I wouldn’t say it never got copied but it definitely feels like it disappeared off the face of the earth:
Difficulty increases in linear games also change the objectives of a mission not just health and NPC behavior, like in Goldeneye 64, Perfect Dark, and Thief: The Dark Project.
This, I want to see inventory weight distribution and physicality + terrain angle taken far more seriously in certain kinds of open world games the way Death Stranding does it, they lead to interesting things that actually feel like an adventure you’re going on, with stories to tell not of your destination, but the journey.
I feel like Death Stranding’s movement is like, a first-ish (do car-based delivery sims like MudRunner count? Feels like something that would be up for debate.) baseline for something other games can elaborate on.
Only reason I don’t have an OLED is that I took that release as my cue to start saving small amounts of money at a time towards a Steam Deck 2 in 2025-2027. My LCD still plays everything I want it to.