"Keep on keeping on!" - Aw, you're so sweet

"Yeah. Like Princess Beach." - HELLO?! HUMAN RESOURCES?!

Probably the best game I have played in a long time, it doesn't actually do anything particularly well except tell an interesting story and provide a very specific and uncompromising vision of what it wants to be. I can see a hundred ways a lesser development team would have made this game more accessible and all scenarios are worse.

Traversing the world is a bit glitchy but it's rewarding to carve a path from one edge of the map to the other and leave behind tools and resources to help other players. You've got to be either all in on the story or just in the right sort of mood to enjoy this.

The combat is the worst part of this game, but for some reason the game devoted more resources and options to it than the stealth? The bosses only amplify just how bad the combat is.

Higgs, the main antagonist is also a generic anime villain and I really didn't care much for him. Everyone else in the cast is exceptional, though it feels like a waste to have Norman Reedus be the protagonist and yet he barely talks; characters regularly just talk at him and he says absolutely nothing back in response to 5 paragraphs of text, it's odd. Special shoutout to Del Toro, I may not like his movies but he did a great job as Deadman and was by far my favourite character. Angry Michael was also a fantastic performance, I enjoyed every single scene with him.

The final 2 to 3 hours are nothing but cutscenes but I can forgive it because the ending is worth the 35 to 37 hours it takes to get there, it concludes in a satisfying and complete manner. I intend to come back to this for another playthrough at some stage.

Walking Simulator ppl say... yeah, it kinda is like that, but it is MUCH MORE. Story is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awesome! Engagement with other players is done indirect only, so no griefplay to watch out for. Hiding from BTs is thrilling, soothing BB is cute, killing enemies is something you want to avoid.. ;)

I totally love the game and can not wait for Death Stranding 2!

Only downside: It's not easy to transfer savegames from one PC digital platform to another. :( Savegames are tied to accounts.

good

Keep on keeping on !

Good things:
- This game's gem and even story is wholly unique, unexpected, and at times will make you feel things.
- The further you get through the game, the less "walking simulator" it is. It expects you to tire of the game loop and cuts you a break and switches things up quickly.
- Very pretty, very immersive. I had a good time.

Not so good:
- Pacing. At times the cut scenes drag more than they progress the story. Toward the end, you might be watching cut scenes and credits for several hours before getting to the next chapter. This is half game, half TV series.
- Game loop, though very well done, might not always be fun. There's much to love, I'd suggest giving it a fair chance, but at times it's really hard to justify accepting side quests.
- The world building leaves little to the imagination, and suffers from "tell don't show" more often than it should. Often as soon as you have a question, a character shows up to explain it to you in great depth. Maybe it should have some constraint.

I'm happy I played Death Stranding, and I'll be thinking about it for a long time to come.

Is this the game that has you walking and delivering packages? yes. I have beaten it a few times on Playstation 4 and 5, it's not super fun, but I find myself coming back.

8.5/10.0 (My scale is based on 10's being almost an unachievable perfect game)
Quick Summary:
I originally skipped this game because of the discourse around it being a "walking simulator". I decided to give it a try when I seen it was on sell for 20 bucks (surely Kojima couldn't have made a complete stinker right?). To my pleasant surprise I was completely wrong about this game. YES YOU WILL DO A ♥♥♥♥ TON OF WALKING/TRAVELING IN THIS GAME, you're a amazon driver but with cool ass gadgets and tools to get you to your destination. Kojima somehow was able to create one of the most satisfying game play loops I've experienced in my whole gaming career. Without giving spoilers I will break down that game play loop. You start off with basic tools and your boots, the first few missions are smaller deliveries which introduce you to the games mechanics. It definitely starts slow but once it gets going the game completely changes. Your task in this game is to "reconnect" a broken America. You do this by traveling further and further from the original area in the east part of America. When you first travel west the terrain is super rough and there's not many tools to assist you, but when you reach a destination you connect them to your network, expanding it, and allowing you to create tools in these newly connected areas. As soon as you connect a new area the multiplayer aspect comes in, player built bridges and generators spawn in along the path you just traveled allowing easier travel to previous areas. This is where the game loop sucks you in, you get this feeling of wanting to rebuild this world with other players, building roads that connect the settlements, bridges to cross valleys, and generators to charge your gear in remote locations. Kojima mastered the art of cooperation without ever actually seeing another player. You find yourself doing basic runs between old settlements to strengthen/resupply new areas, these benign tasks that are usually boring in other games are somehow supper satisfying in this game. You look back on the path you traveled (literally because the game shows you the path you've taken on the map) and are strangely proud that you rebuilt this desolate video game America. If this all sounds boring to you (it sounds boring to me too don't worry) wait for the game to go on sale and give it a try, you won't be sorry. NOTICE HOW I HAVEN'T MENTIONED THE ACTUAL STORY YET? That's simply because the story is like the whipped cream on top of a ice cream sunday. The story of this game is about as Kojima as it gets (if you know you know). You have no idea what's going on, nothing makes sense, and you're not really sure who you are or why you're doing what you're doing, but somehow you're completely locked into this creepy unsettling world that Kojima created. The atmosphere, the vibe, the music, it all blends together perfectly creating one of the best games ever (I don't say this lightly). I won't go as far as saying this is better than MGS, but the introduction game to this new universe is simply amazing and I cannot wait to play the next one in this series.

10/10

Boring to the bone. "Bring package from position A to position B, while getting through monsters." Would not buy again.