With the launch of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach just around the corner, I decided it was high time to try out the original game. And, after playing for about 10 hours, I have to admit that I was dreadfully wrong about it.
Back when the title first came out (nearly six years ago, by the way), I followed all the mainstream gaming YouTubers and commentators that were memeing the hell out of it, giving me a very, very different first impression than most had.
I believed the title, young and dumb as I was, to be a janky mess that simply had a boring and unintuitive gameplay loop revolving around your walking around poorly mapped terrain to deliver packages, jankier still that you lost at every corner. Enriched by this recent experience, however, I don’t believe this to be true one bit.
In fact, Death Stranding is some of the most fun I’ve had with a game since God knows when.
First of all, the jank delusion. I played the game on keyboard and mouse, and it features an amazing camera controller that at high fps and refresh rate is just so smooth to use. The game also performs fantastically, with my 6900XT outputting consistent triple-digit fps at 1440p, allowing for that smooth camera to be maintained at all times.
All the controls are very intuitive and snappy, further dispelling my wrongful conviction of its being super janky to play.
I’d be getting up early in the morning before my daily routine was set to begin and steal a few hours of the day to devote to trekking across a wrecked United States in the hopes of reconnecting what’s left of it. The last time I did so was with Bloodborne in 2020, the only game I can think of that hooked me so strongly.
The very act of delivering packages across the map is incredibly soothing, particularly if you’re locked in and focused on the game. You’re walking, alone, over the deserted remnants of what was formerly a great nation, now infested with the souls of the dead that simply will not rest.
It’s an exceptionally unique experience, especially elevated once that trademark Kojima Hollywood music kicks in and the camera zooms out, allowing you to really take everything in.
Speaking of the music, the songs chosen for this title are fantastic. From atmospheric to emotional, Kojima definitely put every single song into Death Stranding deliberately and for a good reason. Not one of them felt out of place, even though most of the music was recorded and published before the game was launched and that there isn’t much of an OST there.
The cutscenes, though long and frequent, feel better than most of the movies I’ve watched in recent years. I’m well acquainted with Kojima’s cutscene direction, having played through most of his Metal Gear titles before, but even so, the ones in Death Stranding seemed to me much more refined and as evolutions of Kojima’s style.
There’s also the genre that plays a very big part. Stuck somewhere between science fiction and fantasy, Death Stranding‘s genre is difficult to define. Whatever it may be called, it’s some of the best stuff I’ve seen to date, and I sincerely hope the sequel is just as good.
In 10 days’ time as of this article, we will have our hands on Death Stranding 2: On the Beach which, given its promotional material, should be bigger and better than the original game. And, having thankfully given this franchise a shot now, I simply cannot wait to see what Kojima has in store for us.
What about you, Destructoid? Have you played Death Stranding and are you planning to hop onto the seuqel? Let us know below.
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