Why Death Stranding is Already My Game of the Year
Death Stranding has not been released yet. In fact, it comes out this Friday, November 8th, 2019. Unlike many game journalists, I was not one of the lucky chosen ones selected by divine providence to play and review this game early. But that is okay. For they took a hit for us all and played through this masterpiece in a way that most of us will not experience. Their worlds were much more desolate than the ones we will visit this Friday, as the ever-important social aspect of the game is restricted by the number of players playing. And despite the game not being in the ideal shape that we will see it be in when its released and droves of players start placing ladders and bridges everywhere, it still managed to obtain (at the time of this writing) an 86 on Opencritic. This is a tremendous achievement for any game, let alone a piece of art that is being critiqued prior to being finished. Can you imagine if Van Gogh showed the Starry Night to others before he painted the stars? Imagine if they called it a masterpiece then and saw it again after he had added the stars? I believe the games’ community is about to witness first hand a very comparable situation when we get our hands on this game this Friday. And I’m not even considering the patch that’s being released prior to the games’ launch. The sky’s the limit here, folks.
Just like the game itself, there’s so much to focus on here why it’s the game of the year. I could talk about the next level acting, a feat which the likes of have never been seen before in video games. Or going in a completely different direction, we could hone in on the incredible technical achievement Kojima Productions has given us, producing some of the best graphics we have ever seen. And while either one of those facets could get most games into being nominated for game of the year, it doesn’t guarantee that the game would win the award. No, what has made Death Stranding’s inevitable as 2019’s Game of the Year is independent of these dramatic and visual aspects of the game, but undoubtedly heightened by them. The reason why this is the game of the year is that it is truly an entirely new experience that we have never seen the likes of before in this or any other medium.
You may be wondering how I am so sure that this new experience will be worthy of the most prestigious award a game can win. I can promise you that I have poured over all of Death Stranding’s information from pre-release trailers to every single critic’s review that was posted in the last week. As someone who has both been playing video games his entire life and has digested enough footage to get through the entirety of the fifty-hour campaign, I am convinced there is no possibility in which I am wrong. There is no game like this and if it fails commercially, there may be never another like it. I won’t go into details of the gaming loops at play here (there’s plenty of professionals who have slightly more knowledge than myself having played the game) but for the uninitiated here’s a quick rundown:
Start Game -> First four hours mostly beautiful cut scenes with acting deserved of oscar nominees -> begin a trial by fire in which the first twelve to twenty-five hours the game relentlessly beats you down as you feel the struggle to deliver packages -> the real game begins, rewarding you for hard work with both a gameplay and narrative pay-off in the form of the game becoming less punishing and plotlines beginning to make sense -> Finish and rest with the work of art that will stick with you for the rest of your life.
I know there are some scary concepts in the above. “Over two-dozen hours of being punished? How am I going to get through this?” Congratulations, friend. You just answered another, more important question: “What makes this game art?” And what makes this game art is that many of us will get through this perilous journey. Us crazy ones, we are the ones who will take on the job that no one else wants to do. Just like Sam Porter Bridges, the star of Death Stranding.
(I just found out my sister will be interviewing one of the musicians who worked on the game prior to its release. She did not ask me for assistance but I’ve fed her some questions that could peel back some of the creative processes that resulted in such an awe-inspiring product. If anything noteworthy comes of it I will make sure to update this article.)
I would like to end on the note that I know this game will not be for everyone. Some of us will deride it for being too hard or requiring a Mother Teresa-like patience as we deliver packages for over fifty hours. Others will eat up every second like a precious morsel, a meal consisting of an entirely new game experience that we have been deprived of for so long.
All I ask for everyone is to be kind. Accept those who cannot get into this demanding experience and don’t understand its artistic value. And if you don’t resonate with it, don’t kick and scream at those who do. Some of us are hard-wired to enjoy demanding and weird things, and some of us were actually excited to see the new Terminator movie last weekend. We all enjoy different things and there’s beauty in staying connected despite our differences. A message that the game itself will beautifully allow us to experience this Friday, when Death Stranding, the 2019 Game of the Year is released.
For those of you who want to get started on understanding and appreciating this great work, I recommend Tim Roger’s video review for Kotaku, as well as his colleague Heather Alexandra’s written review.
