Death Stranding - Surreal, Strange and Awesome
Over the last two months, I played Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding and I absolutely loved it. The writing, the aesthetic, the characters, the music, the scenery - all brilliant. The gameplay, not as much. Here’s my review of it.
Death Stranding is set somewhere in the near future post an apocalyptic event called ‘the Death Stranding’ - a series of explosions that occured in every major city after which rains called ‘Timefall’ began that sends everything it touches forward in time. The survivors are left to rebuild and reconnect society via the Chiral Network. The game is set in a devastated America that looks exactly like Middle Earth from Lord of the Rings. You play as Sam Porter Bridges, a delivery man who’s on a mission to cross the continent from coast to coast in order to connect all major surviving cities to the Chiral Network and find his kidnapped sister, Amelie. He faces package thieves, terrorists, punishing landscapes and mysterious ghost creatures that appeared in the aftermath of the Death Stranding. He carries the baby in a bottle named BB that can see the ghost creatures (called BTs) - the strangest possible thing you can ever put in a game. If that sounds complex to you, buckle your seat belts and duct tape yourself to your chair because this game will take you for a ride.
A small percentage of this world have a condition called DOOMs which allows them to interact with a higher dimension called the Beach where the Chiral Network exists and from where the dead can reenter our world as BTs. Different characters have different levels of DOOMs. The protagonist Sam’s DOOMs level allows him to only sense BTs near him. Other characters like Fragile have a high enough DOOMs level to use the Beach to teleport around the world. The antagonist of the game - Higgs has a high enough DOOMs level to summon Timefall and BTs, teleport and talk to others telepathically. That’s all I can say about its story without getting into spoilers.
The gameplay is based on keeping your balance. Like many other games, your character has a health and stamina bar and when they run out, you become weaker. However the added twist here is that you carry hundereds of kilos of supplies all over the map in order to cross the continent. The heavier your package load, the harder it is to not fall over. If the packages are damaged, the delivary site will not accept it. Along with this the terrain is uneven and will constantly try to make you fall over. The worst of the terrain barely lets you move without losing health, stamina, balance, or package integrity. In the middle of all this, your BB will get agitated if you fall over and will go unconcious if you upset it too much. When it does, you won’t be able to see BTs and are in constant danger of their attacks. You can try using vehicles but they control just as badly as you on foot if not worse. The truck is the worst thing in this game. It controls like a drunken horse. I have a personal vendetta against this truck. I hate this truck.
The worst truck in gaming history
The scenery in this game is beautiful. It is peaceful, serene and amazing to stare at for a while. The game also has a really nice feature where when you discover new regions and structures, you find a song. These songs are perfect for this game in particular and it is really amazing to listen to while you trek across the barren landscape cursing your truck.
The storyline is absolutely bonkers and I enjoyed every bit of it. I’d reccomend this to pretty much everyone. Everything about it other than controlling your character is amazing. The boss fight towards the end is the coolest fight I’ve ever seen in a game. Here are a few drawings I made from the game.
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That’s all I have for now. Check out Death Stranding. Live Long and Prosper!