Metal Gear FedEx Delivery Service
Introduction
Death Stranding is a 2019 game developed by Kojima Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. If the name “Kojima” sounds familiar to you, then you have probably heard of legendary Metal Gear Solid director and cutscene madman, Hideo Kojima.
Five years ago, there was infighting between Hideo Kojima and Konami Corporation over the development of Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hills, which resulted in Kojima leaving the company forming his own studio under the Sony banner. Now, Death Stranding stands as Kojima’s first game after his departure.
Setting and Plot
This post-apocalyptic game is set in a fractured world ravaged by many dangers, from rain that ages anything exponentially upon contact, to Beach Things (BTs), ghostly Bloodborne rejects that live in-between the realms of life and death and roam the rocky plains of America.
You walk in the well-worn boots of Sam Porter Bridges, a delivery man tasked by the last president of the United States to connect its cities through a system called the Chiral Network and rebuild society to make America whole again. Sam is partnered with a bridge baby (BB), a baby inside a canister plugged to his chest that allows him to detect any BTs within his vicinity.
Besides the rain that ages stuff rapidly and wandering spirits, Death Stranding also seems to be plagued with corporate product placement. It turns out that Monster energy drinks managed to survive the apocalypse, as they can be found in every private room across America and even in Sam’s own drinking flask. One can only assume that Sam will probably die of a heart attack or kidney failure long before the game’s finale, with the absurd amount of Monster that he drinks.
It pains me to say it, but Death Stranding’s plot moves excruciatingly slow. While I did enjoy my experience, the open barren landscape and tedious controls can make one feel frustrated or bored. Cutscenes for most of the game were a rarity, something which surprised me since this is a Kojima game. Suddenly, towards the end of its narrative, the tone shifts to massive Kaiju battles with giant sea critters flying everywhere and plot twists and elements regurgitated all over the place.
While Death Stranding’s narrative moves slower than Sam’s walking speed, one has to appreciate the level of creativity in its lore, with its creature design and sense of existential dread being inspired by none other than H.P Lovecraft’s works. Yet, one can imagine Kojima’s friendship with Guillermo del Toro paying off thanks to the latter’s many years of experience crafting horror films.
Another notable inclusion in Death Stranding’s lore is its description of the afterlife, as it incorporates many elements derived from Ancient Egyptian beliefs, most notably the division between the body and mind as two instinct entities.
Characters and Performances
Despite our protagonist being played by Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus, he does not say much throughout Death Stranding’s runtime, mostly letting everyone else monologue to him. While Sam does try to pull off a hard exterior, he is quite the goofball if left alone in his private room, playing around with his bridge baby, among other things.
Sam suffers from a severe case of haphephobia, which can be translated from Greek to mean the fear of connection, an ironic fear for the man trying to unite the country, isn’t it? While his phobia does not necessarily mean he is afraid of social interaction, as he can still communicate with clients and allies with little problems, he will go out of his way not to be touched by anyone. He is so afraid of physical interaction that his body will develop a rash whenever someone touches him.
Like many other Kojima games that came before, Sam gets his support from a diverse cast of quirky individuals with strange names. In this case, every character has been touched by death in some way and the loneliness that comes with it. This relationship strengthens their resolve to unite the cities of America and make their nation whole again. While these characters play an essential part in the overall narrative, they also get their own chapters to flesh out their personalities even further.
Before Hideo Kojima departed from Konami, he and Guillermo del Toro were assigned to a joint project together surrounding the new Silent Hills game, starring actor Norman Reedus and even managed to release one of the scariest demos of all time with PT (Playable Teaser). The combination was supposed to be a match made in heaven, yet Konami pulled the plug on their venture, leaving many gamers heartbroken. Now, the three have reunited with a shared vision to create Death Stranding.
In Death Stranding, del Toro plays the role of Deadman, a scientist fascinated by the bridge between life and death and the application of bridge babies in the field to detect BTs. Del Toro is always a delight to see on screen, as his enthusiasm sells the character.
Fragile is one of the strangest characters Kojima has ever created, counting the overweight World War II commando with the power to control bees from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Her trademark black biker suit with retractable shoulder spikes along with her weird umbrella makes her stand out among the game’s already bizarre-looking cast.
This femme fatale is portrayed by Léa Seydoux, best known for her role as Madeliene from the last James Bond movie, Spectre. While I enjoyed the character quirky nature and intense backstory, she does not have the same heart as other heroines.
Gameplay and Mechanics
Movement and Deliveries
If I were to describe Death Stranding’s mechanics in a single sentence, it would be: post-apocalyptic Amazon delivery simulator with ghosts.
As Sam, you spend most of your runtime transporting packages from one location to the next, with the mechanics mainly concerning your traversal across the map. The real challenge comes from managing the weight and space of your cargo. At first, you will travel across the wastelands on foot, with multiple items clamped onto your back, making even simple tasks like walking vexing. The more stuff you gather throughout your travels, the more laborious your movement will become, as you sway more than a swing state, balancing Sam’s leaning tower of packages.
