I just want to start this by saying, yes, I'm a huge Kojima fan. I played Metal Gear Solid 2 & Peacewalker, beat Metal Gear Solid 3 once, and have beat Metal Gear Solid V twice, once on Xbox once on PC, nearly 100% the game on PC. So obviously when I heard Death Stranding was being released two years ago, but a PS4 exclusive, I was pretty upset. However, it ended up coming to Steam (obviously), and I waited seemingly forever to get the game. I saw reviews that said it was just a walking simulator with a garbage story that was riddled with plot holes, so I held off for over a year until I finally picked it up for $30 about two weeks ago.

Best $30 I've ever spent.

This game is like none-other and it can't be described by mere comparison, so I'll attempt to cover it the best I can.

To start, yes the graphics are incredible, I have a 1050ti with a Ryzen 5 2600, so I couldn't crank the game to ultra, only to about medium-low settings, but it STILL looked great. My performance with the previously mentioned hardware was also decent, averaging about 35 - 40 FPS, the game only dropped in frames when using the vehicles covering a lot of ground quickly. I cannot stress just how good this game looks, Kojima, just like in Metal Gear Solid V, has some really good film-like camera work in the cut-scenes that just make for the greatest looking experience possible. I found myself taking no-joke around five screenshots a cut-scene just because of how great the camerawork and graphics are. That combined with the camera mode, I found myself uploading nearly twenty screenshots after I was done with a session of the game, because it simply just looked that damn good.

Now to cover the controversial part, the gameplay. Let me just get it out of the way, that I'll admit it, this game is a walking simulator at it's heart... and I don't care. I have never had so much fun just walking in a game. I may be doing nothing but simply traversing a river, but just everything comes together so perfectly in this game that I find it so much fun. I never once found myself getting bored or sick of walking, even when I unlocked the motorcycle and truck that you get very early on, I found myself enjoying the game even less using the vehicles, and instead wanted to be walking to my destinations. Being able to take in this game's outstanding scenery by walking everywhere makes it worth it alone. I simply cannot described why walking in a video game is fun, because like I said no other game has tried this before, so you just have to take my word for it that it's great. To cover the actual enemies in the game, the BTs and Mules respectively never really posed a challenge to be honest. I never viewed them as an unwanted feature, but I certainly never found myself "scared" of them, past the first 2 - 3 chapters. This is because I quickly noticed that the Mules get knocked out after 3 melee attacks, and they can't really block or dodge your attacks. You get a multitude of items along the way to assist you in getting rid of the BTs and Mules, but I never found myself needing to carry all of them, usually just one or two of said items would do the job easily, and they could never really kill me if I used these items. Speaking of dying, I only died once in my 37 hour venture of the main story, and it was to fall damage; it's not exactly a hard game by any means if you couldn't tell, so don't come looking for a very challenging experience.

I wanted to add a little section for the music of this game, because it deserves one of it's own. Kojima, just like Metal Gear Solid V, doesn't really use much music that was made for this game, the vast majority of music you'll be hearing is from real life artists that Kojima decided to put in the game. Some of the artists include Bring Me the Horizon, New Order, King Crimson, etc. some artists from Metal Gear Solid V even return like Mike Oldfield. I really just wanted to write this section to specifically mention Low Roar, these guys are the backbone of this game's soundtrack and good lord do they make some great music. Music will start playing while traveling to destinations in some story missions, and they're a prominent feature during said sections, I utterly adore their inclusion in the game. I found myself taking longer to do deliveries because I wanted to fully enjoy their music. They only have 400k listeners on Spotify, give them a shot I promise you won't regret it.

Now on to the meat and potatoes of this game, the real heart and soul, the story. This game's story has a million different curve balls, and twists that it throws at you, so I will cover this game's story by spoiling NOTHING that you don't learn in the first chapter or two of the game (there are 14 chapters in total). You play as Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus), he is a man with no ties or connections to anything in the world, he is the son of the President of the United States. Outside of his mother and sister, he seemingly has no family or friends. You find out very early on the the United States of America no longer exists, and the entire former-country is in shambles. The rest of the world, and it's state, is unknown. This is because of an event called the Death Stranding, that has allowed people that should be in the afterlife to be in the world of the living, nobody knows what caused the Death Stranding, nor how to stop it. The people that have crossed into the world of the living are called BTs, and only certain people can sense their presence. Sam has a condition called DOOMS that allows him to sense a BTs presence, other people have this condition but to varying degrees, with some people even being able to control BTs. Sam is also a repatriate, which basically means he can't die. People use equipment called BBs (Bridge Babies) to detect BTs, this is the child that you see on Sam's chest in the container in screenshots and trailers. The rain has also taken on a new property, in that it ages people rapidly when it touches them, it's now called Timefall, it also allows BTs an area to exist in. Sam delivers packages to people's shelters out in the continental United States for a government entity called Bridges, Sam delivers items such as food, medicine, and other entertainment items, people with Sam's job are called "porters". Sam soon learns that his mother (the President) is dying and needs to talk to Sam one last time. Sam learns that his sister, Amelie, has been kidnapped by a terrorist cell while attempting to reconnect the people of the former United States and is being held on the western coast of the United States in Edge Knot City. The President insists that Sam travels from the east to west coast and re-connect America to form the United Cities of America, to not only rescue Amelie, but to give humanity another shot. Sam has zero connection to the United States, nor does he care for the future of America, but he begrudgingly agrees to save his sister Amelie. That is the absolute foundation for this game's story, I could write an Oxford level essay on this game's narrative, but I'll save that for you to experience. You meet a whole host of characters voice by high level actors, such as Mads Mikkelsen, that you learn about up until the credits roll.

You really are kept in the dark about a decent amount of this game's story until the very late chapters. However, I would say the early chapters are still good fun and introduce you to the story & universe in a good manner.

Overall, I give this game my highest recommendation. If you even have the slightest desire to purchase this game, wait until it goes on sale, and give it a shot. Or buy it full price whatever floats your boat. This game is very weird, you may not find yourself loving every second like I did, but it's certainly worth a shot. This game is something that only happens once in a decade almost, a truly innovative experience like none-other. I can only wait in great anticipation of what Kojima will make next.