Recent reviews by Sophie

War has changed...

Now with extra democracy and freedom!
Visit new planets, take in new vistas, and represent Super Earth out in the far reaches of our galaxy!

Liberate worlds from the disgusting bugs that have infested our borders and destroy the communist robot menaces attempting to brainwash our children!

This message was approved by the Ministry of Truth and the SEAF PR committee.

Might just be luck, but I haven't had any of the serious bugs other players have found.
The only complaint I have has to do with optimization - even though the PC version has shown to be far superior to the console one, there's still a lot of room for improvement. Far too many frame-rate issues, and often if you wear a hat and look into a mirror your hat (and hair) vanishes; I also encountered a nudity bug - even though I have nudity fully enabled, my characters has kept on wearing underwear ever since after the prologue (while not a deal-breaker for me, it's odd the game would give you the option only to then dismiss it entirely).

I don't doubt in the coming months it will get a lot better, as that was also the case with The Witcher 3 , another title released by these same developers.

Outside of that, I'm completely in love with this game. It feels like this is what the new iterations of the Deus Ex games should have been. The characters you'll meet, the friends and enemies you'll make, these are the things the game is strongest at. The game world is both incredibly beautiful, and that includes the worst parts of town. It absolutely manages to capture that Cyberpunk aesthetic, you can tell the devs poured their heart and soul into this game.

If you're a player that can look past performance and if a few bugs aren't enough to make you skittish and ruin the immersion for you, then I highly recommend it.
If, however, you want a polished experience my suggestion would be to wait a month or three - let the game get patched out a couple of more times and I'm sure that the majority of complains exercised now will be a distant memory then.


And by god, stay away from the PS4/XBOX One version.

I like it, the first chapter is solid AF.

I've burned over 50 hours on this first part alone, so I know I'll be invested in this for months when it finally does fully release.

This is a wonderful game, but the only reason I know this is because I first played it on PS4.

As it is right now, I can't recommended it on pc so soon.
I've ran the benchmark, and by all standards (requirements included) I should be more than capable of getting 60 fps @ 1080p on high. Yet, running on "original" (medium) settings, it still struggles to get over 50 FPS whenever I'm outside a cave, which is the vast majority of time.

Furthermore, it's been crashing more often than I'd like to admit. Even in cut-scenes.
After the third crash in a row, again in a cut-scene, I decided to stop playing until a patch that fixes these issues comes along - it really kills all sense of immersion when you're forced to replay a cut-scene and find yourself skipping most of the dialogue.

If this gets fixed, I can easily recommend it. But not until then.

For context, I'm running the game on a machine with a Ryzen 7 3800 XT (8 cores, 4.7 GHz), GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, 16 GB of ram (DDR4) and installed on an SSD.

Also for context, running Death Stranding, which shares the same engine, I can run consistently at 60 FPS with significantly better visuals and not a single crash or performance hitch.

Will update the review soon as a patch that fixes these issues comes along.

I'm 36 hours in, and only now have I reached chapter 8 (out of 15, I'm told).

It's so easy to get lost in the world and doing side-objectives.
I was really skeptical, what with the "walking simulator" reviews and the fact combat really pays a less prominent role.
I got it anyways, Kojima had never let me down and I can confidently say he still hasn't.


Calling this game a walking simulator is incredibly diminishing, much in the same way calling Dark Souls an adventure game would be. It's something... different, new, and you certainly do much more than just walking.

That being said, the game very much centers around the idea of making deliveries from place to place - the fun lies in the challenge of getting it done. Could be horrid terrain, could be a groups of vandals who want your cargo, could be merciless terrorists who crave nothing but mayhem, could be something otherworldly and rather ominous - something I find difficult to explain even as I progress through the story.

You are given plenty of tools to achieve your goals, but because some of them are quite perplexing or surprising I am reluctant to mention them... I'd be delving into spoiler territory.


The game at points presents you with serious themes, attempting to suck you into this strange, familiar world, only to suddenly throw a curve-ball and do something silly or goofy. I think one of the first soundtracks the game played for me was titled "Don't be so serious" and I think that's exactly how the game is meant to be played. Don't be so serious! Enjoy the wild ride, because a wild ride it is.

A Hideo Kojima experience through and through, with all the good (and bad) that entails.

I absolutely understand why this game isn't for everyone, again, in much the same way I know Dark Souls isn't for everyone. It's very challenging, very different, and bravely attempts to do something games haven't tried before.

Dark Souls stopped treating gamers as babies, and told them to git gud.
Death Stranding attempts to teach gamers that simply traversing the terrain, taking in the sights, planning routes and dealing with the unpredictable can be a fun mechanic in and of itself.

I am enjoying far more than I ever thought I would. Maybe you will to!

(I must reinforce this: Don't buy it if you -absolutely- need combat to be the focus. You'll hate it, for even when conflict eventually visits you, the game discourages you from taking part in it, especially if you want to go lethal. Does it give you that option? Yes. Will it make the game easier? Arguably, it will make the game even more difficult. Trust me. Dealing with the aftermath of killing another human is quite complicated, a chore really.)

I like it!

It's pretty good, the combat is very original.

To echo what some people have said, make sure you own a controller - the game was clearly designed with one in mind.


Having a blast so far, so assuming you have one you're good to go!

Post-apocalyptic cyberpunk dark souls.
But without the pvp.

This is pretty good, yeah

Just posting this review to say that the game is great (even greater) post-early access.

Yup!