Outrage. Drama. Boycotts. Petitions.
The world of gaming seems to be dominated by social media trends aimed at hurting the latest AAA releases. It is for this exact reason that I have decided to start a new BadFive series, focusing on games people (mostly online) love to hate on.
WHY?
One of the first games I’d like to talk about is Hideo Kojima’s ‘Death Stranding’. A game made by a brand new studio given what was essentially a blank check in order to produce the next best thing gaming has to offer. Why do people hate it? Easy. Because they believe that Kojima has reached the point where even his worst work will be viewed as a masterpiece.
IS IT WARRANTED?
But that’s not the case. Hideo Kojima has earned the creative freedom his studio is enjoying at the moment. Through years of painstaking work developing some of the best games the world has ever seen, he managed to obtain a position where he can complete his vision for a project such as Death Stranding.
UNIQUE
While it might look wacky at times, you can’t deny the fact that there’s really no other game like Death Stranding in the market. It’s compelling, interesting to play through and manages to create an amalgamation of Hollywood and Japanese quirkiness unique to Kojima games. It won’t be long before we have shared movie and video game universes forming an experience unlike anything the world has ever seen.
BACKGROUND NOISE
Sadly, many US critics couldn’t look past the background noise surrounding the game and decided to compensate by giving the game less than favourable scores, going as far as labelling it a disappointment. Whether Death Stranding is a good game will be something debated for years and years. It’s the critic’s paradox. Do you like the game because you know the creator’s track record? Would a less experienced developer get away with such an unusual idea?Â
TIME WILL TELL
Death Stranding cannot be evaluated without any form of bias. Consumers and critics of any kind will reach their conclusions based on whatever they bring to the table. Either Kojima is a genius or an ageing creator drunk on the successes of his past projects, thinking he can do no wrong. That’s exactly why it is so dividing. My only hope for the future is that Kojima Productions keeps experimenting with unique ideas for games. At the end of the day, once the dust settles, only time will tell how groundbreaking and impactful the release of Death Stranding was for the gaming industry and consumers worldwide.
Are you enjoying Death Stranding? Let us know in the comments below.