When I saw the first trailer for Death Stranding, I wasn't impressed. It looked like a walking/cargo delivery simulator and that seemed like the furthest thing from my own interests in gaming at the time. I quickly brushed it off and put it out of my mind.

Fast forward to the game releasing - I decided to watch some gameplay since it seemed to be a polarizing game and was once again unimpressed. My suspicions had seemed to be confirmed - this looked exactly like a walking/cargo delivery simulator. I couldn't fathom how anyone could possibly enjoy this game; where was the fun in just walking around? I couldn't wrap my head around it.

Fast forward again to this past year - I started playing the Metal Gear Solid series after hearing nothing but glowing things about it. I slowly made my way through each game, admiring the vision and passion that Kojima and his team put into each project. I became fascinated with Kojima specifically, and wanted to understand how he could create something that felt so fresh and inspired.

After beating MGSV recently, I felt a hollowness - it felt like nothing could fill the void that finishing the MGS series had left. I knew Kojima had left Konami to create his own studio and put out that weird game Death Stranding I had seen a couple years ago - could it be as good as what I considered to be his magnum opus?

After roughly 52 hours with Death Stranding, I can confidently say that this game stands next to Metal Gear Solid as a once-in-a-lifetime gaming experience. I don't think one is better than the other; on the contrary, I think both complement each other perfectly. Kojima's ability to tell deeply complex, philosophical stories with nuanced characters and an absurdity that borders on the inane is unmatched. I found myself far more invested in this story than I ever expected to be, and as I write this review I feel the same sort of hollowness that I felt when I completed MGSV. I knew I had experienced something truly special, and I know that very few games, if any, will be able to capture this specific feeling ever again.

Playing this game felt strangely calming a lot of the time; I often get pretty tired of traversing open worlds in a lot of the games I play and will opt to use fast travel to speed up the experience. Walking around the world of Death Stranding felt serene - it allowed me to sit with my thoughts while walking between point A and point B, and rarely did it ever feel like a chore to get where I was going (with a handful of exceptions but they never ruined the experience outright).

The vocal and facial capture performances in this game are absolutely top notch. I can't think of a game, apart from maybe The Last of Us Part II, that looks this good and has characters that felt this real. Every tear that ran down a face, every subtle facial expression - they all felt so genuine. The casting in this game was also bonkers - I knew Guillermo del Toro had a role but had no idea Troy Baker, Margaret Qualley AND Conan O'Brien would show up as well. The fact that Death Stranding has such a star studded cast speaks volumes about how influential Kojima is as a creator and just how much of a cool opportunity it must be to work with him.

The weakest part of this game is probably the combat - it felt tacked on a lot of the time and often took me out of the experience while playing. I'm guessing that it was included to cater to a larger audience since a game just about delivering cargo probably wouldn't sound like a fun video game to a lot of people (myself included when I first heard about it). Thankfully the combat sections make up a small portion of the overall game and don't detract too much from an otherwise stellar experience.

I think this is the longest review I've ever written on this site but it also feels like I could write pages more about this game. It's insane to me to think that this game exists at all; if I were in a board room hearing Death Stranding pitched to me for the first time I'd have thought that Kojima had lost his mind. But I'm also immensely grateful that he was given the opportunity to tell his off the wall and absolutely unhinged story that resonated so deeply with me. I distinctly remember seeing the trailer for the sequel at the Game Awards last year and thinking that it was wild to me that they were making a sequel to that weird walking simulator game - now, I cannot wait to dive back into this world once again.