I've been playing Death Stranding over the last few weeks. Now, this is gonna be a rather long, but also a SPOILER-FREE one. So don't worry if you haven't played/finished the game already. First, I'm gonna put a concise intro, and then I'm gonna explain the reasons for my argument explicitly.
My opinion about DS in a nutshell:
Gameplay: meh... worse than expected
Story: Mind blown!
Death Stranding is a profound and complicated concept as a video game and obviously, as a result, there are several approaches to analyzing it. My approach here is called the "MDA framework". The MDA framework is a general one and can be applied to any game. It splits the components of games into three parts:
M for "Mechanics": the rules of the game
D for "Dynamics": the run-time behavior produced by mechanics/rules
A for "Aesthetics": the emotional responses evoked in the player
In a sense: It is all about the player's experience.
The framework also suggests that the player and the game designer have opposite perspectives of the game. While the designer starts with designing Mechanics, then Dynamics, and then Aesthetics, the player's perspective is the other way around: He experiences the game through the Aesthetics, which the Dynamics provide, which emerged from the Mechanics.
So what's wrong with DS gameplay, you ask? The game tries so hard from the beginning to tell you that you're the savior and the only hope for humanity to survive. That's what the designers want you to "feel" (Aesthetics). They want you to feel that you are unique, and only you can help humanity survive.
Now a designer could also observe his own game from the player's perspective and decide about different components of the game from that place. When a designer takes this approach, he is actually doing a kind of reverse engineering. In that case, a DS designer would think: I want the player to feel unique and special and feel responsible for humanity's survival (Aesthetics). As a result, this approach causes two questions to arise:
What should the player be doing in the game to be feeling like that? (Dynamics)
What tools does he need to be able to do what he should be doing? (Mechanics)
If the designer can't fully support the kind of feelings he wants the player to experience, by designing the right Dynamics and Mechanics, the whole experience gets affected negatively.
In Death Stranding, we play as a character whose job is to "transport cargo" from a client to another. That's what the Dynamics is all about, right? And I, as a player, didn't feel special or unique at all by playing as a "porter"! Even there were times that I felt like I'm a lackey or something! I mean, there were situations that I could fight some monsters (and it was fun), but for the most part, my mission was only to transport cargo in some of the most challenging conditions. And even though the NPCs in the game were trying to tell me that I am a special guy and they're lucky to have me, but in the end, I didn't feel like that "special guy" at all.
Apart from the not-so-engaging Dynamics, the missions (which are called "orders" in the game) are also quite repetitive and feel like the same. That is especially the case at the beginning of the game and remains the same until quite some time, and this makes an essential part of the game (the beginning) quite dull. Being alone in the game and not seeing or talking to someone "real" on the other hand, was another factor that made the beginning of the game not engaging enough for me (even the whole idea of having some sort of connection with other players, and seeing their "works" in the middle of game environment was not a big help in that matter).
Actually, the first mission in which I felt like I'm really doing something special and meaningful, was in Episode 3 or 4 of the game (The game has 14 episodes in total)! Up to that point, I was only talking to "holograms" and transferring cargo for them, but in that mission, I was asked to carry "a real human being", take her through a dangerous area, and deliver her safely. That mission really meant something to me, since those humans I was dealing with had unique histories of their own, and then I felt like I am involved in their stories!
That was where I decided to forget about side missions (because they were all the same: repetitive and meaningless) and stick to the main plot of the game. And fortunately for me, the story was starting to unfold at the same time as well. And it was beautiful! The story of DS is one of the best and, at the same time most profound stories I've ever experienced. At first, when I started the game, it looked ordinary (and as I mentioned, the gameplay wasn't helping to engage me as well), but as I played more and more, and got familiar with different characters and their backgrounds, I started to love it. I allowed the story alone to pull me towards the end, as I was able to finally find meaning in the game and my own actions through it.
The story had the same deep, complicated and mysterious structure that is best known with "Hideo Kojima's games", but this time full of philosophical ideas and surprises as well! In fact, the story doesn't stop to surprise you until the very last moment, with its weird plot twists and mysteries! Sometimes I even felt like that he (Kojima) is trying to put my patience to the test!
In the end, I think the "dramatic experience" managed to cover the mistakes of gameplay and satisfy me overall.
As a recap, I think Death Stranding is a game with a brilliant story and narrative but fails to truly shine as a fun interactive experience due to the poor choice of Dynamics. The gameplay consists of really well-crafted systems (Mechanics) which, in a sense, are unfortunately wasted, as "fun" is missing in the core gameplay. And I think the whole thing could really be more successful if it were a movie! (I guess Kojima should consider starting to make movies!)
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