Death Stranding is one of the most unexpected and powerful gaming experiences I've ever had which shows that AAA gaming can be incredible when done right, that open worlds can feel so unique and amazing when the right person is behind the wheel.
When the first Death Stranding was originally announced I dismissed it as pretentious crap and it wouldn't be until after the game came out when a guy locally was selling it for 20 bucks even tho it was still new, so I bought it figured what do I have to lose.
I was in awe.
Death Stranding is also one of the rare games I've played that does something unique in how it evokes emotions in the player and how those emotions evolve over time and affect how we perceive and experience the game's world and characters the other two games that come to mind for me are Terranigma and Dragon Quest V.
In Terranigma the way the developers create the atmosphere of a dead, desolate world waking up and then developing in front of your eyes is something I've never experienced quite the same way in other games. That sense of loneliness, isolation, being alone in an empty world as it slowly wakes up is so spectacularly captured in Terranigma.
Dragon Quest V and the way it portrays the passage and weight of time is the other game that, to me, does something strikingly unique, the game takes you from the MC's childhood all the way to the when he has his own kids and those kids play a huge role in the story too. There are so many different periods in the game that by the end it truly feels like a lifetime has passed.
So what did Death Stranding do?
It made me care about what I initially for more than half of the game perceived as just a tool. Without realizing it, you develop a bond with the ghost detecting baby, for I'd say half or more than half of the game it was just an annoyance to me, a tool that I used to keep myself safe from all the ghosts and shit. But by the end I grew to care about the kid and during that one final mission I genuinely was stressed out about how things would turn out and so on.
The way the game developed what was to me originally a creepy and often annoying tool into a fully fledged character without me realizing it actively does that for me as a player was incredible.