I've played a lot of other games where you have to think deeply about your movement, but in a different way than this. Thinking deeply about movement in Doom and Quake, for instance, is trying to work with the ice physics, trying to set up the grenade bounce / rocket jump, trying to time the archvile jump across the gap, try to get the infighting started as fast as possible (or pair up the beefier enemies), etc. Thinking deeply about movement in Death Stranding is trying not to fall on your ass doing basic walking from point A to point B. Don't think I've ever played a game where it feels totally designed around the clunkiness of the movement, it's a constant effort to not slip down every incline, to not go tumbling down the hill and have 80kg of Amazon packages get dents and scratches in them, to not misjudge how long I can stand in the river current before getting swept downstream. And it's actually awesome.
Not being able see BTs is such a smart choice, both to save on having to model whatever the scary giant footprints are actually coming from, and because it pulls on the fear of the unknown. Something is staring me in the face but I can't see it (okay sometimes I can see a specter form of it but you get what I'm saying here), and the whole time I'm creeping around these things I'm actively having to hold my breath so they don't hear me. I'm having to try and keep my footing on rough ground while trying not to breathe heavy enough that the amorphous blob fucker floating 3 feet behind me figures out where I am. It is genuinely terrifying trying to navigate around these things, and the shit that can happen when they catch you is another nutty layer of stress.
It is definitely taking the piss out of corporate practices to some degree as well. The fact that you get a little digital propaganda poster shoved in your face, along with a canned post-apocalyptic equivalent of "THANK YOU FOR DOING YOUR PART" recycling messages is just so on the nose. Being given the Corporate Cap of Appreciation(tm) is another moment that just about send me into ugly laughter.
here's a couple of silly photos to cap it off:
