The hype came and went, and in the end, we were all left still wondering what Death Stranding was about. Some players somehow came up with an explanation citing that Hideo Kojima’s games have hidden meanings very few would understand while the rest of us simply walked around delivering pizzas and packages.
It’s no surprise Death Stranding was divisive after it came out. The whole “I don’t know what this game is about, but I like it” train came to a screeching halt when people actually realized it was more or less a walking simulator. But who could rise up and challenge the game’s nature? This is, after all, the beloved Hideo Kojima who gave us the Metal Gear Solid series (my personal favorite series of any game) and so we were all willing to give his first independent project a chance especially after learning about the infamous split with Konami.
I, for one, tried to tell gamers there’s a possibility the game might not meet their expectations considering the information we had been given, but only a few listened. Instead, I got the most dislikes in any video I’ve made on YouTube to this day. Most of them within the first 48 hours. You can check it out below.
That being said, there were others willing to take a look at things from a different perspective. You see, there are certain things that helped propel Death Stranding climb to greater heights even winning awards at The Game Awards 2019. One, Hideo Kojima’s sheer star power winning over the staunchest of critics, two, Sony’s trust in him and giving him the resources for something so ambitious, and three, the promise of a ‘new genre’ of games we have never seen before.
Now that we’ve seen what this ‘genre’ is, I can confidently say there are a lot of people who aren’t fans of it. If a Death Stranding sequel was to be made, I believe a good number wouldn’t want to play since the factors mentioned above may not be absent. A divisive game like this could’ve lost some fans (not too many since Hideo is loved worldwide, but still a considerable amount), he may not have as many resources at his disposal given what he may have got at first was because this was the first game by him, and finally, the ‘new genre’ wasn’t as widely accepted.
Change is hard. Most of us think of it and want to try new things, but in the end, we almost always go back to what’s familiar. Kojima was known for his stealth games and creativity with the Metal Gear series, but continuously making games that deviate too much from that could hurt him in future. Such games like Death Stranding are most often made by indie developers or are passion projects and even those don’t get that much attention.
It’s just the nature of the gaming world. Little by little, the space for such games gets smaller every day while the budget gets higher. Furthermore, the market for single player games keeps shrinking as more and more players gravitate towards online multiplayer. I’m glad Kojima got the success he did, and I definitely want him to succeed. After all, if it wasn’t for Metal Gear, a lot of us would have never known who he is. I’m not asking for a Metal Gear 6, but I do believe he can incorporate certain elements of those games into his future projects and slowly introduce his fan base to this ‘new genre’ once Kojima Productions has an unshakable foundation. Regardless of where he goes next, I personally will still be interested in whatever else he’s cooking up.
Photo courtesy of OmniGeekEmpire
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