Death Stranding - Tomorrow Is In Your Hands

Following a very public falling out with Konami in 2015, game developer Hideo Kojima reformed Kojima Productions as an independent studio with a strong relationship with Sony Computer Entertainment. In 2016, Kojima announced his first independent game, Death Stranding, which he pitched as a new genre called a “Strand Game”. Development of the game concluded three years later in 2019 and it released November of that same year. I immediately pre-ordered Death Stranding both as a fan of Kojima’s work and as someone who wanted to make sense of all the sparse information about the game. Over 50 hours later, since launch day, I found the unique gameplay experience to be worth the wait, but there are some flaws about the game that are simply hard to ignore.

A cataclysmic event known as the Death Stranding has caused destructive beings known as BTs, which originate from a realm between life and death known as the Beach, to begin roaming the earth. In an America ravaged by BTs, a courier named Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus) is tasked with delivering supplies to the remaining isolated communities and reconnecting them via a wireless communications network known as the Chiral Network.

It's up to Sam to reconnect America through the Chiral Network.

The story of Death Stranding is fairly unique, even for a Hideo Kojima game. The premise of playing as a courier is fresh and the increasingly complex plot elements are fascinating in the sense that information about Earth’s history is presented in a new and interesting context. Death Stranding also takes full advantage of the video game medium by dropping information about the world and characters in a non-linear fashion and the various twists that occur throughout the plot help recontextualize information about the game in a way that makes sense, but requires some time to fully digest. Every plot thread is also written to continually reinforce the main theme of “Connection” and the idea of “Stick vs Rope” and explores them in several different ways, largely through the histories and interactions of the characters.

As with previous Kojima games, the characters have very diverse backgrounds and have unique characteristics that fit the setting. Examples include Heartman (Performed by Nicolas Winding Refn, Voiced by Darren Jacobs), a man whose heart stops every 21 minutes, and Fragile (Léa Seydoux), a woman whose body was ravaged by Timefall, a rain that ages everything it touches, save for her head. The player character, Sam Porter Bridges, is one of the more interesting ones. While he’s more conservative with dialogue, his character arc and unique condition, aphenphosmphobia (the fear of being touched), organically tie well into the game’s central themes.

Heartman (Performed by Nicolas Winding Refn, Voiced by Darren Jacobs)
stands out conceptually for his unique heart condition.

While I did enjoy the unique nature of the story overall, I will admit it’s not perfect. Sometimes it feels like a scene is taking a little too long to end due to how dialogue-heavy the writing is. The characters, while all interesting in their own way, are arguably not as well-written as in the Metal Gear series, as some of the payoff didn’t have quite the same emotional impact as, say, the ending of Metal Gear Solid 3. While I did understand what Kojima was aiming for with the central themes, the game also occasionally goes out of its way to explain the symbolism, often in a long-winded fashion. Granted, a lot of this was present all over Kojima’s other games, but it seems more pronounced here due to the generally slower pacing of the game.

Regardless of how the characters turned out, however, I have to give credit to the incredible acting talent on display, both in terms of voices and physical acting. The Walking Dead alum Norman Reedus is a good fit for Sam Bridges, as he’s able to bring Sam’s character to life with mostly body language. Lindsay Wagner, best known for her role as Jaime Sommers in The Bionic Woman, is also a good fit in her video game debut role as Bridget Strand and for her motion capture performance as Amelie, who in turn is voiced well by Emily O’Brian. Troy Baker’s role as Higgs was one of the more interesting to me, as not only does he show off his incredible talent as a voice actor, but also gets to do some lesser seen motion capture work of his own. Two of the better performances, however, came from Mads Mikkelsen’s emotional portrayal of Clifford Unger and Tommie Earl Jenkins’ take on Die-Hardman, the latter especially in one heartfelt scene towards the end of the game.

Mads Mikkelsen delivers an emotional performance as Clifford Unger.

This brings me to the gameplay. Death Stranding presents a unique take on open world gaming that features a lot of intertwining game mechanics, so I’m going to break them down into their own sections.

First and foremost, the world of Death Stranding is representative of the entire continental United States, which makes sense considering that’s where the story takes place. However, the map is a mercifully compressed version of the country, which makes areas like the Midwest that much easier to traverse, though the Rocky Mountains are certainly nothing to sneeze at. The world itself is beautifully crafted, with a wide variety of terrain so no two locations look alike.

The world of Death Stranding is beautifully crafted and lovingly rendered.

Traversing America in any way that you can to complete deliveries is the main meat of the game and, as such, just about every mission is some type of fetch quest. There are occasionally some missions where you’re asked to build certain types of structures for the first time, but most of the time you’re transporting items from one destination to another. While there are lore reasons for why deliveries are done entirely on the ground, this is still the main gameplay loop outside of some combat sprinkled in.

Fortunately, the player has a number of tools at their disposal. The Odradek, a robotic apparatus attached to Sam’s backpack, quickly becomes your best friend, as it can quickly scan the terrain in front of you to determine how steep the slopes or deep the watery depths are, which can make all the difference during transit. Complimenting the Odradek is the Bridge Baby, BB-28, which can help locate ghostly BTs while inside their territory.

The Odradek is useful for scanning the terrain.

BB-28 helps Sam detect ghostly BTs and the Odradek can also mark cargo.

Two of the tools that help the most during the journey are the humble ladder and rope, which can respectively help you climb steep slopes and scale sheer cliffs. Ladders can also serve as a makeshift bridge across rivers and chasms, making travel a bit easier when forced to go on foot. The player can also use PCCs to construct different structures, from Generators and Postboxes to speedy Ziplines and helpful Timefall Shelters and Watchtowers. Additionally, the player can take advantage of different vehicles, the Truck and Reverse Trike, to get around faster and transport more items than normal, though each one is better suited for different situations. When travelling on foot, you can also take a load off by attaching a Floating Carrier and making it do some of the heavy lifting, although you can also ride it down a slope if you so desire.

