This game takes place in a setting where creatures from the afterlife have made contact with Earth with disastrous results. While certainly post-apocalyptic, the world is entering a phase where it is starting to recover from its losses and get used to the changes.
Enter the player character. You are a courier who is responsible for delivering packages from one city or outpost to the next. The story starts with you being recruited to "deliver" a device to the remaining cities in what used to be the United States in order to bring them online and connect them to each other.
For me, this beginning stage in which I was trying to get my bearings of the world and figure out the story was interesting, new, immersive, and exciting. Unfortunately, it pretty much ended there. The game is a walking simulator. While the details will differ, all missions consist of getting from Point A to Point B. Yes, the scenery is beautiful, and yes, the story is mostly interesting. But that doesn't stop it from getting old.
I couldn't bring myself to complete any side quests because not only did they not offer anything new to the game play, but they took too much time since I had to walk back and forth. (OK, there is a fast-travel mechanic, but you can't bring deliveries with you, so it's functionally useless. There are also vehicles, but so much of the terrain is rugged that they are only useful for a trip to somewhere connected by a road, which usually ends up being somewhere very close by anyway.) While there are other walking simulators out there, they reward you for going slow and taking your time. Red Dead Redemption II is a good example. Your character's moving speed is slow, and the game discourages fast travel. But it makes up for it by having a highly interactive map. You can't get from Point A to Point B without running into enemies, a side quest, something you want to steal, rare game... By comparison, the world of Death Stranding is empty. There are occasionally enemies, sure, but nothing that you can actually interact with or do.
By the end, I barely even wanted to continue the main story because the game is long. Partly a consequence of the complicated story that unfolds, partly a consequence of the fact you have to slowly walk everywhere. As interesting as the story was in the beginning, I lost interest by the end. At times it was too confusing; at other times it just stopped bringing anything new to the table.
I did finish the game, so as negative as my review has been I couldn't say I completely hated it. But I didn't love it either. Based on the overall reviews, I'm clearly in the minority. But if any of these negatives are dislikes of yours as well, I wouldn't bother to pick up the game.
