I couldn't disagree with that IGN quote more.
On paper, yes, but it's the mechanics that completely change things up.
Here's the thing - most open world games focus on what happens when you arrive at your destination. The space between the objective and starting point is useless, empty space - you hold forward on the stick and you go. There's not usually much there.
Death Stranding inverts that - the arrival at your way point isn't usually the payoff - it's the journey.
Here's some examples..
I need to reach my objective in a stony field with large chasms running through it. I had a lot of things to carry and could barely walk with them so I loaded everything into a truck and hit the road. Unfortunately, I tried to jump a large chasm and missed - the truck fell into the chasm. Ruined, I climbed out of it and tried to consider my options. However, this commotion triggered a nearby camp (they have these pylons which scan for cargo). You can hear them above the chasm and then they start climbing down after me. So I open up the truck inventory quickly, grab a few supplies for combat and run.
Then I spent time taking out the patrol one by one (non-lethal - since killing leads to a voidout which blows a huge crater in the map).
After dispatching them, I returned to the truck and transported things piece by piece up the side of the chasm back to the surface. Carrying everything would be too difficult so I made my way to the bandit camp where the enemies had arrived from. Managed to steal one of their trucks and get back to my pile of stuff where I could load it up. I was able to continue my delivery route to the next way point until BTs appeared and the battery on the truck ran low (and since I wasn't in the Chrial network, I couldn't build a charge station). So I grabbed the key items for the mission and continued on foot, sneaking through BTs. Eventually, I made it to the top of a mountain (looking something like Mars at this point) and used the steep terrain as an excuse to run down the hill while trying to keep balance. Then - the objective was reached.
A simple little story but it's this type of occurrence - things going wrong on the road - that makes for such a memorable time.
