Death Stranding Review: 9 Ups & 3 Downs

8. Redefining Open-World Progression Systems

How many open world games this generation have given us a set of abilities, or revealed the entirety of their scope in the opening hour, only to repeat until you get bored?

So many titles fall back on this numbing sensibility, and it gives the impression that you've seen the entire game in the opening stretch. Yes, the numbers go up, you access different tiers of loot, but you're not fundamentally playing in a different way.

Compare to Death Stranding, and literally every few hours, you're unlocking something that completely changes how you interact with the world, or how you consider the base function of getting items from place to place.

Ropes and ladders become bikes and trucks, then become floating platforms and ziplines. Stealthy strangulations become assault rifles and grenades. Basic running and climbing becomes learned routes where you and likeminded players have put down pathways to progress.

It's all tied together to give you an immaculate sense of progression through time and investment, and again, no other open world game is doling out so much over such a massive play time.