Death Stranding is a very strange, very slow, very tedious game with a fascinating, bizarre and ... [+] self-indulgent plot. I still can't make up my mind about it.

Death Stranding is a very strange game. Im fascinated by it but Im not at all sure that I actually like playing it. Its not just that it isnt fun. It often feels like a chore, like the game is doing its level best to keep you from having a good time.

Maybe thats the point?

As the headline suggests, this is not a complete review, but rather a review-in-progress. I have two reasons for this.

First, I cant play this game in long stretches. Ive never been a fast reviewer, preferring to take my time with games. This is one that requires lots of time and a great deal of patience.

And since Im possibly a little OCD when it comes to completionist stuff, I find myself getting off-track from the main story frequently and spending a lot of time delivering stuff, or building stuff, that I dont really need to in order to pen a review. I cant help myself.

Second, I want to play the game in the wild for a bit before giving it a score. Yes, there have been reviewers and other players out there in the game during the review period, but this is just a small sampling of how many players will be out there after launch. What will the game look like then? Its an asynchronous multiplayer game, meaning other players structures, cargo and so forth will appear in your game and yours in theirs. You can help them deliver stuff for you. I think the only way to review a game like thisor any multiplayer gameis to test it in real world conditions.

So there are my reasons and here are my impressions of the games early hours. Ill continue to post over the coming days (weeks?) until Ive finished the game and fully absorbed its story/mechanics/etc. and post a final arbitrary number as a score at the end of all that.

I think this will be an interesting test of what it means to be a video game critic. The thing is, I dont really like Death Stranding. But....

Its grown on meIve certainly left behind the I hate this game with a passion phasebut I havent ever said to myself Boy I sure am glad Im reviewing this game!

It is fascinating, however. Its strangely engrossing.

Death Stranding from BB's perspective.

Loading up your cargo, figuring out how much you can carry and where to go first, and what youll need to get there. Every delivery is a puzzle. The right tools for the grueling, brutal terrain make all the difference. And patience. Youll need that in spades. The story, also, with all its vagueness and bombastic nonsense and ridiculous Hideo Kojima ticks. Its undeniably interestingand just as confusing. This is Kojima unchained. Its honestly a shame that the fascinating story wasnt paired with a better video game with actually good combat. Well get to combat in a minute.

First, lets talk about terrain.

Ive never played a game with such an emphasis on terrain before. The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild had some interesting terrain mechanics, but this goes far beyond anything in that or any other game. The rocky, despairing landscape of Sam Porter Bridges America is simply a nightmare to get across, whether on foot or in the vehicles you encounter, all of which are infuriatingly ill-suited to traversing rocks, ditches, cliffs steep embankments, narrow streams and all the rest.

At first you wont have vehicles or any sort of enhancements to help you over this rocky scrabble and if youre like me it will drive you crazy with boredom and frustration. The tedium is overwhelming. Trudge from this location to that location to deliver some cargo then listen to them praise you for being such a swell guy.

Youre named Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus). Sam is your name and youre a Porter working for the Bridges organization (led by the weirdly named Die-Hardman) so I guess thats how Sam gets his full name. I would be Erik Writer Forbes under this system. Hmmmmm. Not the worst.

In any case, Sam is a grudging helper to this Bridges group thanks to his familial ties to the President of the United Cities of America (UCA) and he sets out to link up a bunch of cities and outposts with weird names like Capital Knot City or Port Knot City to the chiral network.

Just chillin' in Death Stranding.

Youll hear a bunch of apocalyptic fantasy mumbo jumbo in this game which is why Ive compiled this glossary of terms and explanations which you can reference for either your own amusement or to help you understand what were talking about here.

The game opens to Sam out in the wild. After the credits role, and Norman Reeduss brief introduction, we find him riding on a motorbike faster than you will ever ride one. He even makes a snazzy jump that Im pretty sure is impossible in the actual gameyou just never move fast over this games terrain.

He crashes when Fragile (La Seydoux) appears in front of him, and his bike goes over the edge of a cliff, which is why you have to hoof it for so long after this point. You make your way to a cave where you and Fragile meet and hide from a BT. Its a very scary moment.

Then its off to make your first delivery.

Almost immediately the song Dont Be So Serious by Low Roar kicks on as you clamber along your rocky path. Its a gorgeous song, and its a powerful opening to the game. Its probably the best thing that will happen over the course of the next ten hours.

