I was watching some Death Stranding 2 and I realized:
Hideo Kojima’s games are GUI/VFX/3D porn for tech fans. They are Barbies™© for dudebros.
He’s been making the same thing for almost forty years! It’s not about gameplay. Nor stories.
All reviews are like “it’s long and confusing, combat is lame but then you’ll get it” My brother in Christ, do you really think that I have 30+ hours available to push a stick in one direction, delivering/picking up stuff digitally with corny lines to listen to? Watching a dude run in a harsh environment shooting at stuff? I have already done that in the past. And I have more enjoyable activities to do. Like taking the trash out (jk jk).
Also, “getting it after hours of pain” is a trope that needs to die.
Once out of gamedev’s reality distortion field, it’s pretty evident how there’s not much substance or entertainment. It’s just tasks in front of shiny things flying on a monitor.