For the past three years, Death Stranding game has been one thing above all – a great mystery. The first project by Metal Gear inventor Hideo Kojima after his surprising departure from Konami has remained under discussion since it was announced at E3 2016, mainly thanks to its heavily staged, but at the same time confused trailer. Every new detail also raised new questions and until the end a large part of the players might not really know what kind of game Death Stranding game should be.

But even the longest secrecy comes to an end and with the release on November 8, PS4 owners can look forward to an extensive and gripping, but also idiosyncratic adventure. I can tell you right away that I really liked Death Stranding game, but could never promise you that it will be the same for you. The first Kojima Productions work is not a game that everyone can have fun with.

Storyline

Death Stranding game is about life after “stranded death”, a supernatural, destructive event that has completely turned our world upside down in the near future. The circumstances of this catastrophe remain difficult to understand until the end, but the consequences can be clearly felt everywhere: The world order is gone, almost all of humanity fell victim to the event and the survivors withdrew to self-sufficient cities.

This retreat is sorely necessary because the outside world is harsh and all infrastructure is gone. Ghostly beings, the so-called GDs, which can only be made visible with the help of babies in portable tanks, attack anyone who makes too much noise. Falling rain makes those who have become wet age in seconds and postmen who have become addicted to deliveries attack anyone who is carrying a parcel under their arm.

As Sam Porter Bridges, played by Norman Reedus, we ourselves are legendary messengers and deliver our freight. In the end, it is the messengers of services like Bridges, Fragile and Co. who keep the last remnant of civilization alive because they bring things like food or medicine to those who need them. The Bridges Group, under President Bridget, plans to reunite the former USA. Under the banner of the UCA (United Cities of America) we are commissioned to connect the last cities with each other using a new network technology.

Gameplay

Basically, Death Stranding game can best be described as an open-world stealth game. You spend most of the game time in the rough landscape and try to deliver your parcels to sometimes more, sometimes less difficult to reach destinations under the most adverse circumstances. Not only do the above-mentioned rains and BTs make life difficult, the terrain itself often becomes an enemy. There are rivers to cross, cliffs to climb and gorges to overcome. There are also the so-called MULEs, the pirates of this world, whose favorite pastime is stealing cargo from porters who are troubled by suffering.

So we deliver parcels. So it is quite possible that the playful aspects of Death Stranding game remained a mystery for so long because the gameplay admittedly sounds quite boring at first. But that’s not it, because Kojima (who did not develop the game alone, but is behind it as the creative mind) does everything to make these package deliveries as complex, challenging and varied as possible. With success.

Furthermore, the type of job also plays a role that should not be underestimated. For example, there is fragile freight that becomes unusable even with the smallest slip, or very heavy or extensive deliveries that may not be able to be transported all at once. Other goods are perishable, so they have to be delivered within a certain, sometimes very short period of time.

Fortunately, as the network expands, you unlock a variety of upgrades and new tools that make your work easier. In addition to the ladders and climbing aids already mentioned, there will later be a kind of robot pants with which you can walk more stably and carry more, a floating sled that follows you and can also take luggage, or even vehicles.

Does Death Stranding game have an open world?

Not quite. The game consists of two different areas that are very large, but not directly connected to each other. Within these regions there are different landscapes, several cities and intermediate stations. However, we cannot enter the cities and bunkers, but interact – with exceptions – always with the respective dispatch manager of the city via holograms. Death Stranding game takes place almost entirely in nature.

The space between the cities is freely accessible and we make our own paths. Shortcuts are possible and their establishment is part of the core mechanics of Death Stranding game. If you are in a hurry, you can also use the fast travel function, which is activated during the course of the game. Here we have to leave all equipment behind, so this is not an option for deliveries.

Because even though we always have to walk, climb, and stumble from A to B, it is not just about a simple delivery order. There are countless things that we have to consider and prepare so that the arduous path to the goal becomes easier or even possible in the first place. Difficulty is a good keyword here because that seems to be the motto for many facets of the feel of Death Stranding game. That starts with the freight itself.

Sam doesn’t have a conventional inventory system in which our equipment just disappears out of sight. Every single object is worn visibly: on the back, attached to a suit or in the hand – and that becomes a lot very quickly. As a rule, the parcels pile up on our backs and we drag ourselves through the inhospitable, impassable terrain. The delivery sways back and forth with every step and we have to keep our balance at the push of a button or we fall painfully to the ground.

