Essentially, Death Stranding is a walking game. Other things happen especially later, but in most cases, this is the first AAA walking simulator. You can pick up your luggage and walk it for miles to hand it over to someone. Talk to a hologram that is not always friendly, restocking your supply and try again. Death Stranding is a very long 50-hour journey; at times boring and idiotic, often embarrassing and monotonous to make you cry.
However, the game may be as compelling as the manufacturer, and rejecting noncompliance is already very exciting. Death Stranding deals with the accuracy of all crisis balls, on the United States, environmental crisis, paternity, technology, political economy, social media, social loss in modern society, and even general video games.
The game’s plot
The basic settings are as follows: Play Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus of the Walking Dead).
The future of America is depicted as Amazon less and unrecognizable where Porters like Sam are bot struggling any more for work. However, some back-to-back catastrophic explosions have resulted in a supernatural event, which seemed to have erased the demarcation separating life and death. It is this event, which is called Death Stranding.
Following the complete dissolution of human civilization Sam and other survivors of the apocalypse have to compete with BTs i.e. Beached Things, and a host of other adversities in the livid elf roaming through the land of the living, and Timefall, a type of rain which fast forwards time of things that it touches. Fortunately, Sam possesses a BB (in the game’s terminology an unborn baby) tied to his chest. It can sense BTs in close proximity. He possesses the ability of self-regeneration if terminated. Thus, it is true to being a typical character that you expect in a video game.
Sam works for an organization called bridges and he is responsible for delivering packages to the survivors across the vast wilderness, as most of them have found recluse in underground bunkers. Moreover, he is assigned the task of interconnecting them through the Chiral Network in other words the internet to complement his employer’s endeavor to resurrect the civilization from ashes.
Sam’s mother is the President, and she renders Sam the responsibility of rescuing his sister Amelie who is in the clutch of a dreaded terrorist called Higgs. However, for most part of the game you have to forget about her torments.
Death Stranding like a typical Kojima’s creation tries to engage you with exposition and lengthy cut-scenes. Even after 20 hours of game play you will feel that, the plot of the game remains an enigma. The goof thing is the game does not fails to enchant you with breathtaking shots that will keep you interested what follows next building up to the climax.
The Lone hero
The third chapter of this game is unrealistically lengthy. However, if you are determined to complete the game you have to complete it. As your fame for efficient delivering spreads in the course of the game, you will often be asked by the characters to bring them things.
Crossing the enormous stretch of rough terrains can be made a little easy by using draggable lines on the map to chalk out the best route. Unless, you study the topography with care you will end up spoiling your delivery by encountering deep canyons, broad rivers, or a rock whose top is beyond the scope of your ladder.
As you play the game, you will realize that it is more of a hard work than entertainment when you hike your way through a desolated America, which happens to be the game’s best part. Yes, the landscape is one of desolation and unforgiving but the game’s stunning graphics will never fail to enchant you with musical numbers from Low Roar.
The birth of a new game genre
Kojima vindicates that Death Stranding is the first specimen of the genre of games, which it calls as stranding. However, do not be surprised with its actions stuffed sequences, which you may not find very impressive.
The most common enemy that you will confront in the game are called Mules. These are aggressive raiders notorious for hunting down delivery cargo if they become aware of an approaching one.
The positives
It has to be the online multiplayer version of Death Stranding that speaks volumes of its success. While you will never witness or come across another player, you can leave ropes and ladders to help them. Likewise, the stuffs left behind by other players will feature permanently in your game.
The game lets you to make charging stations and communal postboxes, which turn out to be the foundation for bridges, safe houses, and roads. Other players can upgrade and maintain by donating materials. If other players make use of your stuff or something that you have built, they can give a like if they want. This way you become popular. Moreover, you can warn other players of threats ahead by dropping hazard badges.
The world of Death Stranding is desolated and it is up to the players to populate it. There is a feel good factor about the multiplayer version knowing that you are rebuilding and reconnecting America in cooperation with other players instead of head hunting them with a sniper rifle.
When you walk through a path that has already been used by other players safely, you will feel a sense of companionship but it may often prove to be the difference between reaching your intended destination in an impressive time or being compelled to take a different route.
The Final Verdict
At worse, you will find the game boring yet astonishingly engaging adventure. Game that cares little about your time but in its meditative and quitter moments it is peerless.
You need to be patient for the narrative to unfold and this where most of the gamers call it a quit. To be honest it is not their fault as the story line has little to offer that makes it worthwhile.
