Death Stranding Review: 9 Ups & 3 Downs

4. Snappy & Experimental Combat

MGS V: The Phantom Pain is easily one of the best third-person shooters of all time. A snappy, responsive, almost arcadey at times combo of gunfire, melee attacks and experimental item placement, it was a blast engaging in every single combat scenario.

For Death Stranding, Kojima Productions had lost the FOX Engine, and the studio's array of devs had to start over using the Decima Engine, on loan from Sony and Guerrilla Games.

Thankfully though, that sense of tactical, 'sandboxy' play is completely intact, and the blank canvas of potential only creates more insanely fun scenarios.

For example:

- You're free to smash people over the head with cargo for an instant knockout. Grab an enemy's suitcase and do so, then grab what they were holding and do the same to someone else. You can create a chain of melee knockouts in seconds, and they feel incredible.

- Coming over the lip of a hill and seeing a campsite down below can really give off some MGS V vibes. Thinning the ranks with stealth kills is one thing, but you can use a "Sticky Gun" to retrieve stolen packages from afar, slowly winding the chord back to yourself and making a getaway.

- Blood grenades can be used to stun opponents, as can smoke-emitting cargo for distractions. There is a TON of gear to unlock including more regular firearms and bola-firing rifles, but to give all that away would be spoilers.

Point being: This is more of that MGS V combat we knew and loved, and that couldn't be better.