Death Stranding

Those hours are spent delivering cargo for various holographic people to various points across the map as you unlock new tools to help you in your journey, including weapons made from your sweat, blood and bodily waste. Yes, you have #1 and #2 grenades in this game. All these grenades are used against BTs, while nonlethal weapons like the bola gun are used against MULEs and other humans, though these humans are usually very easy to beat even with just your fists.

Youll be sent to remote bunkers to bring 30kg machines. Some of the missions are timed. Some are based on how damaged the cargo gets. Youll scale mountains and sneak past terrifying BTswraithlike beasts from the land of the dead, also called the Beach.

Youll unlock a ton of tools that you can craft at most cities and outposts. Ladders to help you scale sheer cliffs. Ropes to help you climb down. PCCs that you can use to build anything from bridges to super-useful generators that can charge your vehicles and machine legs.

Youll also meet a bunch of different characters, from Deadman and Die-Hardman and Heartman (I sense a trend with these names) to Fragile and Amelie. I wont spoil any of it for you. Its all very strange, but it sure looks good.

It really is a breathtaking game, though as beautiful as it is its never lovely. Its more of a despairing beauty. The beauty of a wilted flower, of birch trees in winter, of cemetery rows. Its a hopeless landscape and a lonesome one and you spend most of your time alone with BB, trudging along trying to stay on your feet and not get killed by BTs and not have your cargo get busted from a fall or from the Timefallrain that accelerates time for whatever it touches.

Its a slog, man. But it has a certain rhythm that I have, after many hours, started to enjoy in an obsessive-compulsive sort of way. I enjoy the puzzle involved in getting from X to Y. I enjoy it less when I have to keep retracing my stepsand theres a lot of that, unfortunately.

Death Stranding

It is nice to have the asynchronous multiplayer. Having other players help with things like ladders and bridges and generators is greatand its nice to know that the structures youve built can help others, too. Its a bit like Dark Souls in that regard. In that game you can leave little messages helping (or hindering) other players. You can also summon or invade other players, something not present whatsoever in Death Stranding.

There are other odditites you encounter, like the fact that Monster Drink is what you drink to replenish stamina, both out on missions (its in your canteen) or in your private room where several cans are prominently displayed. I find this . . . incredibly tastelessa garish, immersion-breaking inclusion that might have earned Kojima Productions some extra cash, but at the expense of the games integrity.

Theres also a prominently displayed ad for AMCs Ride With Norman Reedus TV show that youll see whenever he goes to take a dump.

You can make Sam urinate outdoors. You can make him go #1 and #2 in his private room, and you can have him take a showera shower that spends a great deal of time focusing up and down the length of Reeduss naked body, leaving only a very small percentage to the imagination. Its weird. Some of Reeduss fans might have a little too much fun with it.

Death Stranding

As I noted previously, Ive gotten past the good lord I hate this game phase into something more like grim determination. I want to deliver the goods. I want to see what happens. I want to learn more about this mysterious world and its peculiar cast of characters and its haunting creatures.

The game is mechanically tedious. The terrain might be more fun if there were better combat on the other side of its ponderous navigation. Hell, I think someone should take the terrain concept from this game and create a really cool RPG adventure that takes into account weight limits and whatnot and really gives players hard choices about loot and treasure and weapons and armor and so forth. There is the skeleton here of a very fun game.

This game, though. I guess well see.

Its not great or terrible. I cant get on board with the critics singing its praises as a 10/10 masterpiece or those who say it's the worst game ever. Except when my truck gets stuck in a ditch and I have to reload because nothing I can do will get it out. Thats annoying.

Nor do I think But its art! is a great counter to tedious gameplay. Who cares? Just because something is art doesnt mean its good. Theres good and bad art, and yeahits all pretty subjective. Some people will love this game and some will hate it.

Im going to finish it so I can write a final review. Maybe itll continue to grow on me. Maybe it wont. Maybe Ill finish it hating the thing more than ever. Maybe I'll be singing its praises from the mountaintop.

So far, its a mixed bag. There are many other games Id rather be playing. But theres something about this dead world and this bizarre obsession with delivering cargo, and with getting likes from other players and NPCs, that makes me want to keep coming back. Maybe Im just a masochist. Then again, I always thought of myself as more of a sadist.

Im a critic, after all.

More to come, and soon. Thanks for reading, and let me know your thoughts on the game once youve played it for a while. You can always find me on Twitter and Facebook.

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Death Stranding Review-In-Progress: The Slog Of Slogs - Forbes