How would one write a review of an epic game like Death Stranding, created by a legend?
It’s a hard task but I will do my best.
The beginning
Our story begins in a dystopian future, far away from big cities, somewhere in the countryside, riding our bike on our way to an unknown destination.
We are immersed directly into our mission, and we realize that our character is a delivery person.
At first, you, the hero, are located in a rocky mountain area, surrounded by natural elements like grass and water streams, but you don’t see any thick plantations just yet.
The entire experience is very cinematic, and the cutscenes are doing a great job enhancing that movie-like experience. The story flows so smoothly and you get prompted to do certain actions here and there, such as how to climb, how to scan the area, et cetera, as part of the introduction tutorial. The mechanics are very well thought out and designed so your movement feels very natural.
There is a smooth flow between cutscenes at the beginning and gameplay. The initial tutorial makes the whole experience engaging. I have to say, it looks much more captivating than any trailers or gameplay from other games I have seen. Once you experience it yourself, you can’t let go of the controller.
Let’s talk about our protagonist
You are Sam Porter. You understand immediately that you are delivering something, but we the players don’t know what it is yet. You are on your bike and you know that you must go somewhere. Not sure where yet. No worries, the game will show you.
Sam Porter is a very serious person, or a heavy dude, and you understand that he doesn’t want to be bothered in doing unnecessary tasks. However, he has a great sense of duty and knows that if it’s the right thing to do, he will do it, no matter how hard or unpleasant of a duty that is.
Control and gameplay
The gameplay is very intuitive to the experienced console gamer. Even if this is your first time, the game does a great job teaching you and you can always refer to the instructions in the game menu.
Pro tip: L2 and R2 (for the PS players) are going to be your best friends.
Graphics
This is a PlayStation 4 game that was released in 2019, but you can also play it on the PlayStation 5, as I did. There is a Director’s cut which was released on PlayStation 5 in 2021.
You instantly feel you are part of the environment and the graphics are done in a marvellous way to showcase a dystopian, dark, abandoned scenery, but also one that includes green landscapes in certain parts of the map.
For those of you who enjoy the technical details, the game uses the Decima engine, created by Guerilla Games. Other titles that use the same engine are Killzone: Shadowfall and Horizon Forbidden West.
Sound
The sound designers did an amazing job of capturing the essence of Death Stranding. They used some unconventional methods to do it, like creating sounds with hardware bought at Home Depot. The results are more than fitting. Besides the sound effects, you will listen to songs from the title’s soundtrack in designated parts of the game. These are calm and melodic and are used as an audio signal to inform you that you are approaching a safe location.
Replayability
This game has a great replayability factor since, chances are, you won’t get to do everything by the time you finish the main story. At least, I didn’t.
It’s not impossible, but let’s just say that, if you are like me, you want to see where the story takes you and figure out what is happening as fast as possible. As “fast” as possible, might not be as fast, but it will definitely be captivating.
The game has a reward system, so even after you finish the main quest, you can continue with your side missions to get trophies and increase your statistics. The better delivery results you get, the better your skills get. The goal is to become the best and get to the platinum level. Whether you do it on your first playthrough, or the second or after you finished the game, it is up to you.
I usually feel I’m done once I reach the end and I rarely go to do a second playthrough. This game, however, had me playing it again even after I finished it and that is something that almost never happens.
My first Hideo Kojima experience
I loved everything in this game. This was my first experience with Hideo Kojima’s creativity, leaving me completely in awe. But let me elaborate.
There is something that I originally didn’t like but after having finished this game, I can’t help thinking that this was the purpose of the game and that Hideo Kojima probably planned it to be like this.
I was not a fan of the fighting mechanics. I don’t want to say more but I will say that I was annoyed with the fights, well more specifically that very moment before you get captured (you will know).
I felt annoyed and irritated with how the game was designed to react, but I get why it was like that. You get a feeling of being glued and slowed down. I will leave it at that and you will understand what I mean once you are there.
I guess even though it annoyed me, I must be honest. This is probably meticulously thought out to be like this and since it awoke this feeling in me, I call it a success.
When I finished the game I was emotionally and physically exhausted. That, in my book, means that this is a spectacular game, designed to make you feel all the feelings and once you understand what is going on, you don’t want to let go.
Thank you Death Stranding and Hideo Kojima for the experience.