When Death Stranding came out in 2019, it split players down the middle between those puzzled and frustrated by the sparsity of its design and the ones enamoured by the same pared-back approach to gameplay. Some, expecting a moody, action-adventure game about shooting ghostly creatures, saw Death Stranding as a “walking simulator”. Others knew better than to expect the expected and were left surprised by the game's stubborn commitment to its identity.