Just last Christmas my loving cousin bought me Death Stranding. I am not the one who usually loves PS4 exclusives but if it has Hideo Kojima’s name slapped on it well I must drop everything and play it.
STORY
Death Stranding has all the Kojima motifs and tropes in place. It feels like you’re watching Metal Gear Solid 4 but as if Aliens made it. You get the same amount of depth but with more cutscenes and no war.
Basically you are Sam Bridges, air to the President who must deliver packages as aid to the United States. The only problem? This world has been infected by an evil known as the “Stand” or BT’s. So now you take your little baby fetus and explore the world.
Death Stranding seems to have an anti aborish theme to it. Which is odd because Kojima games usually have a somewhat left leaning anti-war theme. But that’s my projection. You do not abort BB even when infected. You instead keep it alive until otherwise.
In the story you are met with many characters who are your typical MGS cast.
A perfect Waifu, a nerd played by Guillermo Del Toro as Otukon, and men in Skull masks.
GAMEPLAY
Ahh yes, now there is this. There isn’t a whole lot of it.
You basically walk around the world. Only to later unlock vehicles, you will be confronted by enemies, make sure your packages are not infected or weathered by the elements, and more. There is lots of exploring and collecting and crafting.
This infant you carry if knocked around will begin to cry. So now you have to use the six axis to rock it asleep.
You will eventually come across the BT’s and the other enemy forces of the deserted states. The BT’s if they find you they will slurp you up into their blackness and try to kill you with a giant squid whale monster reminiscent of Moby Dick and Cthulhu.
That isn’t to say there is stealth because you must sneak a lot. Don’t get caught.
You have a backpack robot that detects various things in the area.
Eventually the Death Stranding turns into a glorified game of QWOP if you aren’t smart enough with your packages.
You drink Monster and water to get energy. Honestly I always loved product placement in fictional media. It reminds me of us. (I’m not payed to say this).
Overall the gameplay maybe tiresome but rewarding. Especially when you go across the land to the next weird thing.
GRAPHICS
The graphics in Death Stranding trump anything that has come before it. There is a maximum realism and stylism also.
The realism derives itself from the amount of polygons put in every character actor which are ever so nicely motion captured and animated. The plants are the most amazing thing as you see small individual little pieces of moss and grass flowing about. The rocks are wet. Everything has a nice shader to it. Though it looks dull in some areas overall everything about this game looks perfect.
There are many Shinkawa motifs here to. Angular technology in a dark atmospheric science fiction military environments. That are often blue and green. The realistic human faces never took away from Yoji’s style.
Many things that fade to black. Many things emit particles.
SOUND
Death Stranding has many atmospheric noises and voices of real actors.
OVERALL
Death Stranding is for those who are truly open minded, MGS fans, the weird, or just want to deliver packages. It’s an acquired taste as it lacks combat.