Over the festive break we’ll be running through our top 20 picks of the year’s best games, leading up to the reveal of Eurogamer’s game of the year on New Year’s Eve. You can find all the pieces published to date here – and thanks for joining us throughout the year!
I’m going to guess there’s no other game on our end of year list more polorising than Death Stranding. The good news is you know where you stand pretty quickly, once the first of many lengthy cutscenes with Kojima’s unique brand of techno babble and acronyms have come and gone, and you’re faced with what the game is actually about. In this case, the game is about strapping a pair of muddy boots on your feet, hoisting a tall stack of cargo on your back, and walking through beautiful vistas with barely anything of use on the horizon.
For what is a fairly high concept game about death, ghosts, and reconnecting isolated communities in a post-apocalyptic America, Death Stranding doesn’t ask you to do much at all. You pick up a delivery, and drop it off somewhere else. That’s basically it. Though it’s a game with vast stretches of land to navigate, you always know where you need to go, and you’re almost always well equipped for the task – you just need the patience to get there.
