Date Released: November 8, 2019
Date Played: September 25,2021
I honestly think there was more hype and curiosity surrounding this game than any other game that I have ever experienced... or at least remember experiencing. After Hideo Kojima, the legendary writer and director of this game, left Konami, no one was sure what his next project would be. After all, he had been with Konami for decades and was basically synonymous with the brand. When it was later announced that Sony was going to snag him, I think everyone's curiosity was piqued. What would he do now that he didn't have his beloved Metal Gear franchise to use as his writing outlet? Whatever became of all the planning that he had done with acclaimed director Guillermo del Toro for the new Silent Hill game that was supposed to star Norman Reedus? No one knew.
It wasn't as long as anyone expected until he announced his next game would be titled Death Stranding. Yes, Guillermo del Toro and Norman Reedus would still be involved, but no one had the foggiest idea of what sort of game it would be. There were rumors of the game being a survival horror game like Silent Hills or that it would be a stealth action game like Metal Gear. I even heard some people who felt the game was going to be an MMORPG. Then, the first trailer dropped... and so did everyone's jaw. We saw a naked Norman Reedus with a baby inside of him that gives him a thumbs up. We saw Mads Mikkelsen with black tar pouring out of his eyes. We saw bodies hovering above a gray-tinged beach. Everyone had questions. As each new trailer came out people seemed to get more and more confused. It was just scene after scene of the most nonsensical craziness you could ever imagine. Disturbing images and bizarre concepts were in abundance. When asked what the gameplay was like, Hideo Kojima gave tacit responses like, "it's a game about connections." What?!? The internet was ablaze with fan theory after fan theory about what this game would actually turn out to be. At this point, I abandoned the media about the game and went dark. I didn't want some hairbrained idea to accidentally spoil that game for me. I would get to it... eventually like I always do. Be it weeks, months, or years... this was something I wanted to experience unspoiled.
When that game finally released, I of course didn't pick it up. I knew that it would sell like crazy and I could buy it for a song later down the road. In the meantime, I read some spoiler free reviews, and damn was there some division among the gaming community. I heard people say the game was terrible and was nothing more than a glorified walking simulator and it was like a 2/10. I heard others call it a paradigm shift in gaming and that it was an undeniable masterpiece that was a 10/10. Wow... now I couldn't wait to have my chance to play it. That chance came right at the height of the Delta Variant outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was randomly selected for me to play and I figured this would be an great time to dive in. Little did I know that this game would be the most fitting game you could ever play while being a shut-in.
So, what kind of game is Death Stranding? Well, as Kojima himself said, "it's a game about connections." And honestly, that statement is very apt when talking about the theme of the game. The gameplay itself is actually a 3rd person open-world adventure game, but there's so much more to it than that. Without hesitation, I'll just come right out and say it; Hideo Kojima has crafted one of the most interesting worlds I've ever experienced in any sort of media. That goes for TV shows, books, movies, anything. It's completely unique, intriguing, tragic, and enjoyable in the most melancholy sense. There's really nothing like it. The sheer amount of thought and mindfulness that went into crafting this world is astounding and is more than enough to make up for any slight shortcomings in the gameplay or lulls in action that the peanut gallery of the internet are so adamant about pointing out. There is no other way that this story could be told outside of a video game. To be there... experiencing this world and the plight of the main character really immerses you in the whole experience. You're invested and you care what's going on, but more so it feels like you are really a part of this world. I'm thankful to have been a part of it.
To explain the story, themes, and skillfully crafted world in this short review would be impossible. I googled, "Death Stranding story explained" and discovered many video essays about the story of this game and they clocked in between 25 minutes all the way to 2+hours. I watched one of the 25 minute videos and it was just a lightning fast recount of the story that only hit on the most superficial levels. Needless to say, I won't be diving in here; nor would I want to. Anyone who reads this should experience the game for themselves. But, I'll do my best to whet your appetite and hopefully that will be enough to entice you.
You play as Sam Porter Bridges (played by Norman Reedus). You live in a world where a terrible and cataclysmic event called the Death Stranding has occurred. Something happened that caused the world of the dead and the world of this living to be connected and this is wreaking havoc. People realized that when they die, they go to a sort of purgatory called The Beach. It's here that they can wade out into the water to travel to the afterlife. There are a few select people who have the ability to return from the Beach to the world of the living and they have completely broken apart the fundamentals of the way people have viewed death. They have also learned that beings called BTs (beached things) can travel from the afterlife over to the world of the living. When someone dies, a proverbial clock starts ticking and if you don't incinerate the body in a remote location before to long, a BT will appear from it. These BTs are manifested as monsters and if they consume the spirit of the body before you can dispose of it, it will cause a Void Out which is basically like a nuclear bomb being dropped on the location. So, if anyone dies for any reason, it's literally a ticking-time bomb to get rid of them. In addition to this, all of the rain in the world has become something called Time Fall. This causes everything (including humans) to age extremely rapidly if it touches their skin. Not only that, BTs seem to roam around whenever the Time Fall occurs. Because of all of this, the world has basically ended. The few people left alive are completely isolated around the country in these bunkers without any contact. Everyone is afraid to go outside and they don't want to be around anyone else. In order to survive and receive the supplies they need, delivery people have to brave the harsh and hostile world to take them the items and equipment that they request. Our main character, Sam, is one such person. You quickly learn that the remaining government of that is still intact wants to tie all of the remaining cities and bunkers together into a Chiral Network (a fancier internet) in order to link everyone back together and try to save humanity. So our hero, Sam, is charged with traveling across the country to do this.
