Death Stranding is a bold game, and a rarity in the AAA space where massive budgets necessitate “safe” and conventional products more often than not. Death Stranding is bold in how it experiments with completely new ideas- a byproduct of that, though, is that it’s very clearly a game that will divide people, and won’t appeal to everyone.
That’s been reflected in its critical reception as well, with scores ranging from the lows of 3s to the highs of 10s to the middle ranges of 6s and 7s and everything else. On OpenCritic, it currently sits on an average of 85 (which is a great score, all things considered). Hideo Kojima, however, completely expected such mixed responses.
Speaking in a interview with PlayStation Access, Kojima said that he attempts to do new things with every game he makes, which is true for Death Stranding as well, of course. And because it experiments a lot, Kojima expected that there would be many who wouldn’t like it- though he hopes the game will come to be appreciated more a few years from now.
“In terms of how I feel now people are playing Death Stranding – I believe there will be positive and negative reactions,” he said. “This happens when you try to do something new, even in movies or games. If people are faced with something they haven’t experienced before, it can be challenging. It was the same when I first did a stealth title.
“But I am hoping with the support I get from fans, that positivity will spread out. And that in 5 years or 10 years people will look back at Death Stranding as a new standard. Then I’ll try and create something new again.”
In our own review of Death Stranding, our impressions were very positive. Our final verdict says, “Death Stranding is definitely an acquired taste, and its slow pacing and deliberate gameplay might not be for everyone, but its mechanical depth, its desolately beautiful and haunting world, and its confident and stylistic storytelling nonetheless make for a continental trek worth experiencing.”
Death Stranding is out now on PS4. It will be out on PC in Summer of 2020, where it will launch on Steam and Epic Games Store simultaneously.