Thankfully, you can use equipment like ropes and ladders to help climb steep inclines and even mountains, which is honestly a very innovative mechanic for traversal. Eventually, you will be able to create vehicles such as trucks and bikes to help transport heavier cargo. Whenever you manage to connect a new city to the Chiral Network, Sam will gain access to constructions like bridges and highways, which can cut a lot of time travelling, while also avoiding dangerous locations with BTs and mercenaries.
Sadly, during the last third of the game, vehicles become almost unusable on Death Stranding’s rocky snow-cap mountains, devolving travel back to ropes and ladders when entering a new region for the first time. After that, ziplines become your primary means of travel, shooting Sam back and forth between locations.
When it comes to its missions, Death Stranding is a bit of an ugly duckling, as its limited mission types can leave it feeling monotonous. I can understand a person feeling bored when their primary activities are fetch quests. That said, I did enjoy cruising across the mountains with the wind in Sam’s hair. There were even points where the game felt relaxing. The climbing and heavier movement is a welcomed change from other games.
In the world of Death Stranding, when one dies, they will always go out with a bang. Every person in Death Stranding, including Sam himself, has the potential to blow up after they die in an event called a void out. Void outs can destroy constructs, vehicles and even landscapes, so don’t die. However, Sam has the advantage of being a repatriate, a being who can come back from the dead and turn it into a revolving door.
Kojima’s choice of mechanics gives the game a particular niche unfamiliar with the usual Triple-A market crowd. While most modern developers try to emphasise action to appease larger audiences, like Capcom and EA with their horror franchises, Kojima decided to play it slow with Death Stranding.
Beach Things
Throughout the game, you will have to encounter the Beach Things, and for the most part, they can be quite troublesome, especially during the opening hours of the game. These creatures are invisible unless Sam moves in close. If a BT gets alerted to your presence, they will try to catch you or transform into a tar-covered monster hellbent on dragging you down to the murky depths.
You can use your BB to detect these ghouls with the help of a sensor. The sensor appears and begins to flicker whenever BTs are within its proximity. However, being too close around BTs can stress out your BB. Too much anxiety can cause him to cry out and attract unwanted attention, or even worse, put the child into shock, disabling your sensors in the process.
As a repatriate, Sam can also use his blood and bodily fluids to harm BTs and send their slimy butts back to where they came from. It has to be Hideo Kojima to designate these grenades-based numbers commonly associated with human waste. In the world of Death Stranding, firing a number 2 has many meanings. After a while, exterminating these spectres became almost like a routine for me. The weaponry removes a lot of the agency when around them, making encounters come off as trivial.
MULES and Mercenaries
BTs are not the only threats that wander America’s wet wastelands. MULEs are insane deliverymen that have taken their job too far and want packages for a weird sense of self-gratification, like a group of junkies getting high by hoarding packages. MULEs can track your cargo’s location and proceed to chase Sam to get it once they have a lock on his position. While MULEs don’t aim to kill Sam, they can still knock him out and steal his stuff.
Later in the game, you gain the ability the kill them with the power of guns. However, by killing these deranged postmen, you could also trigger a void out that can devastate an entire area and accidentally kill yourself in the process. The MULES will eventually get replaced by terrorists who thrive on causing destruction and will use firearms to bring you down.
Despite them wanting to mug or murder me constantly, I never found a reason to kill the poor guys. Eventually, with your wide range of equipment and construction prowess, you can evade fights altogether.
Music and Sound
A lot of the music in Death Stranding was composed by Ludvig Forssell, best known for his work on Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and writing the lyrics for Sins of the Father. His composed themes have various synth elements within their melodies, which reminded me of Mass Effect’s, which is great because I love Mass Effect’s soundtrack.
Kojima tried to replicate his success from the original Metal Gear Solid’s The Best is Yet to Come, with Low Roar’s themes like Don’t be so Serious soothing the way on your cross-country drives. Admittingly, while I do enjoy listening to Low Roars, they do not mix well when my truck is falling off a mountain or when BB is crying for the one-millionth time.
Conclusion
Sometimes I think Konami spent a lot of their time and money trying to keep Kojima’s imagination in check. Death Stranding is an incredible game, yet it does not compare to some of his earlier works but somehow feels very reminiscent of them, particularly Metal Gear Sold V: The Phantom Pain. However, no director other than Kojima would have made me run around America as a courier, carrying a baby on my chest and throwing grenades made out of my own urine at ghosts to bring humanity together.
Don’t go into this game expecting the same action that you will be expecting from something like Metal Gear Solid or Zone of The Enders. The pacing of this game is a lot slower, and it is very narrative-heavy. There also aren’t many games like this out there, making it hard to give a direct comparison to it as a reference. My best advice to everyone would be to try it out for yourself if you get the chance.
