I'm Reviewing Death Stranding 2, Here's What I Thought of the Original

Hello. I’m Simon, and I’ll be reviewing Death Stranding 2: On the Beach for IGN. As you probably know, the response to the original Death Stranding was varied to say the least, so I thought it would be helpful to provide a bit of context regarding my own feelings about the 2019 sci‑fi epic before hearing my thoughts on the sequel when the review embargo drops on June 23rd. I didn’t review Death Stranding for IGN – that was the job of the excellent Tristan Ogilvie, and you can read his thoughts here. His score of 6.8 isn’t anywhere close to the most negative assessment Death Stranding received at launch, but it’s also far from the glowing praise some others bestowed upon it. Opinions are inherently subjective, especially when it comes to art, so naturally my thoughts on Death Stranding differ from Tristan's, albeit not by too much. This is not a re‑review, so you won’t get a different score here, but let me explain what I did and didn’t like about the original.