Hideo Kojima’s Strange, Unforgettable Video-Game Worlds

This Adrien Chen must like Kojima, I read through half the article and was like 'phew, that was a nice story' and then realized there was still a lot more left. Nice job!

If they're all this insightful while also fairly critical and appreciative of their subject matter, please keep the videogame pieces coming! It's about time NYT spilled the volume of ink on videogames that the $135B artistic medium merits.

Death Stranding is a massively flawed game and a terrible mess of a concept. Never mind that the hype around the product wrote checks no game could possibly ever cash - it committed the worst sin of all and there’s no other way to put it: It was mind numbingly boring. Yes, we get it, Mr. Kojima. If you chastise the users into submission they may experience an emotional connection. If you force someone to do something they find appalling they may at the end find insights they didn’t know were there. Any master slave relationship confirms this. It’s in our psyche. But Death Stranding is not the way to experience that connection. Never mind the utterly ridiculous and at times unbearably poorly written script. Never mind the silly game mechanics and the blasted pickled baby that insists on being rocked whenever it gets spooked or even the under delivering friends of Kojima all star cast the game is over burdened with. At heart, DS is a failed fetch and deliver walking simulator and a dishonest and confused one at that. Why do we play games, indeed? For the most part, we play them because we want to be entertained and even escape the ordinary world and our often very ordinary lives. It’s fun to plow through aliens and it’s fun to be a hero! Meanwhile, in the real world, trains are late, doctors are delivering bad news and very often you have to walk to some place you’d rather not have to walk. It’s not very fun there and it sure as heck isn’t any more fun in a game.

"Some of my best friends are gamers" ... I don't get it and would rather read a 600 page book beginning to end, but this helps me access some portion of the experience that drives my friends to spend so much of their free time in this way. I salute the writer for bridging the gap between someone like me and someone like Kojima and hope to see more words from him soon in this space.

A good analysis, written four months too late.

I wholeheartedly agree with the comments praising this piece and the NYTimes for enlightening non gamers about the depth of the video game world. As a 48 year old woman who literally hasn’t touched a video game since the 1980’s, I only clicked on this article because it was included in my daily news email from NYT. I figured I would skim it but was so absorbed in the narrative that I read every word. Mr. Chen seems to be as talented an author as Mr. Kojima. He allowed me to gain insight into Kojima’s creative process and the business of gaming through entertaining, literary prose. The description of even the tedious parts of Death Stranding totally drew me in. I’m not tempted to actually try any of Kojima’s games but I’m happy to have his story on my radar and I will certainly look for more articles by Chen.

I've never played a game. I've raised my grandson from the age of 5 weeks (he's 22 now) and he lives games. Seriously. I read articles trying to understand him and this comes close to what he gets from the experience. Thanks.

As a longtime fanatic of all things Kojima, since the early days of MGS (I wasn't quite there for ZOE), I have no shame in admitting that Death Stranding is possibly my favorite game of all time, competing only with MGS4 and 3. It is everything that is Kojima. The comparison to directors such as Tarantino and Cameron is adequate, in that their work is as identifiable as Kojima's. But, Kojima is unlike those directors as they are to each other, where it's their voice that makes the stories wholly theirs. Kojima has made the argument that video games are not art and could never be art, but I will beg to differ with his work in particular. MGS and DS are the architecture, design, music, and storytelling, and all elements are from the passions of individuals who have honed their talents to create an experience that bears the many layers of "art." To me, a novice of interpretation, DS is as much a story, as it is an art piece. The mundane tasks, which I find none of, feel more like they're meant to make you dig for an underlying message while taking in the journey to fulfill them. The game tells the story of the connection we thrive on as a species. Be it a physical connection, an emotional connection, or a social connection. The like system parodies our reality in the dystopian America we play in, and the awkward dialogue feels intentional to remind you that this is just a game, this is just a story. But it's a story that begs to be experienced. And I've enjoyed every moment.

However bad or even bizarre Kojima's work on MGS could be, his old employer Konami ought to be ashamed of how they treated their old darling. Yes, neither side will talk about it, but the company's slights (and worse) to him were clear: not letting him attend awards shows, omitting the customary "A HIDEO KOJIMA GAME" on game box art, demanding that he keep making more and more MGS sequels even when they'd make no sense. (See also Keiji Inafune, wrt the Mega Man X series.) Some authors abuse their skill and goodwill; but some employers abuse authors, and Konami, once a legendary game publisher and developer, has well earned its soulless reputation. I don't know that it's earned the Corporate Death Penalty like Boeing or Zuckerbook, but it's among the "AAA" publishers I now take great pains to avoid playing. (With DRM and other anti-user slights rampant among them, you ought to avoid AAAs as a rule anyway.)

