Death Stranding (2019)

What could have been a fun five-hour-long focused exploration of an interesting mechanic is a fifty-hour love letter from Kojima, to Kojima. That verdict took a handsome few hours in post-apocalyptic America this year. What I uncovered is an incongruous collage of an action game, a modernized QWOP, and exceedingly heavy-handed exposition. The first few hours were truly brilliant. The desolate world full of mysteries was both interesting and terrifying. You play as a porter who can't bear to be touched. The core gameplay loop, where the game asks only that you place each step where the physics will hold, was engaging and challenging. You control his fine movements with the analog sticks, making sure each step is calculated and steady. It was just as fresh as it was challenging — I have terrible motor skills, after all. Yet, as the hours went on, the magic began to sour. The first decay came in the form of action sequences. Kojima decided that the missing ingredient of a slow,…