I had to gather my thoughts this weekend about the batshit insanity that is Sam's Private Room, and I need to talk about it. I'm not sure if it qualifies as "gameplay", yet it also may be the MOST gameplay of Death Stranding. Best I can tell, it's basically the Mother Base of this game, as something that seemingly few will want to actually interact with which arguably way too much focus/development time was spent on. I suppose Kojima expects everyone to be as into this weird, unsettling Norman Reedus simulator as he is, but uh....no.
Kojima gleefully describing virtual Reedus' bodily functions in great detail and zooming in repeatedly on his virtual junk is a baffling watch, even by Kojima standards. Then it became dolly dress-up time. Maybe some people who really like Norman Reedus will love this shit, but this all felt like some B&B Corps-esque creepy "let's have a film session" nonsense that Kojima did because Kojima wanted to. There's this voyeuristic quality to all of it with Kojima clearly enjoying his ability to make his actors dance for him that just feels icky as fuck and borderline abusive in a #metoo sense.
This game seems to have zero regard for the audience. Admittedly, this is refreshing when most other games feel designed around what some market research team thinks will have mass appeal, but never has something felt like it was more for just the guy making it than Death Stranding does. Kojima is literally just gathering famous people he likes for random cameos and shoehorning in ads that were I guess some quid-pro-quo terms to get them to sign on. Having a "Ride with Norman Reedus on AMC" ad show up to obscure virtual Reedus taking a dump sure is a thing.
This is full-on auteur stuff, for better or (more likely) worse. I can't be the only one who did a massive eye-roll when Kojima was talking about how "everyone cries here" when that Asylums for the Feeling song plays as you get closer to the city. First off, no. Secondly, Red Dead Redemption did that whole thing a fucking decade ago with a better song, and they were smart enough to not outright spoil that moment ahead of time. Whereas Kojima is apparently so into his own bullshit that he assumes everyone will cry at how amazing a scripted moment is, even though he's already shown it, featuring a song that's been used multiple times in his promotion of the game.
It's just...fuck, man. People wanted unfettered Kojima, and they're getting exactly that. I'm still glad this thing exists, but hoo boy does it look like it's going to be pretentious, arcane nonsense with loads of cringe. I spent most of that Sam's Private Room video being absolutely nonplussed at what I was witnessing. It's truly amazing that this stuff is going to make it into the final product of a major game release. I'm still watching this thing with significant interest from a safe distance, but it won't surprise me if even the biggest Kojima fans struggle with this one. It looks like the very definition of a Hideo Kojima game by Hideo Kojima, and I can't help but wonder if the world is actually ready for that.
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