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Death Stranding Review Thread

Mista

Banned
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Eurogamer: Recommended
Hideo Kojma's first post-Metal Gear game is a messy, indulgent vanity project - but also a true original.


IGN: 6.8/10
Death Stranding delivers a fascinating world of supernatural sci-fi, but its gameplay struggles to support its weight.


GamesRadar: 3.5/5
Kojima's mysterious would be epic has its moments but can't carry the weight of expectation.


Easy Allies: 8/10



Game Informer: 7/10
The pillars of gameplay, combat, and story all bear the mark of creator Hideo Kojima, but none of them stand out or carry the experience


GameSpot: 9/10
Death Stranding is dense, complex, and powerful, steadfast in its belief in the power of love and hope when faced with overwhelming adversity.


USgamer: 3.5/5
Death Stranding might be Kojima's boldest game to date. It may also be his most tedious. Either way, its originality outweighs its sometimes exhausting structure and poor pacing... but only just. Maybe not a game I would recommend to everyone, but certainly one of the most interesting games of 2019.


Destructoid: 8/10
Death Stranding is not the overly-strange inaccessible walled garden the marketing has made it out to be. It's weird, don't get me wrong! But anyone with a surface-level understanding of surrealism in art should be able to acclimate to what is essentially a playable Hollywood


VG247: 3/5
If you do manage to hold out, you will be rewarded with flashes of brilliance, it’s just that those flashes are buried as deep as the core story is buried in the endless dialogue.


God is a Geek: 9/10
Death Stranding is an ambitious game, filled with so many different mechanics and ideas that almost always work well together. The story and acting is fantastic, and its visuals are a thing of beauty, not to mention the powerful soundtrack.


VideoGamer: 8/10
Death Stranding is filled with things that must be seen, a sprawling, genre-spanning sci-fi adventure from a developer like no other. It's tackier clumps of writing and stunt casting seem overwrought, but its direction and its stars shine brightest


GamingTrend: 100/100
Death Stranding is a story of rebuilding America by connecting people far and wide. Stealth, exploration, combat, and inventory management are all necessary in order to succeed. With a fantastic cast, incredible set pieces, an engaging story, and Kojima's brand of incredibly enjoyable crazy, you won't want to put your controller down.


The Guardian: 4/5
With gameplay that denies instant gratification, Hideo Kojima's unashamedly political game is this year's most interesting blockbuster game by far


Gaming Nexus: 9.5/10
Hideo Kojima has fully weaponized the walking simulator, writing a love letter to the delivery service workers of our shipping and handling world. Death Stranding is about ending isolation, and does it so gracefully that I can't imagine it being done better than it's done here.


COGconnected: 93/100
Death Stranding is an outstanding title that ended up blowing away the expectations I wasn’t even aware of. For an auteur like Hideo Kojima, that sounds like an unequivocal success.


Push Square: 10/10
Following years of mysterious anticipation, Death Stranding delivers on all fronts. An accomplished, fascinating set of gameplay mechanics allow you to make deliveries the way you want to, while social features let the game live on once you've put the controller down. It may become slightly tiresome as you hit the halfway mark, but the phenomenal narrative is on hand to pick things back up again and its outstanding visuals are the cherry on top. Death Stranding doesn't raise the bar for any particular genre, it creates an entirely new one.


EGM: 10/10
In the end, Death Stranding's biggest mystery isn't any of the elements we've had teased in three-plus years of trailers—it's what people are going to think of it. Even from a man known for making love-them-or-hate-them projects, this may end up being one of the most divisive games ever created. For me, it was an experience that I can truly say was unlike any other I remember. And, if nothing else, Death Stranding makes me respect Hideo Kojima for convincing Sony to invest millions into a game that's about a man delivering packages to holograms.


TrustedReviews: 10/10
Death Stranding is unlike anything else out there right now. It's huge, innovative and utterly unashamed in what it wants to be. Kojima Productions is heavy-handed in its implementation of modern political themes, but they tie into the narrative and involve the player in ways that feel compelling.


Skill Up: Unscored



Press Start: 8/10
Hideo Kojima has long been a visionary auteur, his feted career stands as proof. With no walls to contain him, he has given birth to Death Stranding. It's an experience that will be remembered for a long time, from its early hype to the untethered lunacy of its narrative. It's an art installation of a game that filled me with rage as often as it did joy. It is sweeping in both lustre and purpose, though it wears a few warts on the pleasant, bare bones of a game about deliveries that has no right to be as memorable as it somehow is.


GamingBolt: 9/10
Death Stranding is definitely an acquired taste, and its slow pacing and deliberate gameplay might not be for everyone, but its mechanical depth, its desolately beautiful and haunting world, and its confident and stylistic storytelling nonetheless make for a continental trek worth


Polygon: Unscored
Having been smitten by the core world-building gameplay of Death Stranding, I am stunned to realize that many of the game’s strongest, most appealing gameplay ideas (specifically the world-building and cooperation) are tossed aside in the final acts, in favor of a much more linear, scripted, cutscene-ridden experience. The freedom and sense of ownership I enjoyed while creating this world are dashed in favor of explaining and wrapping up a story that never had much going for it to begin with.

OpenCritic: 85
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MetaCritic: 83
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Kagey K

Banned
I’m just going to copy/paste my last post from the predictions thread.

I see this game being heavily discounted come Black Friday so they have some numbers to announce.

I thought it would be critically favoured, but bought by nobody.

Now it might not even earn that high review score, and might sell less then I anticipated to the casuals.