So, there you go, that's the most basic premise I can give about the story to the game. But don't let that put you off if it. The real magic of this game lies in all of the details, lore, and sophisticated components of this whole system. Everything is tied together in the most amazing way... and as you travel across the country connecting with people and unraveling this this Death Stranding mystery, things just get more and more fascinating. I can't stress this enough, there's really nothing out there like this world. Every little nagging loophole or question I had was eventually answered and it turned this "idea" into a fully fledged reality. What an imagination Hideo Kojima has...
As for the gameplay, you really just deliver equipment from one person to the next. Most of your time is spent walking and trying to find paths across the desolate countryside. There are mechanics around balancing as you try to traverse the rocky terrain, there's some minor combat for avoiding looters, there's a fair amount of stealth for avoiding BTs, and there's even a few shootouts and gunplay for dealing with bosses. All of these are done well and are usually really fun. There's even an online component where you can leave items like ropes and ladders scattered around the map to assist other players in the world with their traversal and they can to likewise for you. It's a really nice touch and makes you feel like you're not entirely alone out there. There were more than a handful of times I was struggling to reach my destination and if it weren't for a little friendly help from a stranger, I might not have made it. It's also nice to know that I may have helped do the same for someone else. But... in the end, this is mostly a game about traveling and unraveling the world Hideo Kojima has crafted. I can totally see how people who are more used to high-octane shooters would find this game boring. Or how someone could just "not get it." I, personally, totally get it and never once found it boring. Just taking in the beautiful and sad scenery kept me interested. On those long treks across the mossy and stony wilderness, music will often kick in and add another layer to the sadness and beauty of this world all while pushing you to take just a few more steps or to finish that last delivery. Just this simple touch almost brought me to tears several times and it's such a nice reprieve after a tense section with a BT or an emotional cutscene. These little heart-soothing moments sprinkled into the overwhelming melancholy of this world are really the brightness that this lonely experience needed.
As for the technical side. The graphics, art design, character models, textures, and lighting are all magnificent. It's probably the best looking game I've ever seen on the PS4. The sound design is expertly crafted all the way from the ambient noise, to the mixing, to the music selected for the game. This music is often very relaxed and introspective indie rock and it suits the game perfectly. As mentioned above, it will often just start playing while you're walking from one distant location to the next. Every time this happened, it lifted my spirits and put a smile on my face. I loved it. The actors that Hideo Kojima selected for this game were casted amazingly. I liked every single character and felt emotionally invested in them. The performances were some of the best I've ever seen in any game and the long cutscenes that Kojima is so well known for never once felt like they detracted from the game. I can't even imagine how this game could have been casted or performed any better. A game that is so subtle and nuanced in its gameplay needs the same from the execution of its acting and storytelling. Death Stranding wholeheartedly succeeds on every level. The only negative critique I can make about this game is that its pacing does begin to drag slightly around the half-way point. There's about a 10 hour stretch there that feels like it could use a bit of a pick-me-up. Luckily, the game finishes very strongly and almost makes up for the slight dip. Still, I was never really put off from wanting to play the game and looked forward to each new session with it.
As others have said, this game isn't really "fun" in the traditional sense. It's very rarely high energy, but it's quite often very tense when you're dealing with the BTs or sneaking across looter territory. It's not going to have you jumping out of your seat with fists pumped into the air after after destroying your opponent, but it fills a void that is lacking in media in this day and age. Everything is so action based, loud, and in your face that it's difficult to find a somber and thought provoking idea that can truly succeed. I'm amazed that this game was ever made and I can't wait to see what Kojima does next. This game is nearly perfect but could have used just a touch more variance in the gameplay to help with some of the tedium and frustrations with crossing the terrain again and again. In the end, playing a game about connecting people who are shut-ins in an apocalyptic world really resounded with me in a time where our actual world feels like we're all isolated shut-ins in a world being ravaged by a pandemic. There's a time and place for everything, and now is the perfect time for this game.
Final Status: Beaten
Final Score 9/10 (almost a masterpiece)