I've played Metal Gear Whatsits 3 and Whatsits Phantom Pain or Zero Ground or whatever and I enjoyed them. But I've never thought they were "good" in any sense beyond that. His stories are the acid-laced fever dreams of a fourteen year-old boy with extremely early onset dementia. I do not mean that as a compliment. They're completely disjointed, the acting is abysmal, nothing makes sense, entire plots are dropped or invented without warning, and it seems like they translated the Japanese directly into English, so you get nonsense titles like "Metal Gear" and names like "Solid Snake" and "Ocelot" and "Quiet". You know why she's called Quiet? Because she's quiet. I should be called Frustrated. He has a seriously sick way of portraying women in his work, too. His explanation for Quiet's lack of clothing wasn't just panned by critics, it's completely tautological! Why is Quiet naked? Because I said her disease says so. So... because you wanted her to be naked. Little exclamation marks pop up over enemies' heads, like it's 1989. You can hide in a box with a poster of a girl on the front and guards get confused. And then they want to put a limit on the number of rounds a suppressor can suppress because it's more realistic? Not to mention the crass game-ness of it. It's all about levels, points, boss fights, and unlocks... I stopped playing Phantom Pain when it required me to go back to earlier levels and do them better first. I should've stopped earlier, but they *are* fun.

I'm a 73 year old gamer, playing computer and video games since 1984. But I never cared for the Japanese games, because they rarely use writers to write good stories, and it's mostly slash n' hack or Samurai type games, and don't compare to great western or even Polish RPG's like the Witcher franchise or the Last of Us frachise, or the Uncharted franchise. Never cared for Kojima's work, but I will play Death Stranding nonetheless. Maybe he will have finally produced something worth playing, IMHO.

I never saw those boulders, or created a crater, or saw the steam shooting up!!! Will have to recheck that area. For anyone considering playing this game, do the side missions, especially the pizza deliveries (won’t spoil more than that). You’ll get gear that will significantly improve the game. No need to trudge through the mountains slowly for hours if you help out the preppers. You’ll also get plenty of materials to rebuild the roads, and learn more about the history of the stranding. I’ll save my plot analysis for a blog post, although it wasn’t the point of this article, would have been nice to see a bit more depth there.

Started playing death stranding but, like most Japanese games it was an incredible grind. After all of the metal gear solid games, the entire dark souls series, bloodborne, and Sekiro I just couldn’t handle any more Japanese grind and I happily relegated death stranding to the ‘never to be finished’ list.

What a great article! Hideo Kojima is the bridge between the intimate and emotional storytelling of Akira Kurosawa, Haruki Murakami, and Hayao Miyazaki of Tokyo and the blockbuster franchise commercial art of Geroge Lucas and Steven Spielberg of Los Angeles. The revenue from video games is much greater than films and professional sports combined, and if some people can't acknowledge video games as one of the most important sites for artistic expression, it's their loss. NY Times, please give additional assignments to Adrian Chen. His ability to write a compelling story on technology, culture, commerce, and biography is superb.

My gamer days are long over, but I was introduced to Kojima through his seminal classic, Snatcher, on the Sega CD. I have such found memories of the game that I can’t bring myself to sell my copy, which is so rare it’s sells for a premium on eBay.

This is wonderful. So happy the NYTimes is engaging in this kind of journalism.

"video games are a narcissistic medium," Whatever happened to baseball, football, and basketball with the kids in the neighborhood? I remember those days. Many were vulgar and violent. However, you learned about teamwork, yourself, and how you fit into real life society. You learned to respect your body, and others. And about exercise and fresh air. This is especially important for young males whose judgment is addled by testosterone. In sports, if you do something overly aggressive or beyond the rules, you're gonna get punched. There are consequences to your behavior. With video games, there are no real consequences.

Metal Gear games are the only games I don't regret burning up so many hours.

I get the sense that people who think video games are great storytelling don't read much.

Adam, what a terrific piece ..you made this brilliant game , Death Stranding and yes gaming come alive ...for a 1950's born. dude for who. gaming was Centipede and Asteroids on early, early devices...I'll admit that after various forays, including Dungeons and Dragons on a Dec 2020..(sorry, only text, what's a graphic?!). I admit i lost interest after that , with occasional dabbles thereafter. The truth is I never did understand the immersive and compelling power of today's gaming world..having ignored it...But what you have done so brilliantly is to illuminate this art , through the brilliant journey you take the reader to and through. i was drawn into the mind of a gamer as I followed your narrative and your tumble down the wormhole of Death Standings . For the first time I have become truly aware of d this immersive medium that is the third stream of cinema and gaming,..and yes theatre Hideo Kojima is genius and your portrait of him,through the frame of his game, tells me that he has a social presience..as he willingly and patiently waits for 5 years to have his social paradigm embraced by North Americans!. thank you for a landmark piece.

