Interesting gameplay experiment with top quality storytelling.
"Death Stranding" deserves some credit for at least having introduced new mechanics. Traveling through locations has been the most tedious side effect of massive open-world videogames, and "Death Stranding" attempts at making it all about the journey.
This game is about crossing dangerous areas and either deliver or retrieve packages without getting them stolen or damaged. The gameplay dynamics are simple but require careful route planning and equipment selection. The first few hours will be pretty straightforward, but a wide variety of tools, weapons, and means of transport will be unlocked as the story proceeds, asking the player to choose between different approaches for the same mission.
The most interesting addition to the gameplay is the opportunity to indirectly cooperate with other players online by dropping items on the ground, constructing roads, bridges, and stations to facilitate movement, or leaving signs to warn or encourage other porters. Bridges and cars left by other players will save your ass more than once, and your contributions will be rewarded by "Likes" from other players. The more "Likes" you collect, the easier it will be to find items and constructions by other porters. The main idea is clearly borrowed from the "Dark Souls" franchise, but I liked how it actually has an impact on the gameplay and at the same time connects with the whole idea of "Death Stranding" being a game about linking people.
However, despite the upgrades and different environments, it felt like 50+ delivery missions just for the main story were a bit too much. Missions started to get frustrating over time due to excessive backtracking, battles being too slow-paced, and unwanted incidents like cars and bikes getting stuck in the rocks halfway. BT's and MULE's are supposed to spice up the deliveries and provide some action, but the battles tend to get Final Fantasy random encounters-level tedious. Transitioning in and out forces you to watch the same cutscenes, and the fight itself is usually clunky and time-consuming for the sake of it. Side-missions are pretty much rehashes of the main plot tasks with different conditions. I am sure I would have enjoyed every bit of the campaign if it were 20 hours long or less, but it proceeds so slowly that I ended up rushing the last few chapters.
The story and cutscenes are close to movie quality in terms of writing and direction, and effectively give depth to the game. The whole concept of strands, beaches, DOOMs, and BT's was anything but clear for most of the game and, despite the plot twists being way too predictable, everything was engaging and fascinating enough to keep me going. I wished they could give more space to the supporting characters, though. Most of them just do their appearance, reveal their past, and briefly interact with Sam without further development. All the main events are also concentrated in the last few missions.
Overall, "Death Stranding" is a partly fresh, partly frustrating gaming experience that will be remembered as an interesting experiment more than a game that set new standards. Even though it got a little addictive in the middle, frustration took over in the second half due to the monotonous tasks and the absolutely user-unfriendly interface.
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Exploration and construction are 10/10, but obligatory combat sections and boss fights are really bad on very hard, you see how the combat is atrocious. Don't know why they made you go through combat sections when the game is really not design for combat. Sometimes i think people swallow things like that only because it's Kojima.