Stephanie Bendixsen: Death Stranding a strange sci-fi fever-dream worth your time
Death Stranding is undoubtedly stunning, the world is a genuine challenge to navigate and you feel it with every step – a sensation I think is deliberately crafted for maximum immersion.
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After Kojima Productions split from Konami in 2015, everyone has been wondering ‘what will Hideo Kojima do next?’
Regarded as one of the greatest auteurs in the field of video games, Kojima has developed a reputation for bringing the art of cinema to gaming through the Metal Gear franchise, along with some wholly bizarre concepts and unique ideas.
The news of Kojima’s new-found independence therefore generated serious excitement among fans.
What would he create now that he was free to craft his own, unique game?
The answer was debuted at E3 in 2016 with Death Stranding – and here’s what we saw: A CGI likeness of actor Norman Reedus (Daryl from the Walking Dead) naked, on a beach. Connected to him via an umbilical cord is a crying baby, which he picks up and holds to his chest. Norman cries also.
Suddenly he looks down, and the baby is gone, with tiny ghostly handprints appearing in the sand. He stands, we see a large cross-shaped scar on his stomach. The beach is covered in dead marine life, and as the camera pans out, we see several dark figures floating in the air above him. The trailer ends there.
It was just weird enough to get people so wildly excited they didn’t care that none of it made sense.
It’s been a long three years since that day – and this week I finally got to see what it all meant. The baby. The beach. Naked Norman Reedus.
These are my first impressions of Death Stranding – and I need to reiterate “first impressions” as this game is purported to be around 60 hours in length, and I’m currently a cool 18 hours deep.
If you’ve played Kojima games before, you’ll know that he’s big into creating an artistic, cinematic experience, so settle in for a decent chunk of lengthy cutscenes when you load up the game for the first time.
You won’t get started with actual gameplay for at least 30 minutes – but honestly, the world you’re being presented with is so strange you’ll want all the information you can get.
It’s future earth. A catastrophic event has taken place that has fragmented the world. I don’t fully understand it yet, there are a lot of bold sci-fi concepts at play – but it plays with the connection between the worlds of the living and the dead.
Norman Reedus is Sam Porter Bridges, a name he has taken on for himself because he is, well – a porter. I found this whole notion hilarious.
A flashy opening action sequence shows Sam tearing across a barren landscape on a futuristic motorbike with some terrifying invisible monsters in pursuit – he certainly makes for a stellar action hero.
You soon find out however that he’s actually just an apocalyptic courier. And while you may think he’s going to shed this occupation to take up arms against the monster threat – think again. You will spend your 60 hours in this world delivering packages. I’m not kidding.
Okay, it is actually more exciting than it sounds. The whole concept of “strands” is permeated throughout the entire game.
Sam is afflicted with something called DOOMS, which means he can detect the invisible creatures that plague the land. We know that when a person dies, if their body is not incinerated they turn into one of them.
The beach we saw in the initial trailer is some kind of world between life and death, and when Sam dies, he’s able to follow a strand back to the world of the living.
He carries a baby around with him in a little tank who helps with that I think. Look – I don’t really get it either but I fully expect to by at least hour 40.
After the ‘event’ that tore the world apart released the ghost-monsters known as BT’s – the cities of America were fractured and disconnected.
Sam’s goal is to reconnect them all via an online network – but to do that he needs to visit each city and deliver vital supplies to get them back online. The more deliveries he performs for each city, the better connection he has with them, and the more he can do.
The core mechanics of the game centre around how much Sam can carry, balancing and distributing the weight, navigating the complicated terrain and building structures to help make navigation a little easier.
Probably the best feature is being able to share these structures with other players. When you bring an area online – you can access any structure another player has placed into the landscape – and likewise, leave things to help out your fellow gamers in return also.
A ladder to cross a river, for example – and a sign to let other players know it’s there. A post box to drop-off some lost cargo. A charging station to get your vehicle or weight-bearing exoskeleton back online.
It’s a great feeling, being part of this broader community of porters all trying to help each other out.
Combat doesn’t really factor into things until about 10 or so hours into the game.
In this new world, rainfall is known as “timefall” – because it accelerates the time of anything it touches. Basically – get caught without a raincoat and you become an instant senior citizen. Worse still – the rain is when the BT’s come out. They can’t see you, but they can hear you, so you have to move very slowly and hold your breath – difficult to do when you’re carrying 120kg worth of cargo on your back.
Fail to do this and you’re pulled into an otherworldly combat sequence with a ghostly sea monster that involves throwing grenades made of your blood, urine and faeces – because your bodily fluids are damaging to the BT’s for some reason.
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This means any time you head back to your home base, you need to make a point of going to the toilet (an animated sequence I’m not sure Norman Reedus signed up for – but no one says no to Kojima, I guess).
Death Stranding is undoubtedly stunning, the world is a genuine challenge to navigate and you feel it with every step – a sensation I think is deliberately crafted for maximum immersion. It’s certainly unlike anything I’ve ever played in my life. It’s a long, hard slog but the more you put in, the more you’re rewarded with new pieces of the narrative puzzle – as well as innovative ways to bring life and structure to a ruined world.
I was a little disappointed when I realised my role in this game was effectively a glorified UPS guy – but that really serves as a device to play out what is a truly unique and incredible story, filled with big name actors (Mads Mikkelsen, Lea Seydoux, plus director Guillermeo del Toro) and innovative action in a strange, new open world.
I’m barely scratching the surface, here – but it’s so worth experiencing this strange sci-fi fever-dream for yourself, if you’ve got the patience and fortitude to do so.