Death Stranding Review Thread - MC: 82 / OC: 83 / GR: 83.17%

[DonFerrari]

pokoko said:

RaptorChrist said:
@DonFerrari, @Nate4Drake


Also, when did it drop to an 83? Still a good score... Hopefully I'll fall into the camp that thinks it's better than it performed by reviewers. I just hope that the 83 isn't a buffed score based on it being a Kojima game. It's possible that many reviewers went easy on this one.

To be perfectly honest, it probably is a "buffed score" to a certain degree.  Most reviewers are pretty much just gamers who can write.  Actually, since many of them are passionate about gaming, they're probably even more susceptible to nostalgia and expectations than the general population of gamers.  

However, if you're going to label a Kojima game as "buffed" then you need to step all the way into the abyss.

Imagine if Pokemon were an EA game.  Think it would get the same kind of scores?  Think reviewers would be half as afraid to piss off fanatical fanboys?  What about Rockstar games?  Think they'd score quite as well?  Pretty much any established and beloved franchise from Nintendo, Sony, or ... well, I'm not so sure Microsoft has earned that kind of credibility with gamers, but you get the idea.  Hell, even being unabashedly "indie" can be worth extra points with some outlets.

Point is, there are PLENTY of "buffed" scores out there, so many that "buffed" is actually more like "normal". 

And sure if reviewers really used the full scale 0-100 to score a game it would be perfectly natural to accept 4/10 to Death Stranding not being trolling. But when the average game is about 70 and only the absolute crap gets 50 or lower then nope I don't accept under 6 for a perfectly working game or under 8 for a good game.