3/5 ★ – ohmightyqueen's review of Death Stranding.

Playtime: 34 hours This game is the first game ive ever played that i pushed myself torturously through the first 7-10 hours hating every minute of the gameplay. I had picked it up when it first came out but it never clicked with me. Decided to give it another go seeing as the second one is coming out and the story has always truly interested me. The first multitude of hours were miserable. Im so shocked that anyone stuck with it for as long as they did to love this game. The UI, even towards the end was busy and confusing and i never fully understood all the information given to me when i handed in an order. Before deciding to put it down and give up i was about 12 hours in and watched a few tips and tricks videos on youtube. A lot of information i was given was saying that after episode 3 it started getting better. They were right! Opening up the world, and being given the skeletal legs were an absolute game changer for me. I no longer felt weak af and didnt mind trudging vast distances with an insane load on my back. For me, i feel this game is quite simple to sum up: Graphics 10/10 Acting 10/10 Music 10/10 Story 10/10 Gameplay a frustrating 6/10. There were moments where I was having fun and enjoying myself but others where I just wanted it to be over so badly, as my friends can attest to. I found the first few encounters with BTs a panicky mess and i never understood what i was meant to be doing (the tutorials were a little lacking in this sense) but eventually you just get it and they become easier to work with. Battles with mules were okay, i never really liked getting involved with them so im glad they were easy to deal with on my diffculty setting (very easy). The story was incredible but the pacing was off so much. It felt incredibly jarring to have essentially a 2 hour cut scene at the end of the game?! It was fantastic to watch because of the quality of production, but there were several times where I felt it was almost there but it never ended. Then the whole story was given to you all at once rather than throughout the game which is what you’d expect from a video game. Having never played a Kojima game before i have come to understand that this is the standard but i dont think its for me. Unfortunately, i mostly have negative feelings towards the game, the gameplay and the length really let it down for me so thats why im giving it 3 stars. However, saying all that and feeling extremely weird typing this out, i will probably get suckered in to playing the second game. Honestly, the story is just so good and intriguing that i dont think i can miss it. Im hoping a sequel will iron out some of the most frstrating aspects of the game play but i wont hold my breath.