8 Valid Concerns About 2019's Remaining Video Games

4. Gameplay Takes A Backseat To Overblown "Kojima-Ness" - Death Stranding

Alright, hands up - I'm a massive Hideo Kojima nerd. But being into his work to the point I can reel off the purpose of the La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo or the difference between Solid, Liquid, Venom, Naked and Solidus Snake also means I understand the guy's personality to the point of recognising when he's gone "Full Kojima".

Examples include entire music sequences dedicated to climbing ladders, fashion models hired as bosses, a character who breathes through her skin... and now a full dissection of the role of time, war, life, purpose and everything in between.

Where the PS1's Metal Gear Solid made its mark thanks to an immaculate translation from Jeremy Blaustein, everything thereafter saw Kojima back in the driver's seat. For Death Stranding he's practically writing a whole new way for vehicles to interface with tarmac, and though that pleases diehards like me who loved the Raiden twist from MGS 2, or the clone twist from MGS 5, it'll likely hamper the post-launch conversation when the majority of people can't understand what's happening.

Death Stranding could end up being a Hereditary, a Midsommar, an It Comes At Night. Those completely in love with Kojima's east-meets-west conceptual fanaticism will be right at home, but thinking it's anything CLOSE to the mass-appeal fare of Metal Gear?

That just ain't happening.