Even though the reviews of Hideo Kojima’s latest project have been quite mixed, to say the least, Death Stranding will have more nominations than any other game at this year’s Game Awards, which will be hosted by Geoff Keighley, who played a character in the game.
Death Stranding, which was released earlier this month, is nominated for the following awards.
- Best Narrative
- Best Art Direction
- Best Musical Score
- Best Performance (Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelsen both nominated)
- Best Audio Design
- Best Action/Adventure Game
- Best Game Direction
- Game of the Year
Upon its release, most of the critics were kind to Death Stranding, but the fan reviews have been mixed. Two weeks ago, the average user score on Metacritic for Kojima’s latest release was a 7.0 out of 10, with 2,290 of the votes being positive, while 1,083 of the reviews were negative. But, in the two weeks since its launch, the average user score has dropped to a 5.4. Also, the number of negative reviews (7,653) is almost equal to the number of positive reviews (7,798). It’s also worth noting that 461 of the users posted mixed reviews.
Hideo Kojima recently commented on Death Stranding’s polarizing user reviews, specifically the ones in the United States, as he told TGCom24 that US-based fans probably don’t understand the game because it’s not a first-person shooter, adding that it “flies higher” than the typical FPS.
“In the United States, however, we have had stronger criticisms,” said Hideo Kojima during a recent chat with TGCom24. “Perhaps it is a difficult game to understand for a certain type of critic and audience. Americans are great fans of first-person shooters and Death Stranding isn’t one, it flies higher.”
This isn’t the first time that a Hideo Kojima game was released to mixed reviews. His previous release — Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain — was beloved by the critics, but to longtime fans of the MGS franchise, the game was largely viewed as a massive disappointment. At the time, those who played MGSV blamed the game’s lack of compelling story content on Konami, who, during the game’s development cycle, had a pretty rocky relationship with Kojima.
Before the launch of Death Stranding, Kojima said that he hopes to create more games in what he’s calling the “Strand” genre. But, according to about half of the fan reviews, his new genre hasn’t taken the gaming world by storm quite like the “Stealth” genre did after the release of the first Metal Gear Solid.
