Death Stranding is incredibly difficult to classify unambiguously, it is definitely an open world game from a third person perspective based primarily on exploration. There are also elements of action games and stealth. However, the most important thing in the game is the main character's journey every day. Porter Bridges himself is a courier who has been faced with an extremely difficult task for the USA, as a result of which, at first, it is not fully understood, he finds himself in a disintegration of the country's terrain, which resembles a landscape after a nuclear war, and the survivors spend their everyday life in not very large complexes or in small campsites. Every day of the Americans is, above all, protection against devastating temporal rain and avoiding dangerous mysterious surfacing.
In all this, our hero must save the world from the progressive destruction by himself, but to do this first, it is necessary to unite the nation, which has lost its identity. Our task is to restore connectivity across the continent. Death stranding is quite a complicated game, full of science fiction threads, parallel worlds, and even some kind of metaphysical and mysticism. The introduction to the game is long and offers enough information for the player to be aware of the basics. And yet whether we actually understood the story is only verified by the ending. Along the way, we meet many interesting and well-written heroes. This was undoubtedly a big advantage of the game, but the full appreciation comes only with the credits, which take at least 50 hours to reach. As a courier, we operate primarily on foot, and additionally in extremely difficult conditions, which we learn for several dozen hours. Yes, after a long time, vehicles and simplified fast travel will appear in the game, but the core of the game is the struggle for survival. Alone with nature emerged and mules, i.e. hostile couriers whose goal is to take over our cargo.
The work of a courier initially impresses and even the whole world seems beautiful. In solitude, we cover the next kilometers, listening to the beautiful soundtrack. All the time we have to be careful not to stumble or fall into a rushing river or ravine that we have not noticed before. Each delivery is a struggle not only with the difficult conditions of the world, but also with yourself in this virtual and real world.
Intelligent travel planning, selection of equipment, choosing the route or even the way of placing the goods, all this is the daily bread of each delivery. Learning all the mechanisms is really exciting. Working in the field is a skillful selection and use of tools, so initially ladders turn out to be helpful and we can also use things set up and left by other players. This is a kind of light cooperation that becomes really crucial after a few hours. While we don't see other players in the world, we feel their presence in different ways. Our actions and those of others have a real impact on the development of events and the developing world. It's nice to see that interactions really make sense, but in this aspect, you can't reveal anything more so that everyone can find out for themselves.
Unfortunately, all side tasks are similar and not very satisfying, but we feel they are "forced" to carry them out, because thanks to them we get the necessary resources and nothing like "likes" on social networking sites that facilitate further work, the possibility of expanding some facilities and better equipment. The game is constructed so cleverly that when we feel stronger, for example by increasing our confidence, and then we are reduced to the ground floor, due to a new type of threat, and this new location, to the conditions of which we are not adapted.
Let's also not forget that, in principle, every step must be planned, we stumble over stones while traveling, we risk crossing deep water, we destroy the goods when we fall down the hill. We keep our balance with triggers, especially when the load is too high. All this makes an electrifying impression, because the game equates the level of realism with Red Dead Redemption 2, but after several dozen hours of often tedious gameplay, sometimes there is also irritation. It's fair to say that our reactions are in line with our feelings. You may like it or not. Apart from quite repetitive tasks, the fight also turns out to be a bit schematic. Avoiding or neutralizing the emerged evokes great emotions at first, but later we get used to the threat. Over time, we simply react to them with more and more interesting weapons.
The fight was also difficult due to the weather conditions, but we get used to them quickly. Repeatability is Death Stranding's biggest problem. As a result, the title works much better in short matters, but on the other hand, the changing world and exploring new areas of the huge map can take you for many hours. However, with your ideas, assumptions and implementation of the entire project, you can have fun. The cooperation system based on "likes" is also great, it is nice to feel the respect from other players for simply placing a ladder in the gorge. It is worth noting that sometimes during the game we fall into large story holes, where we do not learn new important facts about the situation in the world for many hours. Otherwise, we get long cutscenes, although it must be admitted that they are well-made and often resemble great traditional cinema.
The graphics are at a very high level, although the visual aspect is somewhat disturbed by the harsh climate of the new United States. One could talk about this game endlessly, it is a really complex and very surprising production, but certainly not for everyone.