Opinion: Death Stranding deserves a chance, you guys

After the dust has settled...

As I start to write this, I'm listening to 'Asylums for the Feeling' in the background, a beautifully crafted melancholic piece of music by Silent Poets, about which I first heard after watching Death Stranding's E3 2018 gameplay trailer.

Just like this song, there are a lot of things about Hideo Kojima's current project that I just can't seem to get out of my head. In other words, it has my full-fledged attention.

Now the recent Gamescom trailers of the Death Stranding has generated quite a stir among the gaming community and so as it seems the hype surrounding this game has split into two halves - one positive and the other waaaay more negative then it needs to be.

Now to be really honest, even I, who have been really curious about this mysterious sci-fi post-apocalyptic open-world game since its reveal, was hoping that it was high time for Kojima to show us off a raw look at Death Stranding's gameplay. This is because fans worldwide have jumped on the hype train, even when they had no idea what they are getting into, a long time ago. The least Kojima could have done, at this stage, is to "finally show off the real thing" as he promised, but alas that didn't quite happen, leaving many fans like me disappointed, and the others just jumping off the hype train completely.

Geoff Keighley, the creator and Director of The Game Awards and someone also hosted this year's Gamescom Opening Live Event, is also apparently Hideo Kojima's on-screen romance partner and so finally premiering Death Stranding's gameplay footage at this stage made total sense. In fact, even Keighley stated during the showcase that we all would love to see some gameplay at this point (as if that weren't obvious, Geoff.)

Hideo Kojima, on the other hand, was reluctant to show off any gameplay at the moment but did promise that we will get a proper look at the game during 2019's Tokyo Game Show, which takes place later next month. We did however got a little glimpse of that footage which, by the way, served more like introductory footage for Keighley's character who is, apparently, also in the game. Because of course, he is.

This left everyone extremely disappointed and unsatisfied from a AAA PS4 exclusive title which is nearly three months away from its release, about which all of us still don't have the faintest of the idea that's it's about.

I would rather pee, than clear dozens of enemy camps...

You can literally empty your tank in Death Stranding

What little footage of the game we did see at Gamescom this year did, however, confirm one basic fact of the game. It is, after all, about delivering packages from point A to point B. But let's not focus on that at the moment.

What caught me as no surprise (since its a Hideo Kojima game) is the peeing mechanic, which the games seem to offer. This is indeed funny because it gives one insight into how different Kojima's mind works. Who knows, maybe other AAA games might just think of adding this mechanic in their open-world games too in the near future (like they usually do).

Death Stranding is trying to be realistic in its gameplay mechanics and surpassing all the grounds when it comes to its universe, story and characters.

The point is, Death Stranding has a clear cut vision and Hideo Kojima is trying to show off as little as possible because he doesn't want to ruin it for us.

Death Stranding is about connections, about complex characters, about reuniting the society, its more realistic in its vision than many other games out there.

Red Dead Redemption 2, for example, created a painstakingly detailed open world and added features that felt believable and realistic to immerse us in it. This, however, doesn't mean the game was "fun" in the usual way, and many fans complained that they didn't feel a sense of progression since there were not the usual checklist of things to complete. Rather, RDR 2's open world had hidden all of its mechanics in the far ends of its beautiful open world - one only had to look closely.

Death Stranding is trying to be realistic in its gameplay mechanics and surpassing all the grounds when it comes to its universe, story and characters. It wants us to take in the beautiful sights without shoving another enemy encounter in our faces every 15 seconds. It wants us to feel like a delivery man by throwing different traversal and survival mechanics at us. it wants us to be emotionally attached to our BBs by rocking them and singing them a lullaby to calm them.

It wants us to feel many more things as well, which Kojima is saving until the game's release, so that we find it for ourselves.

In other words, we need to give Death Stranding a chance, rather than throwing it out with the bathwater before even trying. Sure, it won't be a usual open world with a checklist of an infinite amount of things to do (that's a long checklist, now that I think about it) and it doesn't really have to. I would rather pee, take in the beautiful sights, rock my BB and immerse myself into its mysterious world with the help of its story and characters.

What are your thoughts regarding Death Stranding? Tell us in the comments down below. Also for everything related to Video Games, stick to Sportskeeda.