6/4/2023 0 Comments Death stranding background![]() ![]() ![]() None of these drastically change the experience and all are almost entirely optional – it’s just another example of Kojima continuing to overstuff his game. Plus it adds in new features like a shooting range, a racing circuit, and underground stealth sections. The Director’s Cut version does alleviate some of that struggle with some extra items and weapons. It’s through overcoming struggles that human connection is worthwhile. In Death Stranding everything is a struggle, with even the simplest elements made difficult. It’s an unexpectedly poignant parallel for this re-release of the game, though it hardly provides escapism. Since then, that need for human connection has only become more pertinent as we’ve struggled to meet with loved ones and have been confined to our homes like bunkers. What’s more, the game was originally released on PS4 pre-pandemic. It creates a metagame outside of the main story that ensures completing deliveries gradually becomes oddly satisfying as you amass meaningless likes and accolades in a twist on social media. Tying into the theme of connection, playing online provides asynchronous access to the utilities left behind by other players who can collectively put resources towards roads and bridges. The roads do feed into the game’s most genius feature: building an infrastructure. Roads can be built, but this requires a tonne of resources until the endgame. The handling is dire, however, meaning walking is often a simpler and more direct option despite the longer and longer distances. If walking is dull, there are at least vehicles to drive to ease the pain. Eventually you’ll gather a variety of methods of dispatching enemies, but initially combat is a nuisance to be skirted around and avoided. ![]() The latter are invisible apparitions requiring constant scanning, which can make for frustrating encounters – especially when they morph into (admittedly fantastically designed) creatures that interrupt your journey. The former will hunt you down but cannot be killed for…story reasons. There are two types of enemies you’ll stumble upon: human terrorists and BTs. Much of the game is spent simply hiking from point A to point B and not much happens along the way. Traversing long distances requires making use of ladders and bridges and, later, ziplines and newly built roads. Pile up resources and packages unbalanced and Sam will topple over and trip on the smallest of rocks. Protagonist Sam is little more than an isolated errand boy, carrying cargo from one place to another across the rugged Icelandic terrain of this post-apocalyptic America.ĭeath Stranding makes gameplay out of elements we take for granted in other games: inventory management and climbing. Story and equipment alike are eked out over a long period, meaning the game progresses at a snail’s pace, which is a fitting image for a man carrying his life around on his back. Unfortunately, between any intrigue of story beats, there’s a video game to play. It’s not helped by a heavy-handed script full of sci-fi and philosophical hokum that has every character speaking in metaphors and acronyms, and occasionally swings into laughably bad.Īs if to make up for this, the game’s ending is a sudden deluge of story that does make a kind of sense but over-explains and leaves little room for subtlety. Much of the backstory and context is hidden away in data archives and the game seems to purposely confuse the player to keep them on the back foot. But the player has to buy into the weirdness from the beginning, which is asking a lot when so little information is given out. Death Stranding thrives on WTF moments, relying on shock value to intrigue the player and keep them guessing. The problem is in the way the story is told. The greatest connection of all is that between a parent and their child. And it’s an exploration of the human need for connection, even in the darkest of times. It’s a collision of life, death and the afterlife as mankind struggles to survive in the aftermath of a cataclysmic event: the titular Death Stranding. Thematically, the plot has some intriguing ideas. But instead the game is so crammed full of ideas it feels incomprehensible. Indeed, Director’s Cut implies some sort of edit. The result is a game that looks pretty – especially this Director’s Cut version on PlayStation 5 – but is a narrative mess. In short, it’s typical Kojima, with a tone that shifts wildly from weirdness to sombre to silliness. Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima’s PlayStation exclusive is a bleak meditation on life and death that’s melancholic to an extreme.īut it’s also a game where you create grenades out of urine, use screaming babies to make ghostly beings visible, and defeat ridiculous, over-the-top bosses like maniacal men from another dimension and giant whales. ![]() “Don’t be so serious,” goes the song at the opening of Death Stranding. ![]()
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