Death Stranding

Death Stranding is Hideo Kojima’s original game, a realistic walking and logistics simulator with action, survival, and stealth elements, viewed from a third-person perspective. Players travel through a post-apocalyptic world, find survivors, rebuild a fragmented society, and create a unified network between cities.

The story is told through numerous beautifully directed scenes in the style of an intimate thriller. All cutscenes feature well-known Hollywood actors and were made using advanced motion-capture technology. The game’s philosophy is to understand the true value of building relationships between people.

In the near future, a catastrophic event known as the “Death Stranding” took place. It caused our dimension of the living to become connected to the dimension of the dead and demons.

A massive apocalypse followed. The United States ceased to exist, and people became isolated and scattered across the country. It is unknown what happened in the rest of the world. The few survivors took shelter in cities deep underground.

Chiral creatures broke into our world. They are the restless souls of the dead, along with various demons (which serve as bosses). When a chiral creature consumes a person, living or dead, a vortex forms and pulls all matter into another dimension, leaving a huge crater behind in our world.

Chiral rain is a major threat. Like a time machine, its drops speed up biological aging, so anyone caught in the rain will quickly grow old. It also corrodes metal and degrades plastic, eating away at anything it touches over time.

The story in Death Stranding is told in an unusual way. The first two chapters quickly immerse players in the events. After that, until the full map is unlocked, the story slowly introduces new characters and tells their backstories.

One of the story’s strengths is the missions where players travel to the battlefields of the First and Second World Wars, as well as the Vietnam War—but it’s best to experience them for yourself.

It is only after the halfway point that the story really picks up : the events begin to take shape as new details emerge, characters gain their own story arcs, secrets are revealed, several major plot twists take place, and the number and length of dialogues and cutscenes increase.

The main character, Sam Bridges (Norman Reedus), proves to be a capable courier. His sensitivity to the world of the dead and his ability to return to our world after death help him get out of the most hopeless situations.

That is why the U.S. president assigns Sam the task of carrying cargo between survivors, earning their trust, and connecting them to the Chiral Network, the “spiritual successor to the internet.” The network will unite all the cities and settlements in the United States, allowing people to share data and experience, and solve the problem of the worlds becoming connected.

There are many characters, and it’s interesting to talk to them. The star-studded cast and excellent direction keep players engaged right through to the end. At the same time, the game is linear, and your actions won’t affect the ending—Death Stranding is not a role-playing game.

The chiral rain has quite literally erased human civilization. Cities are nothing but piles of rubble and trash, surrounded by barren rocks, mountains, rivers, and snowy peaks. As a result, Death Stranding has a lifeless game world: there’s no simulation of life, dangerous and safe areas stay in fixed locations, and there are no side quests or NPCs.

The locations are small on paper, but they’re made up entirely of rugged terrain of varying difficulty, making the game world feel enormous. There are no direct routes or sprinting; you have to look for paths up and down slopes, find detours and shallow crossings, and climb down using a rope or up using a ladder.

In Death Stranding, the ground itself is your playground, and the main gameplay mechanic is walking and controlling how you walk. As Sam travels from one point to another, the player constantly controls his direction, speed, and balance. He might catch his foot on a rock, lose his balance from a shove, or fall, damaging his cargo and failing the delivery.

The excellent physics engine adjusts the character’s position based on the slope and texture of the ground, what’s lying on it, grass and snow, whether the character is climbing or descending, and the water’s current and depth. A strong current will simply sweep Sam away, and his cargo may sink or get lost.

Players also need to balance mobility against the weight they carry. Carrying more is better, but a character with a tower of cargo on his back moves more slowly and has a harder time keeping his balance. He also needs to sleep, eat, use the toilet, wash, and keep an eye on his footwear.

Moving boxes from point A to point B makes up most of the 100-hour playthrough. Threats add variety to the process. The first are the crazed couriers called MULEs, who will try to steal the main character’s cargo if they spot him. You can run away, knock them out in a fistfight, or stun them with a shocker.

The second danger is chiral creatures, which can sense the player and drag them into their dimension. If this happens, the player ends up in the afterlife and has to find a way out. You can either hide from the creatures or fight them using special weapons, such as grenades or guns.

Sam earns likes for delivering cargo and completing story missions. These add up to levels and points, which can be spent on small character upgrades. More content unlocks as you progress, including delivery bots, platforms that hover above the ground, motorcycles, and even cars. You also gain the ability to build structures in the open world.

Main progression is tied to moving through the story and connecting cities to the network. You are rewarded with resources, gameplay features , and equipment, such as a leg exoskeleton.

Connecting this area to the network activates asynchronous multiplayer, where players help one another while each remains in their own world. This expands the gameplay possibilities: for example, if you lose your cargo, another courier can deliver it. You can also build a path through a mountain pass that other players can use in their worlds.

As a reward, you receive likes that encourage the character—they increase stamina and carrying capacity, and improve movement-related stats.

In this kind of asynchronous game, it is much easier to build structures—bridges, roads, vehicle charging stations, rest stops—and improve the game world in general. The more there are, the easier it is to play through the game : you may enter a world with wide roads, scattered vehicles, and charging stations. Chiral rain also damages these structures, but not very quickly.