Death Stranding Reviews
Death Stranding once again sees Hideo Kojima pushing the boundaries of what video games can be, and the result is a breathtaking and uncompromising – if at times willfully baffling – experience.
This is Hideo Kojima running wild with his ideas and it is magnificent if flawed in some places. Not many creators try to make something this different in the world of big-budget games, so the fact that something like this actually exists must be celebrated even if we don’t like some of its weirder design choices.
Review in Persian | Read full review
I can't understate how big of an issue the lack of challenge is, it impacts a lot of the game. Yet, that is the only real issue I have with Death Stranding. It is dang near perfectly executed in its design. It's gorgeous, well-written, and cinematic, the music is stellar, the world is immersive and the gameplay is phenomenal.
Even after completing Death Stranding twice I've been conflicted about how I feel about this title. On one hand, the narrative, presentation, lore, and soundtrack are outstanding. On the other hand, the game's core gameplay teetered between tiresome and exceptional. Death Stranding's world-building featured an incredible landscape teeming with interesting lore but surrounding that is a delivery simulator.
Death Stranding wants to be a lot of things, but not really a video game. A good gaming experience or a story that makes an real impact are the things that you'll miss the most in this ridiculously long journey that you have to take. Even Fans of the previous works of Hideo Kojima will have a hard time to win something out of this title.
Review in German | Read full review
“Death Stranding is utter brilliance. Part cinema, part social commentary, and part madness-- it is a one of a kind masterpiece.”
Inventory management, encumbrance limits, ridiculous story, fetch quests galore, and never-ending cutscenes. The absolute inverse of everything I want in a game.
Hideo Kojima once again proves that he belongs among the best video game designers right now. Thankfully, Death Stranding's trailers didn't show everything and the game still has plenty of amazing and unforgettable surprises hidden in its sleeve.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Death Stranding is a game with a fantastic and uniquely interesting story. Backed with a strong cast of experienced actors, the game manages to tell the story flawlessly. The gameplay doesn’t quite live up to the same level. The delivery aspects are fun and in its own, tells a story. It just gets quite repetitive over time and leaves you wanting a bit more diversity to the delivery missions. Overall, Death Stranding should be seen as a very successful first project for Kojima productions and is hopefully a sign of many more to come.
Death Stranding is the most unique big-budget game I’ve ever played, a socially-minded injection of inventive ideas into a genre that has long survived by being lazy and brutish. This ambitious formula-flipper is brimming with empathy and carefully courts cinematic influences, an ensemble cast and a world of eye-watering scale, delivering a sticky gameplay loop to tie it all together and create a console generation-defining experience.
Death Stranding is a distorted vision of the open-world genre, pulled apart by its individual threads, deconstructed, and sewn back together in the image of its director, Hideo Kojima. It’s an astonishing, compelling and provocative experience, even if it isn’t always as exciting to play as it is to think about.
It's hard to pin down exactly what makes Death Stranding work in my mind, but a masterful presentation, stunning open world, and captivating characters contribute to one of this generation’s most unforgettable games, for better or worse.
Death Stranding is a weird game. It won’t be for everyone, but if you can find something to like in the relatively slow start, you’ll love it by the end. Typically Kojima for better and for worse, it’s a story about reconnecting people through the eyes of a bystander that becomes much more than that. Technically and visually outstanding, it’s going to be up there on my Game of the Year list for sure. A weird, but wonderful game.
Not everyone will love Death Stranding and I won’t blame you. The game is not for everyone. Some episodes take over two dozen hours to complete and the rinse and repeat delivering mechanics could be an issue for some. However, it always rewards you in some way or another. Be it with its gorgeous and detailed world that is a joy to explore or the fantastic story that unfolds as you discover everything this ambitious game has to offer. There is simply nothing else like it and to be able to dive into it all is a magnificent experience one which will define this generation of gaming.
Many expect things of Hideo Kojima, but it takes a degree of self-confidence to deliver something else instead. He left Konami because he wasn’t allowed to take the time and spend the money to make the game he wanted, so it is depressing to see Death Stranding make so many mistakes that appear on some level to be dictated by what people expect.
Death Stranding is not entertaining. As such, it fails as a video game, it fails as a narrative and it fails overall.
Death Stranding is a game that focuses on the journey rather than the goal. If you are looking for a different and unique adventure, should try Death Stranding.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
Death Stranding is the culmination of years worth of hype, misteries and expectation, in a genre-transcending game. An emotional and provocative interactive experience presented in a way that is only possible in a videogame.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Death Stranding might be Kojima's boldest game to date. It may also be his most tedious. Either way, its originality outweighs its sometimes exhausting structure and poor pacing... but only just. Maybe not a game I would recommend to everyone, but certainly one of the most interesting games of 2019.
A true masterpiece by Hideo Kojima, Death Stranding is an experience unlike any other, and you must try it to believe it.