Death Stranding is a masterpiece. Hideo Kojima stages a memorable adventure that will be talked about for many years to come. It is visionary, demonic, Kafkaesque, socio-critical and playful down to the smallest fibre. Here the Japanese culture with its symbiosis of high-tech and supernatural meets the big screen of Hollywood. After the bizarre and fascinating introduction, an epic experience unfolds at the highest audiovisual and acting level. You don't experience an avant-garde experiment, but a tangible struggle for the survival of a society threatened by isolation and death. That's surreal brainfucking in places, but on a very solid foundation, with much reminiscent of Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain. In the role of a messenger you climb, march, sneak, drive, fight, flee, fall, build, clock and collect - with a baby in front of your chest that makes the demons as visible as Tolkien's ring spirits. While the story tells and surprises on several levels, the game mechanics march like a new Frankenstein: you experience a creative mixture of survival, horror, stealth and action, which is enriched by new ideas even after dozens of hours. You've just been torn into the abyss by black hands, then a robot marches off singing with its cargo! You wander through a dystopian America with magnificent landscapes, an unbelievable devotion to details and nasty surprises. The tradition that perceptibly ties to Metal Gear via codec, structure & co is a nice constant, but Snake only greets from a distance: Death Stranding is different, more mature in design and much more penetrating. Is this a new genre? Strandlikes, for instance? No, I don't see that. But much more important than a drawer is: it's an impressive game that creeps onto the couch with its digital messages in an uncanny way. You enjoy, you reflect, you scare. Hideo Kojima is already a legendary game designer. But with this extraordinary adventure he reaches his zenith.
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