![]() ![]() It’s worth noting that games with punishingly difficult and/or tedious game loops aren’t anything new. To call it a game implies that having fun and winning and/or losing is the going concern when, in truth, the going concern is the narrative. It’s an interactive story that puts you into the mind of its protagonist in a way that movies can’t, and presents characters emoting on a level we’ve never quite seen in video games before. What Hideo Kojima and company have created isn’t simply a video game featuring long cutscenes. If challenging, artistic dramas are embraced in art forms like movies, TV, and books, why should games be any different? Death Stranding is a sci-fi drama featuring incredible performances from professional actors of the highest caliber. We love dramatic and even painful movies because they provide points of recognition and understanding for those seeking a deeper human connection. These feelings are unpleasant, but experiencing them in through storytelling can be extremely cathartic. It’s totally acceptable for movies-particularly dramas-to not be fun or entertaining, and that’s because they engage audiences in different ways, evoking emotions like sadness, regret, fear, and anger. But some of the best movies aren’t fun AT ALL. There are different genres of movies, and some are fun, like comedies, kids movies, and action-adventure blockbusters. ![]() While some may consider Death Stranding‘s lack of truly fun moments to be a bad thing, I think it’s important to acknowledge that in other forms of entertainment, being fun isn’t a requirement at all. The refrain “Keep on keepin’ on” is one of the most powerful, poignant messages I’ve ever seen in a game. It’s a long, arduous road getting to the end of the story, but the hard work ultimately pays off. Persistence is one of the key themes of the story, and trudging through the game requires a measure of patience that most mainstream, big-budget titles don’t require. After all, the struggle to rebuild is the point.Īnyone who plays Death Stranding will inevitably find themselves in a scenario similar to my river incident, in which they hit a wall and ask themselves earnestly, “Why the hell am I still playing this thing?” It’s a good question, and I think the game pushes players to that point of desperation and defeat on purpose. Not experiencing that struggle first-hand would cause the narrative and its themes to fall flat. While some may dismiss Sam’s long journey as nothing but an Amazon delivery sim, I find even the game’s most frustrating moments to be full of meaning and emotion, and that’s because Sam’s labor is the narrative’s center of gravity. My river fiasco wasn’t “fun” as I so eloquently blurted, but that doesn’t mean that it was void of value.ĭeath Stranding is a story about reconnecting and rebuilding America, a land that was built on the backs of blue collar, hard-working, unsung heroes like Sam. Stacking loads of crates on Sam’s back to the point where even standing still runs the risk of the entire shipment toppling over can be an extremely aggravating experience. The game’s main aim isn’t to be fun, but rather to tell a moving, meaningful tale, even if achieving that goal isn’t always pleasurable for the player. Whereas in most games each element contributes to the overall fun and/or enjoyment of the experience, all of Death Stranding’s elements, from presentation to gameplay, operate in support of the narrative (even death itself, one of the oldest, most fundamental video game tropes there is, becomes a major story element in the game). But playing Death Stranding challenged this criteria in a big way for me, especially for a AAA game. ![]() No matter how simple or complex a game may be, to me, its value is ultimately determined by how fun it is. While playing a game for review, I’m constantly asking myself whether a game is fun or not. As I watched the metal crates I’d worked so hard to protect float downstream, banging against every rock on the way, I said out loud in a state of supreme aggravation, “This isn’t fun.” I was crossing a raging river near the crest of a waterfall, desperately clutching the left and right triggers and pushing ever so gently on the thumbstick as Sam Porter Bridges inched forward step by step, a tower of packages teetering precariously on his back. After a few excruciatingly tense minutes of wading, I was finally mere feet from the other side, when suddenly I stumbled forward and fell, losing all of my cargo to the current. I remember the exact moment Death Strandingclicked for me.
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