What the world needs now, more than anything, is a really, really good platformer.

Reflecting on the idea of "What are video games for?" is a bit like asking what a book or movies are for -- or what art at all is for. Traditionally, it's supposed to be a "game" -- so fun? a puzzle? -- but with developers like Kojima and others, video games are truly becoming an art form in that they can be more than simply pretty, or mindless fun. After all, do all movies need to be engaging? Or profitable? Do all novels need to have some sort of ground-breaking literary tradition as their foundation, or can some simply be used for mindless escapism? It's the not the medium that determines whether something is art, but rather that which is done with it. And Kojima has embraced pixels as his paint. (Now, whether that's art you'd want to hang over a mantelpiece -- or play yourself -- is another question altogether!)

In 2002 my 8 YO son was playing Metal Gear and I became entranced in the story line .. I'd just sit there and watch him play and we'd talk about the meanings and themes of the game .. good vs evil, big corporations, espionage, environmental catastrophes .. He's 26 now and a software engineer.. I can't help but think Kojima's Metal Gear somehow put him on that path..

Great article! Was surprised to see something about Kojima in the NYT, especially a long form article like this. Really appreciate that it was written by someone who seems to be familiar and appreciative of Kojima, but also willing to admit that his work can be a bit out there. Loved the Sisyphus comparison for Death Stranding too, very accurate to my experience playing as well. This article might just inspire to get back to the game to finish all the side deliveries.

Kojima games were a staple of my childhood. I played Metal Gear Solid 2 through countless times with friends. As Hideo gets older ( and I as well) his thoughtfulness, humor, and attention to detail are even more prevalent. No, his games aren't for everyone, but those who do find a connection to his works are hard pressed to name a more astute game designer. His contributions to the gaming industry are timeless. Nice piece by the Times.

The trailers definitely turned me off. The game looked like nonsense and only for very few Kojima fanatics. So I did not pre-ordered it. I wanted to see reviews first. I was so wrong. At the opportunity of a 30% discount I bought the game at Xmas. It was so weird at first. I didn’t want to build anything but I was intrigued by the story. What happened? Why was the outside rural world so dangerous? Slowly I got to understand the asynchronous multiplayer part of the game, borrowing others bikes and vehicles and building the road and receiving likes for it. I must have build half of the road of my server cluster (or at least i had the illusion I did). Then I continued the story, discovering what the Death Stranding was, and what was the role of the bridge baby in all that. My wife and I cried watching the epilogue of the story. All was revealed and explained. It all built up to that conclusion, being engaged with enlarging the chiral network and restoring America. I regretted so much not having pre-ordered the collector edition. That BBpod prop would have been a sentimental trophy of this one and half month spent in this weird world. What a journey, what a journey ! Definitely more than a game.

Huge fan of Kojima, despite all his foibles he is definitely a unique figure in the games industry.

Death Stranding is an absolute work of art.

Glad to see some nuanced writing on modern video games and one if its singular creative voices that doesn't just mindlessly drone about how "violent" they are. Video games are a form of art like music and film, and should be taken as seriously as those mediums.

Sorry, but this really is the most tedious game I've ever played. There are many good things about it, but it's not fun. And if it's not fun, what's the point?

Thanks for the long form article -- way more interesting than whatever Ben Affleck is doing right now. Even just the game play of walking around made visceral and difficult is an interesting innovation. I'm excited for the whole story to unfold! Though: mysterious techno-wombs make me wonder how much Kojima has actually "evolved" in his positioning of women...

This video game, (in which an animated entity with poor balance and co-ordination staggers across a vast plain and then dies), apparently goes on forever. The article also goes on forever, word after word by an author who spends ENDLESS hours of his 'life' occupied in portraying this stumbling entity on a screen.

He's definitely one of the all time greats. MGS1 is an all timer and MGS3 is one of my favorites. Definitely works best with an editor to rein in the silliness, otherwise we get MGS2 barely letting players be Snake, or MGS4 having 71 dang minutes of cutscenes in the finale, including a 27 minute segment. Haven't played Death Stranding but Nick Wiger likes it, so it must be good.