I definitely think it's true that western audiences are very negative whenever a game is centered around experiencing something rather than game mechanics and instant gratification. For me, a game like Death Stranding is a way to be in my own head, to just reflect either on my own life or the journey I'm making in game. Finding the perfect place for a ladder or scaling down the side of a mountain with a rope and delivering a package that you found far away completely unscathed is just so satisfying. It delivers something I don't get to experience in a game often enough. This is coming from someone who was very down on this game but something about it kept calling to me and I'm glad I gave it a chance.
So you won't get big flashy lights, instant satisfaction or an overly populated world to keep you busy, but what lies there is something that feels fun, wacky and personal.
It reminds me of the original Dead Rising in a way. It's just instead of fighting off psychos, navigating waves of zombies and delivering survivors to safe rooms, you are navigating rough terrain, delivering packages and overcoming the psychos/paranormal elements. What Dead Rising has in personality and fun of the mall setting, Death Stranding has a unique rainy beautiful atmosphere. They also both share humor in a similar with both being serious on the nose but Frank running around in underwear and Sam looking like a transformer covered in ridiculous amounts of cargo. Even time is constantly on your tail in both games with timefall constantly pushing you to get rid of your cargo sooner than later unless you risk losing it all. It's good stuff.
With that said, the story is bad. Kojima is probably the worst part of this game. In a game that capitalizes so much on how much a journey can make a person feel depth and weight of the world their in, the second Kojima starts telling his story, all that disappears and you are reminded that the person who created this game also created Quiet. 😒