I hadn't played a Kojima game since MGS3, and hadn't probably loved a Kojima game since MGS2 when I played Death Stranding in 2020, and I found myself surprised by how much I ended up loving it. The story is largely nonsense, and I wish the game didn't have any combat whatsoever, but the act of traversing landscapes, savoring small victories (whoa, someone left a ladder exactly where I needed it!), building up travel networks to make traversal easier with time, and simply taking in the gorgeous vistas (as conspicuously non-American as they are), was a delight.
I have no desire to play the director's cut anytime soon despite having access to it, which is a shame. But it's a game I really dug. If you told me that my favorite PS4 1st party exclusive was going to be Death Stranding a few years back, I'd have laughed at you. Yet, it sucked me in in a way that God of War, Horizon, and (so far) Ghost of Tsushima never did for me. And despite liking The Last of Us 2, that outstayed its welcome far sooner for me than Death Stranding did.