Death Strandingis a very polarising game – possibly one of the most polarising of its decade. It’s often perceived as a very ‘if you get it you get it’ kind of game, with people either loving it or thinking it’s a giant waste of time.
Even here at TheGamer, you’ll find people who love it and people who hate it. Some of us find the game meaningful, my colleaguesEric SwitzerandJade Kingamong them, and some of us (me) find it completely impossible to play.
Trust me, I’ve tried to understand it, but for me,playing the game is like pulling teeth. I can see the beauty in its different parts, and I get it on an intellectual level – asynchronous cooperation, human connection, yada yada – but I simply do not have the kind of personality to enjoy protracted periods of video game hiking. I’ve tried twice to get into the game, and failed miserably both times. But the gameplay isn’t the only problem:I think Kojima is possibly one of the worst writers in triple-A gaming right now.
I know that opinion will make a lot of people angry, but I’ve tried and failed to find a valid argument against it. I’ve never managed to make it very far in Death Stranding, but I wanted to at least be able to say I’ve experienced enough of the story to be able to say honestly that I gave it a fair shot.
I might be a hater, but I try very hard to at least be an informed hater.
So over the course of the last week, I’ve been watching a compilation of every cutscene in Death Stranding. Even putting the excruciating experience of playing the game aside, it is completely impossible for me to get through the story. I got about two hours into the eleven hour video before giving up completely.
The ten-minute long, bizarre trailer for Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, released during last week’s State of Play, only served to reinforce everything I believe about the Death Stranding franchise. The thing about Kojima is that, in theory, I should be very into what he does. And indeed, there are some things about Death Stranding that I find very appealing, which make it all the more disappointing for me that I just don’tgetit.
Like our Editor-in-Chief Stacey Henley, I respect that the series is bold and dares to do things that nobody else in gaming would even consider. The series is built far more on vibes than it is logic, a practice we rarely see anywhere else in the medium. As much as I find Death Stranding’s execution intolerably messy and unpolished, Kojima’s concepts are always cool, bizarre, and visually striking. The environments portrayed in the first game and the sequel’s trailer are gorgeous. There are moments in both that made me feel genuinely moved. I respect that Kojima can craft truly strange mysteries, settings, and lore that players want to pick apart and understand.
But Death Stranding 2’s trailer puts everything I hate about Kojima’s work front and centre. The ideas, as always, are very interesting and lean into the surreal, which is something I search for in other media – it’s why I enjoy the work of directors like David Lynch so much. Where else would we see a character using an electric guitar as a weapon?
Sorry, I just rememberedHi-Fi Rushexists.
But as usual, the ideas are better than the execution. I was horrified to find that the entire trailer is one huge exposition dump, a practice that Kojima is consistently guilty of. It’s especially bad in the first half of the trailer, as Fragile gives Sam a tour of the ship they’re on and then has several minutes of voiceover, explaining what Sam is doing in the game, her role, what Sam achieved in the previous game, what happened to the people in the previous game, the creation of Drawbridge, and neatly summarises the themes and core story of the game. We then break for a showcase of the sequel’s antagonist before returning to more of Fragile telling Sam why he went on his expedition, followed by more scenes of the game.
Every line of dialogue is so heavy on clumsily communicating the lore and context of the game that I cannot imagine any person saying these sentences in real life. Very often, the only thing making the cutscenes bearable at all are believable performances from the game’s celebrity cast, but more often than not I find myself cringing while watching characters interact. It shows a distinct lack of skill and delicacy in writing dialogue, which is especially painful. It has a knock on effect that results in characters all sounding the same and not feeling distinct from each other or unique in any way, making their ridiculous names the main thing that differentiates them from each other.
Obviously, it takes far more than one person to make a game, but Kojima certainly had a hand in scriptwriting.
I’m hoping against hope that the trailer isn’t indicative of the game’s actual writing, but I’m fully aware that’s naive – realistically, the game will be everything I expect it to be, and there will still be people who love it. Unfortunately, the trailer has reaffirmed what I already believed: I do not want to play Death Stranding 2, as much as its images and themes compel me. It’s unlikely hearing more about the game will change my mind.
