Sam can carry a ridiculous amount of gear on his back, but within the confines of the unlikely ability to carry as many packages as he does come the grounded realism to way it all down and make you, the player, feel at odds constantly with your environment. Simple right? That's your mission for 90% of the game. Get an item from objective A to objective B. It’s the slow-paced gameplay that may not be for everyone. Hideo Kojima, freshly free from the Konami shackles, has proudly called Death Stranding the first of a new genre, the ‘strand-game’ and although Death Stranding is very unique, I’d still put it under a third-person action-adventure game.ĭeath Stranding is utterly unique within the genre however and it’s not the at times obtuse Kojima story that features babies in bottles, themes of the afterlife or the insane characters named Deadman, Die-Hardman or Fragile that may turn players off finishing even the first few chapters. Which is actually a first for Kojima and me. And by the time I rolled the credits, I felt like I had a decent grasp on the story, its themes and how it all comes together. I’m not here to explain it all though, of course, that would spoil it, but I will say that as confusing as Death Stranding can seem, the core objective boils down to simply wanting to turn the internet back on for everyone. It’s a lot to take in and the first few hours are filled with your brain creating a Death Stranding thesaurus to help you through the remainder of the game. Which is why Sam is approached and recruited by the President of the Cities of America, Bridget Strand, to reconnect America via the Chiral Network - a pseudo sit-in for our internet - and along the way try and put a stop to a terrorist organisation that has been slaughtering people causing more BTs and worse, Voidouts, which are basically big-ass explosions that can destroy cities. Those that remain alive live in these underground bunkers safe from the terrors above, but this also means any information that could be important or technology that could help everyone isn't freely accessible. In the world of Death Stranding, there is no longer communication between any of the American cities and communities. It’s a job, it keeps him busy, and away from others. Sam Porter Bridges - performed by the relatable everyman, Norman Reedus - is one of the few that still travels above, working to make deliveries between different communities. Those choosing to dare travel above use BBs (bridge babies) as a way to sense when BTs are around as the BBs have a connection to the otherside due to their removal from still mothers. The Death Stranding has brought the world of the afterlife and the living together, they now exist seemingly connected and only a few dare brave the harsh environment above ground anymore with BTs roaming and the development of Timefall - a rain that will age anything it touches. Think of them as ghosts, that will kill you if they bump into you. With it comes near extinction as most of America is wiped out and BTs (beached things) start roaming the land. Sometime in the near future, a cataclysmic event called the Death Stranding occurs. “Once there was an explosion, a bang which gave rise to life as we know it. It’s what you do for nearly every mission in the game, it’s what is the core moment-to-moment is made up of and yet, any FedEx simulator jokes feel utterly redundant.ĭeath Stranding is about depression and how you escape that dark hole it’s about fatherhood and, at times, motherhood it's about the internet and how it affects us positively and negatively it’s about America's current political climate and it’s also about delivering packages, including pizza. You can naively boil Death Stranding down to being a game about delivering packages. Through rocky hills, enemy filled terrain, ghostly haunted ruins and up snowy mountains I had walked from one side of American to the other and it wasn’t easy, at times it was tedious, slow and lumbering, but as I sit at 3 AM watching the credits roll, I feel a triumphant euphoria fall over me. I’m sad, shocked and yet, as tired as I am, wishing I had anyone around to discuss what I just played through over the past 44 hours. I’m tired, bewildered and feeling triumphant as the credits begin to roll on Death Stranding.
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