Death Stranding

• Genre: Action Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: Pretty much, other than talking about game progression.
• Time Played: 80 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's not that it was too short or too long, really just awkward pacing since so much of the "real" story happens so late in the game.
• Soundtrack: Soundtrack is excellent. They make a point of introducing and presenting new tracks while on important missions, you can replay them via structures and in your room, but Sam should have had an ipod or something. Or at least been able to listen to music via streaming on the chiral network. Not that the score is bad, but it's usually pretty passive, so it would have been nice to be able to listen to the music while doing missions that didn't matter as much and exploring.
• Why I played: I'm a big fan of Metal Gear and by extension, most of Kojima's work. So I'm more than likely to try any Hideo Kojima game made by Hideo Kojima, that was written by Hideo Kojima, Directed by Hideo Kojima, and Produced by Hideo Kojima.
• Did I cry: Yes, a couple times.
• Jank: There isn't too much jank. The jankiest I think things are is sometimes controlling Sam doesn't quite do what you expect it to. The controls are a bit loose to ensure he interacts with the environment properly, but that also means there can be a delay in the interactions. Forcing him to trip and stumble, or fall from a great height when you clearly pressed the button required to avoid that.
• Difficulty: I played this one on easy because there is some scary stuff that borders on horror-game scenarios that would have made it otherwise unplayable for me if I didn't get some leeway. It also just increases the general survivability to get from point a to point b with less deterioration, and stamina decrease. Playing on a harder difficulty wouldn't have really made it harder from what I can tell, it just would have made everything take longer and maybe caused more frustration or boredom. It's already a long enough game. I think I made the right choice by giving myself some breathing room for this one. There is easier still, and harder difficulties. I think if you like intense horror-esque moments and don't mind the monotony of backtracking more, the normal and harder difficulties would be appropriate, but even "easy" still offers a decent level of challenge.
• Recommend to others: I think Death Stranding gets downplayed too much as a "Walking Simulator" but when most people think of a walking simulator, they think of games where you just move from point a to point b with little-to-no other mechanics. Death Stranding actually has a lot things going on and a lot of things to do, and in the end, I would actually recommend it pretty strongly.

I feel like Death Stranding, closer to it's actual release, was memed on constantly. When it came out, it sold well enough it seemed, but people stopped talking about it. Maybe because those who actually played it enjoyed it and there wasn't much more to meme? I feel like even positive reception was rather quiet. I did start playing it myself, but I don't think I made it through the first area, and most the game takes place in the second. There is still plenty of weirdness and things that are like "why did it have to be this way" but I guess it had to be this way, because that's how it's written. Nothing exists just for the sake of it, within the confines of the story. They may not explain it for 50 hours into the game, but at least they make an attempt and it more or less comes together fluidly.

Even the baby, BB, grew on me. I probably even said something like "I don't wanna walk around with the gross baby" at some point, but looking back I wouldn't have it any other way, but yeah despite what I made have said, you're mostly walking around, or driving, or climbing, or placing items to help you get across terrain. Sometimes you're fighting guys who wanna steal your stuff. Sometimes you're hiding from ghosts. Sometimes you're fighting ghosts. All while unraveling the mysteries of the world and why it's the way it is.

As mentioned I do believe the story could have progressed more evenly instead of being so bottom heavy. I guess they wanted all the final reveals to be just that, the final reveals, of the finale. I feel like it would have been better to have some reveals happen at bigger turning points of the game, rather than all in the final chapters. Some of the final chapters are literally just the scenes you watch within them.

Other than the pacing issues, I definitely enjoyed it more than I thought I would. There were times I couldn't wait to get back to playing it. At some point I even thought "this is surprisingly good" after like... 50 hours in the game. I just found it fun to play, even if it's a game where the "action" isn't happening all the time. You can make it more actiony by playing with reckless abandon, there will still be downtimes however, but I personally find the ebb and flow refreshing.

I am very interested to play the next one. I picked this back up because I kept hearing or seeing people talk about Death Stranding 2 with it's recent release. Despite that, I don't know when I will actually get to it. I need a little breather myself, and there are just too many games coming out in the very near future I am interested in, so I would rather prevent picking the next one up to play for a few hours and then stranding it for the better part of a decade.