Death Stranding will surprise you with a very deep and cinematic experience that shows you exactly what type of world and game you're gonna get into.
The beginning hours may feel too overwhelming for the average gamer, throwing at you too many concepts about life, death, sci-fi, supernatural and survival elements right away in a seemly post-apocalyptic America.

Probably the strongest feature in the game is the story. It is slow and part of it being told through flashbacks, but once you start to link all the pieces you'll discover a great, well-crafted story that is worth the wait.
It will always keep you wondering what's gonna happen next, as you learn more about the world of Death Stranding, its characters, past incidents and other pieces of information only discovered via interviews and emails.
Narrative-wise, the story is divided by episodes, providing long cutscenes specially at the end of each episode, building more tension and unfolding a journey until it reaches its climax ending that's not easy to forget any time soon.
The only downside to this is the vast open world and gameplay that break the immersion and distract you from the main plot.

By far the weakest aspect of Death Stranding is the gameplay. The story itself can be really interesting and unique, but it all boils down to walking/driving long distances to make deliveries, it's really all the game has to offer and while it can get addicting as you'll always try to take on the next order, there's no denying how poorly designed the gameplay actually is, almost abusive even as you constantly stumble, tip and fall over basically easy to walk grounds.
When it comes to the game physics and collisions, it's probably one of the worst in recent years for a game of this caliber, with the main character, objects and vehicles moving in a very strange fashion and having almost over exaggerated animations.
There's absolutely no quality content except for the main orders and maybe a few standard orders, the progression system is always the same, consisting on gaining trust for different facilities and preppers by making deliveries to get new equipment or leveling up certain equipment or weapons.
Engaging in combat is totally optional, there's no reward by doing so unless it's related to certain retrieving item orders from hostile territories, although it's acceptable, it's not a game about killing, bur rather connecting and striving as one.

The game looks beautiful, with absolute stunning areas and a decent photo mode. The Decima Engine stands as one of the most advanced game engines graphically-wise speaking. The water simulation, character models, grassland and draw distances are actually pretty nice.

The music and sound design is really on point. From vehicle sounds to basic actions such as footsteps, ghostly voices, combat music, you name it, it all sounds great.
The game features a very sad, ambient, romantic and even nostalgic feeling OST by Low Roar, Silent Poets, Chvrches, Alan Walker, Khalid, Bring Me The Horizon, and many other artists which did great with tracks that offered value to the story.
Once again composer Ludvig Forssell did an amazing job with the music score.

This game suffers form Access Violations on multiple threads, also having memory and GPU leaks. Access Violations errors (which causes the game to crash and losing your progress) may have been caused by running scripts from the Decima Engine itself and as of version v1.02 they have not been fixed.

Story: ★★★
Gameplay: ✰✰✰
Visuals: ★★★
Memorable: ✮
7/10

I don't understand why is everyone saying this game is not for everybody. In fact it's a game everyone should experience at least once, if only because of its story, world, lore and visuals. Not everything has to be a shooter, action or RPG to be a great game that everyone must play or just a great piece of art in general.
With Death Stranding, however, if you can put up with its ridiculously repetitive gameplay and funky physics, you can find a really memorable journey, one that will not be forgotten for a long while.

Pushing the gaming industry boundries, creating something artistically unique and translating your vision into the videogame medium for other players to interact with is always appreciated and should always be welcomed.

[h1] Presentation [/h1] Death Stranding will surprise you with a very deep and cinematic experience that shows you exactly what type of world and game you're gonna get into. The beginning hours may feel too overwhelming for the average gamer, throwing at you too many concepts about life, death, sci-fi, supernatural and survival elements right away in a seemly post-apocalyptic America. [h1] Story [/h1] Probably the strongest feature in the game is the story. It is slow and part of it being told through flashbacks, but once you start to link all the pieces you'll discover a great, well-crafted story that is worth the wait. It will always keep you wondering what's gonna happen next, as you learn more about the world of Death Stranding, its characters, past incidents and other pieces of information only discovered via interviews and emails. Narrative-wise, the story is divided by episodes, providing long cutscenes specially at the end of each episode, building more tension and unfolding a journey until it reaches its climax ending that's not easy to forget any time soon. The only downside to this is the vast open world and gameplay that break the immersion and distract you from the main plot. [h1] Gameplay [/h1] By far the weakest aspect of Death Stranding is the gameplay. The story itself can be really interesting and unique, but it all boils down to walking/driving long distances to make deliveries, it's really all the game has to offer and while it can get addicting as you'll always try to take on the next order, there's no denying how poorly designed the gameplay actually is, almost abusive even as you constantly stumble, tip and fall over basically easy to walk grounds. When it comes to the game physics and collisions, it's probably one of the worst in recent years for a game of this caliber, with the main character, objects and vehicles moving in a very strange fashion and having almost over exaggerated animations. There's absolutely no quality content except for the main orders and maybe a few standard orders, the progression system is always the same, consisting on gaining trust for different facilities and preppers by making deliveries to get new equipment or leveling up certain equipment or weapons. Engaging in combat is totally optional, there's no reward by doing so unless it's related to certain retrieving item orders from hostile territories, although it's acceptable, it's not a game about killing, bur rather connecting and striving as one. [h1] Visuals [/h1] The game looks beautiful, with absolute stunning areas and a decent photo mode. The Decima Engine stands as one of the most advanced game engines graphically-wise speaking. The water simulation, character models, grassland and draw distances are actually pretty nice. [h1] Sound Design and OST [/h1] The music and sound design is really on point. From vehicle sounds to basic actions such as footsteps, ghostly voices, combat music, you name it, it all sounds great. The game features a very sad, ambient, romantic and even nostalgic feeling OST by Low Roar, Silent Poets, Chvrches, Alan Walker, Khalid, Bring Me The Horizon, and many other artists which did great with tracks that offered value to the story. Once again composer Ludvig Forssell did an amazing job with the music score. [h1] Technical Issues [/h1] This game suffers form Access Violations on multiple threads, also having memory and GPU leaks. Access Violations errors (which causes the game to crash and losing your progress) may have been caused by running scripts from the Decima Engine itself and as of version v1.02 they have not been fixed. [h1] Overall [/h1] [b] Story: [/b] ★★★ [b] Gameplay: [/b] ✰✰✰ [b] Visuals: [/b] ★★★ [b] Memorable: [/b] ✮ 7/10 I don't understand why is everyone saying this game is not for everybody. In fact it's a game everyone should experience at least once, if only because of its story, world, lore and visuals. Not everything has to be a shooter, action or RPG to be a great game that everyone must play or just a great piece of art in general. With Death Stranding, however, if you can put up with its ridiculously repetitive gameplay and funky physics, you can find a really memorable journey, one that will not be forgotten for a long while. Pushing the gaming industry boundries, creating something artistically unique and translating your vision into the videogame medium for other players to interact with is always appreciated and should always be welcomed.