10 Amazing Games (With ABYSMAL Combat)

As a courier simulation, Kojima Productions' debut game excels. Whether wading through torrential rivers or engaging in a thrilling alpine ascent, delivering packages across Death Stranding's post-apocalyptic America is a uniquely addictive experience. The joys of mastering the environment and nailing the perfect route (or managing to scrape through an unexpectedly hairy delivery) ensure that Death Stranding will leave you with many a story to tell once your time with it is over.

Unfortunately, unless you embellish the truth then none of those stories will contain thrilling fight scenes.

Despite some memorable boss designs, Death Stranding's combat never gets the pulse racing. Every fight is hobbled by the fact that protagonist Sam Bridges is regularly carrying over 100kg of equipment, and moves at the speed that implies. To make things fair, Kojima Productions designed enemies to take this fact into account so that fights never become frustrating. However, this also means the combat never become exciting either, as every battle becomes a molasses-paced slog against lethargic enemies who trudge around the battlefield and telegraph their intent with the subtlety of, well, a Hideo Kojima script.