Game profile
Death Stranding
As courier Sam Porter Bridges, you cross a fractured America shaped by a mysterious catastrophe and reconnect isolated cities. Hideo Kojima's game leans more toward meditative wandering than classic action.
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What kind of game this is
At its core this is Action / Survival, set in a world after the collapse. Visually it is going for realism, and the overall tone stays dark throughout. The world is open, so wandering off and ignoring the main path is part of the deal. It rewards long uninterrupted stretches more than quick check-ins.
The difficulty is moderate and fair, demanding attention without punishing you for it. The narrative carries the whole thing, and the mechanics serve it. It is a single player experience from start to finish. It runs on 2 platforms. It sits in the budget bracket.
What stands out
- Unusual traversal gameplay
- Asynchronous building system
- Kojima's distinctive vision
This fits you if
- exploring for its own sake is the point for you
- you want to wind down rather than be tested
- you can sit down for a proper long stretch without interruptions
- you like getting lost and ignoring the main objective for hours
- the writing matters more to you than the mechanics
- you play alone and want a complete experience without other people
Look elsewhere if
- you skip cutscenes and want to get to the gameplay
- you only ever get short bursts of play time
- you want something light and easy going
- you want to play it side by side with someone
How long is Death Stranding?
About 40 hours in total. At three evenings a week and two hours each, you will be busy for roughly 7 weeks, or 20 sessions.
How the rating ranks
Critics settled on 84 out of 100, which puts it above 52 percent of the 1276 games here and at rank 538 overall. That is mid-table for this database. Not a standout at the top, but solidly rated.
For comparison, Action averages 83 points across the database, so this one is right in line with its genre. The figure rests on 922 collected ratings.
Released in 2019, so it has 7 years behind it. Usually cheap by now and the rough edges are long fixed.
The facts
- Release year
- 2019
- Genres
- Action, Survival
- Playtime
- approx. 40 hrs.
- Difficulty
- Moderate, fair
- Story weight
- Carries the whole game
- Play with
- Solo
- Setting
- Post-apocalyptic
- Visual style
- Realistic
- Price bracket
- Budget
- Platforms
- PC, PlayStation
- Critic rating
- 84 / 100
Direct comparison
| Genres | Release year | Playtime | Critic rating | Price bracket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Death Stranding | 2019 | approx. 40 hrs. | 84 | Budget |
| Days Gone | 2019 | approx. 35 hrs. | 75 | Budget |
| Dying Light: The Beast | 2025 | approx. 25 hrs. | 82 | Mid price |
| Dying Light 2: Stay Human | 2022 | approx. 24 hrs. | 77 | Mid price |
If you liked this, try these
- 75/100 Days Gone Shared: Action, Survival, Post-apocalyptic
- 82/100 Dying Light: The Beast Shared: Action, Survival, Post-apocalyptic, shorter
- 77/100 Dying Light 2: Stay Human Shared: Action, Survival, Post-apocalyptic, shorter
- 72/100 Dying Light Shared: Action, Survival, Post-apocalyptic, shorter
- 74/100 Atomfall Shared: Action, Survival, Post-apocalyptic, shorter
- 67/100 State of Decay 2 Shared: Action, Survival, Post-apocalyptic