace around the last third of its run. The biggest downside of the approach here is that players might get bored of the game before the best part of it's story comes, the part where you get actually invested in it. Something that I can tell you is that all mysteries the game builds it resolves by the end, one way or another you'll leave without mysteries. Towards the end the game gets really heavy in exposition, which also works against it during the ending segments.
Gameplay: Here's where the most divisive part of the game happens. The game is based on delivering packages, which feels like it was simply conceived as an excuse to have you move around the world map rather than a central theme of the game, but then it evolved into a gargantuan feature that took precedence over everything else. Is it fun? It is, is it complex? Not so much. You'll be carrying crap around up to the very end of the game, with every new area bringing new challenges to your approach at traveling every time, making for engaging, interesting and compelling gameplay, but it is not without it's flaws. At some point you realize that the game has shown you everything it has to offer, there's a lot of experimentation but the conditions needed might never be met by the player due to the game being too forgiving, and when you start seeing other people's structures the game becomes pretty trivial. A recommendation: DO NOT DO THE SECONDARY MISSIONS BEFORE FINISHING THE GAME. Why? Because it'll get you burned out before the game even get's good. Do one here and there and maybe if it's on the same direction as the main mission, but ignore them from there. You'll only miss some visuals, some wearable objects without effect on gameplay, and like a couple of gameplay related things that although useful are totally not worth the trouble. The biggest flaw this game has is that the rewards from doing all that stuff, are pretty much irrelevant and feel meaningless.
The world: It's pretty much empty, some packages from here and there. The strength comes in the different difficulties it throws at you and how you balance danger with speed and safety of your cargo. It is really beautiful and masterfully crafted, but besides sightseeing you wont get much out of it.
The missions/deliveries: There's a plethora of different things to deliver with different implications and needs, like bombs that could blow up if you damage them enough taking you and all of your other cargo to hell and back. There are bodies and living people, there are fragile things and there are useless shit that makes you wonder why you are even risking life and limb to bring them around in a freaking post-apocalyptic setting. There's a bit for all tastes.
The humor: The game goes from clever and witty, to brain dead humor at times. Sometimes the funniest thing is the typical Japanese style writing that is either cringe or simply hilariously bad. Also, there are really amazing times where the wording is simply perfect and works towards meaningful implications.
TL;DR:
The pros:
-> Originality.
-> Relaxing and beautiful.
-> Amazing soundtrack.
-> Fun gameplay with a lot of attention to detail that treats features more like laws than mechanics.
-> A lot of experimentation when conditions are met.
-> Interesting story, although weirdly paced.
-> The writing can be genius at times.
-> When the story pays off it pays off amazingly.
-> Some amazing characters beautifully realized by the actors.
The cons:
-> Get's repetitive quickly.
-> The world is mostly empty.
-> Secondary content get's you burned out and there's no warning about this.
-> Meaningless rewards and "currency".
-> The writing can be really bad at times.
-> Slow start that would not be engaging enough for a lot of people.
-> Lengthy exposition segments that interrupt gameplay sometimes for too long.
-> The last stretch has some questionable design choices that take away from what should've been the glorious finishing section of the game.
Basically, a game that was sold exclusively on the name of it's creator and was overhyped as the last sip of cola on a desert but failed to deliver on a lot of aspects but still makes for a great experience which can be enjoyed if it clicks with you.