Realism x100

The beautiful and “natural” game world, which is very often reminiscent of Iceland or New Zealand, literally puts stones in our way. There are almost no safe, easy paths, but there is always the risk of stumbling, being carried away by a current or sliding down a steep slope.

The greater the burden of freight, weather and terrain, the more Sam’s stamina is drained. We fill it up with Monster Energy – yes, the energy drink. There is no comment on why this so obvious and bold advertisement for the drink is included in the game. For all the love of the absurd, this detail is quite annoying.

On the way to the delivery destination, new packages that have been lost on other deliveries can be found constantly. If there is still space, we can take additional cargo with us if we are already on our way in a certain direction. But even picking up the parcels can be worthwhile, because there are smaller mailboxes to be found along the way, in which we can unload lost freight – albeit with a reduction in the reward.

When we arrive at our destination, our delivery is then evaluated according to various criteria. Did we take the direct route or did we dawdle? Is the freight damaged or even broken? And then the reward follows through “Likes” – the experience points from Death Stranding game, so to speak. The more our customers like our work, the more likes we get and the better we get at our job. In this way, we can gradually carry more weight and last longer.

Afterwards we can take short breaks in private rooms that can be found in every major city. These rooms are always located in delivery centers that always look the same, unfortunately we are not allowed to enter the cities themselves. That we are locked out of such important places seems a bit disappointing and makes the beautiful world of Death Stranding game a bit more monotonous than it might have to be.

Absurd Enemies

The GDs behave completely differently here, which we can only see with the help of our Bridge Baby (BB for short). The ghostly GDs float in the air and try to drag us into sticky tar as soon as they notice us. At the beginning only stealth and caution help. But later there are also possibilities to fight GDs with armed force like special grenades and even to “kill” them. Until then, we crouch down, with 60 kilograms of luggage on our backs, through their rows and constantly have to hold our breath by pressing the R1 button so as not to draw their attention to us through breathing noises.

In order not to draw the ghostly GDs’ attention to us, we can shut our mouth and hold our breath at the push of a button. In order not to draw the ghostly GD’s attention to us, we can shut our mouth and hold our breath at the push of a button

If we get caught, it’s not over. Instead, the GDs pull us into a tar-infested area, where we then meet a boss. They usually look like giant fish or whales that have fallen victim to an oil spill. Now we can go into battle and hit them with rifles, rocket launchers or grenades until their life bars are gone or we flee.

But running away is also a legitimate option, because as soon as we get it out of the tar, the GDs in this area disappear for a certain time. A victory over the GD monster brings additional advantages such as huge deposits of certain crystals that are needed, for example, to build bridges.

Starcast

Talking about the history of Death Stranding game without really spoiling everything completely is next to impossible. The star cast around Norman Reedus, Léa Seydoux, Guillermo del Toro and Co. faces a multitude of partly scientific, partly philosophical, partly esoteric problems and questions. Before the list would ultimately make sense, too many details would simply have to be explained.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Death Stranding game is that the absurdity of the story and the experimental game mechanics somehow fit together in the end. As big and broad as the subject areas that Death Stranding game enters, the tonality of the game fluctuates a lot. From drama and existential questions to horror to slapstick everything is there – often even within the same cutscene.

Although if there are a lot of those typical, overly long Hideo Kojima cutscenes and the story takes up a lot of space, Death Stranding game’s pacing is unbalanced. In the middle of the game, the story progresses very slowly, while the last third is narrative overturning. The longing for the next details about the background of the Bridge Babies or the stranded death only let us do the main missions in the second half of the campaign, which took around 40 hours.

Conclusion

Death Stranding game is like art house cinema, with all its advantages and disadvantages. Reduced to its gameplay, the game will certainly only please a very specific audience. Even if everything works first-class mechanically, the actual course of the game offers too little variety and diversion to offer what you might imagine as “entertainment software”. 

But if you can get involved with the complete work, you will quickly find that Death Stranding game is far more than the sum of its parts. Story, design, music and yes, the sometimes deliberately monotonous gameplay all pull in the same direction and don’t just want to be a game, but an experience. And Hideo Kojima succeeds in doing that in full length. This leaves a very special kind of video game that is sure to divide opinion (just like art house cinema) and that will certainly be talked about for a long time.

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