So I just beat Death Stranding. I loved the gameplay; building infrustructure to link the various outposts is actually quite addicting. That said, the story is hugely disappointing, for a number of reasons I won't get into right now. And the "action" parts also sucked.
The last few stories that Kojima tried to tell have been disappionting to me. Death Stranding, Metal Gear Solid V, and Peace Walker as well. So for the last decade, Kojima has let me down in the story department, which is a giant shame, because I adored the stories of the first four Metal Gear Solid games.
This made me think about how I feel the same about M. Night Shyamalan. The man's first three movies, The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs, are all amazing and beautiful movies with great, human stories. Then the guy drank too much of his own kool-aid and went off the deep-end, and hasn't been able to tell a good story since. Split was the closest he came to being back to form, but even that does not approach the level of quality of his first three movies.
Kojima feels the same. Dude had it all earlier in his career, then, from many accounts, became imbued with his own ego, and stopped telling great stories.