They are going to need the hardcore to buy the initial run, or this game might be in big trouble.
 

GHG

Gold Member
IGN Japan - 9.5 :


IGN Italy - 9.8 :



IF YOU ARE AMERICAN - CANCEL YOUR PRE-ORDER, DO NOT COLLECT CARGO, DO NOT PASS GO, GO STRAIGHT TO CALL OF DUTY.
 
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EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
EGM (Mollie L Patterson), 5/5

In the end, Death Stranding’s biggest mystery isn’t any of the elements we’ve had teased in three-plus years of trailers—it’s what people are going to think of it. Even from a man known for making love-them-or-hate-them projects, this may end up being one of the most divisive games ever created. For me, it was an experience that I can truly say was unlike any other I remember. And, if nothing else, Death Stranding makes me respect Hideo Kojima for convincing Sony to invest millions into a game that’s about a man delivering packages to holograms.
 

j0hnnix

Member
"Hideo Kojima for convincing Sony to invest millions into a game that’s about a man delivering packages to holograms."

Lol. I respect him hustling another company and poor Geoff that man is at home Depot atm.
 

imsosleepy

Member
wow.. So.. Something new, amazing story, amazing world. But Shitty gameplay and alot of repetitiveness.
wtf.. This is Kojima, who made the gameplay of metal gear 5 wich was amazing. Maybe he is forgetting gameplay first like nintendo.. Dam.. Was kinda hoping it would get a high metacritic lol
 
wow.. So.. Something new, amazing story, amazing world. But Shitty gameplay and alot of repetitiveness.
wtf.. This is Kojima, who made the gameplay of metal gear 5 wich was amazing. Maybe he is forgetting gameplay first like nintendo.. Dam.. Was kinda hoping it would get a high metacritic lol

Not surprised he said a few years he really wanted to make movies and his games really do reflect that, he is a game director when he should be a movie director.
 

Kagey K

Banned
wow.. So.. Something new, amazing story, amazing world. But Shitty gameplay and alot of repetitiveness.
wtf.. This is Kojima, who made the gameplay of metal gear 5 wich was amazing. Maybe he is forgetting gameplay first like nintendo.. Dam.. Was kinda hoping it would get a high metacritic lol
When story comes first and tragic gameplay is what gets you from plot point A to plot point B this is what you get.

Checkpoint simulator to trigger cutscenes.

It seems he got so lost in the story he forgot to make it fun. (I’ve said this for almost 2 years already)

Gameplay should always be first.
 

Barakov

Member
Kinda what a lot of people predicted. The scores are kinda all over the place. Seems like if you're will to stick with it, there's some interesting stuff here.
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
I watched the IGN video review, and as someone who has zero and I mean zero patience in games(I didn't like RDR2 because of how slow it was) I'm gonna hate this game. Just walking becomes a chore that you need to use both sticks to balance your character? Good grief. And the tedious skipping cutscenes just to fast travel? I'm gonna hate this game. Still have the CE on pre-order though, hope my initial instincts are wrong, but I saw about 4 of my cardinal sins in that review alone(a game of fetch quests, tedious movement, tedious inventory management, annoying cutscnes) not to mention the inevitability of more cropping up when actually playing it.

I'll always support Kojima though.
 
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GHG

Gold Member
When story comes first and tragic gameplay is what gets you from plot point A to plot point B this is what you get.

Checkpoint simulator to trigger cutscenes.

It seems he got so lost in the story he forgot to make it fun. (I’ve said this for almost 2 years already)

Gameplay should always be first.

Ok, so now we've established that's what this game isn't about will it mean you'll stop wasting your time talking about it?
 

GV82

Member
So it’s either a Walking Simulator or more likely looking at the footage a Futuristic Delivery Simulator possibly MMO style or not we don’t know yet, judging by Giant bombs first look, oh dear.


I’m paraphrasing here but Jeff on their 20 minute first look it’s not their review since “Alex usually ends up covering certain types of games” , Brad says “the trucking ones” Jeff - “he usually ends up with the awful games”.


Later on “Brad doesn’t know if he like this game, but he sure has been playing a lot of it”
 

GHG

Gold Member
No Man's Sky is one of my most disliked games this generation I found it totally unplayable and boring. Hope this is more on the Metal Gear spectrum.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, my initial 10 hours with NMS were some of the most fun I've had all gen.

Then I realised I'd pretty much seen and done it all so dropped it.

I hear it's much better now but never got round to giving it another go. I'll probably fire it up in VR someday.
 

Heimdall_Xtreme

Jim Ryan Fanclub's #1 Member
Omg my predictions was correct!!! xDDD.

Just give me time to find my past quotes... I already know it. Because the gameplay is... Boring
 
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DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
On the opposite end of the spectrum, my initial 10 hours with NMS were some of the most fun I've had all gen.

Then I realised I'd pretty much seen and done it all so dropped it.

I hear it's much better now but never got round to giving it another go. I'll probably fire it up in VR someday.

I thought I was gonna like it in the first hour, but there was too much tediousness and micromanagement and having to change your filters and whatnot. I get the reason they put it in there, for immersion, but to me it came at the cost of tediousness--my most disliked quality in any game... being tedious. I just have no patience for any micromanaging anything in games and anything that stops the pacing of what I want to do. Especially in open world games. Anything that makes my exploration come to a halt, or a diversion just annoys the hell out of me. And then even pushing through that begrudgingly, I realized all the game was is going around, extracting resources and I just gave up. I still loved the exploration aspect of it, but if they cut out all the monotony and stuff I might have really liked it.
 
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