Hideo Kojima has made a career out of making games with way-out-there storylines that somehow remain enjoyable despite their concepts, and often, despite their convoluted nature. Death Stranding is the most decisive of the games by Kojima Productions, but it still have all of the hallmarks of a Kojima title.
The game world takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. An organization named Bridges is attempting to bridge the new cities of the land together into a reconstituted United Cities of America under the former president of the United States, Bridget Strand.
The world has returned to the caste systems of olde, where people stay in the professions they had before the United States blew up as a result of the titular death stranding, which merges the world of the dead together with that of the living. Explosions known as voidouts take place when corpses blow up in a phenomenon known as necrotization which can only be prevented by cremation.
The game follows a man who goes by the name Sam Porter Bridges, who is a legendary porter who works for the Bridges organization. His profession is based on real life Japanese bokka, who transport packages over mountains and across rivers using nothing but their feet and wooden ladders.
Sam is the only person known as a repatriate, which means that he can return to the world of the living after dying. He carries an unborn fetus known as a Beached Baby or BB that was taken from a brain dead mother and placed in a pod full of liquid that simulates the conditions in a mother's womb. BBs are treated as mere tools, as they can allow the holder to view the souls trapped between the living and dead world.
These souls, known as Beached Things or BT, appear in rain known as timefall. The timefall ages anything with which it comes into contact, meaning any vehicles or structures used by porters will quickly rust and will eventually collapse if they are not regularly repaired or upgraded.
The part of the game that makes it the most divisive is in its main gameplay. Sam is regularly given jobs to port packages to places throughout the former USA. The jobs that are marked as for Sam are those that are needed to be delivered in order to unlock more of the story. There are others marked as standard deliveries which are used to gain more stars at each delivery point. Alongside deliveries are long fetch quests, which require retrieving lost or stolen packages and returning them to their owners.
When not dealing with BTs or fighting or fleeing from enemy thieves known as MULEs, the game works essentially like a twisted Animal Crossing, minus the home building and collecting. It also lacks the decorating, except for the ability to craft and decorate Sam's backpack. The rest is there though, as Sam befriends neighbors, does favors for them and delivers their packages. This makes it a mostly relaxing game, especially when playing it after the end of the story. The large open world, however, can be detrimental to its playability factor, as trips can be excessively long.
The character models and animation are top notch. They shine in the director's cut, but even on the standard game on the less powerful PlayStation 4, they are stupendous. Given Kojima's well-known love of Hollywood films, his studio employed well known personalities to portray the game's main characters. Two of the most publicized were those who were slated to work on Kojima's Silent Hills that was scrapped after he was unceremoniously fired from Konami. The main character of that game was slated to be played by Norman Reedus and it was to be co-directed by Guillermo del Toro. Reedus plays Sam Bridges, both in facial capture and voice, while del Toro provides the face of Sam's guide Deadman. Jesse Corti provides Deadman's voice. The actors are fantastic, and help suck you into the game's world.
Music is sparse, as it only occurs during specific points in the game's world, in some cutscenes, and in music played when upgraded structures are activated. Once a song is heard, it is added to the music list and can be played in the menu or inside Bridges shelters. Most of the time, the only sound heard is sound effects, which adds to the desolate feel of the game. The sound effects, whether they be from Sam's feet or the humming of vehicles such as dirt bikes or trucks, are well done.
Death Stranding is a hard game to rate. It is a very divisive game as its gameplay is not for everyone and music is sparse. However, it has a unique story, excellent acting and fantastic character models and animation, and it is a unique take on a delivery game. It is worth playing for anyone who doesn't mind games that consist of long deliveries and fetch quests.
Final Verdict:4 out of 5
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