DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR’S CUT — Less Dystopian Amazon Delivery Driver Simulator

Very rarely are the initial notes I make for the first 2–3 hours of a game so vastly different to my final impression. After a few decades playing a wide variety of games, you get a pretty good feel for when it’s hitting the spot, or if there’s a swing and a miss. Death Stranding however, bested my instincts. Above this very paragraph I can see notes which I can almost chuckle at now with hindsight, but I’m glad I made them so as not to lose sight of this game’s imperfections.

First things first, play this game on a controller. Bless my friends for quickly making me aware of this one, as it is responsible for a considerable amount of frustration in the initial hours of playtime. Graduated speeds of movement and the vibration force feedback are both incredibly crucial to even basic interactions and locomotion in Death Stranding, it really needs a giant popup to warn you as such — similar to that of Hollow Knight: Silksong. The game doesn’t help itself when it comes to feeling familiar with your control set. Early on, Hideo Kojima is determined to ensure you understand a great deal of context about the world you are about to navigate well…