The ladder and rope are simple, but effective for getting around.

With all that said, there are some things to keep in mind when making deliveries, especially when it comes to Sam’s body. Sam wears a backpack that can hold both packages and equipment, but the inventory takes up physical space on his person and each object weighs a certain amount. This means that the player has to selectively take on jobs to not over-encumber Sam and should only bring the tools that are absolutely necessary to overcome obstacles; this extends to transporting Materials that are required for some structures. In a rather interesting move, the physical inventory also means that players have to worry about Sam’s center of gravity, as a large enough stack of items can cause him to sway in one direction or another. When this happens, you have to use L2 and/or R2 to re-center him and keep him balanced. Of course, strong currents and winds can also affect his balance and the player has to make sure not to trip on anything.

This is a comically large amount of cargo, but demonstrates that
Sam's center of gravity is important, perhaps too important.

In an attempt to be more realistic, there are some more direct aspects of Sam’s body that the player must keep in mind. Sam has two main gauges that keep track of Blood and Stamina. Stamina is slowly expended when walking, more so when running and when carrying too much, which also slow Sam down in general. Being low on Stamina requires Sam to take frequent breaks, where he must sit and rest (or even sleep if one so desires). His maximum Stamina is also reduced when over-expending himself. To replenish Stamina, Sam must drink from a canteen that contains Monster Energy (more on that later), which itself can be refilled by simply standing in a river (the water is converted into Monster Energy).

Monster Energy improves Stamina and Endurance.

When Sam is low on Stamina, he'll have to rest.

The Blood gauge is more directly representative of Sam’s health. When he takes damage from slipping, falling or combat (the last of which also activates a secondary Consciousness gauge), he loses blood. This can be replenished by equipping Blood Bags or by eating Cryptobiotes that naturally spawn in the environment (Sam can also save Cryptobiotes for later). If in desperate need for Cryptobiotes, the player can also make Sam urinate; if enough urine hits the same spot, a mushroom will grow and Cryptobiotes will eventually spawn.

Sam, however, needs to also watch out for Timefall, a rain that ages anything it touches. While he’s safe when walking around due to Timefall-resistant clothing, none of his tools are. Vehicles, tools and packages will show signs of wear the longer they’re in Timefall, which will affect their durability under normal conditions and cause them to get damaged more easily. Packages can be restored to their original state under Timefall shelters and vehicles can be repaired at Private Rooms, but tools cannot be restored, even with Container Repair Spray. As such, it’s best to limit exposure to Timefall as much as possible.

Timefall is prevalent in this world.

The terrain, however, is not the only thing Sam has to worry about. Occasionally, he may come across enemies in the open world who aim to do him harm. There are two types, MULEs and BTs. MULEs are Porters, like Sam, who have become so obsessed with delivering packages that they’ll band together to steal them from others. Later in the game are a more powerful version of MULEs called Terrorists, who are obsessed to the point of becoming unhinged and just straight up killing people. Encounters with MULEs and Terrorists are the closest the game gets to having Stealth gameplay, since you’ll have to avoid them at all costs if you don’t have the proper equipment to deal with them, which doesn’t happen for some time.

BT encounters also have a stealth element, but are handled differently. BTs (Beached Things) are souls stranded in the world of the living following the Death Stranding and are hostile towards living things. There are two types, Gazers and Catchers. Gazers appear as ghostly entities and can only be seen when Sam is connected to his BB. To avoid them, the player has to navigate a sort of living minefield with liberal use of the Odradek scanner and occasionally holding Sam’s breath if he gets too close. If Sam is caught and can’t get away, he’ll be dragged through a field of tar and encounter a Catcher, a larger animalistic BT made of dense antimatter that will try to kill and devour Sam.

If Sam is caught by a BT, he'll be dragged down through the tar...

...and have to defend himself against a Catcher.

Fortunately, Sam has a few options for when combat is unavoidable. MULEs and Terrorists can be dealt with using Bola Guns, Stun Grenades and a variety of other non-lethal weapons to knock them out and, eventually, stroll around their camp and steal their stuff like it’s no big deal. When all else fails, however, Sam can simply resort to his fists, an option that becomes more viable when he obtains Power Gloves. Fist fights are nothing like the CQC present in the Metal Gear series, but this didn’t really bother me as much as it could have, since Sam is a deliveryman and not a trained soldier like Big Boss, Solid Snake or Venom Snake.

MULEs will try to pinpoint Sam's location once he's in their territory.

Once they find Sam, they'll try to swarm him.

Sam has plenty of non-lethal methods to fight back, like the Bola Gun.

However, Sam can also resort to using his fists.

As for BTs, Sam must instead rely on weapons made from his bodily fluids, as his fluids in particular have unique properties capable of warding them off. The most common Anti-BT weapons involve Sam’s blood, like Hematic Grenades and handguns, machine guns, shotguns and even rocket launchers that can fire blood-based ammunition. Carrying plenty of Blood Bags is a necessity when you use enough weapons that draw from Sam’s blood directly, though the loss can be trivial if you’re skilled enough. If you need to quickly hold them off so you can attempt to run away, Sam can also use EX Grenades of three different grades, all of which use different fluids; Number 0 is made from the residue from Sam’s body after a shower, Number 1 is made from his urine and Number 2 is made from his fecal matter.

Defeating or running away from a Catcher produces the same result, briefly eliminating Timefall and BTs from the area. Going through the effort to defeat a Catcher, however, will also cause them to drop a large amount of Chiral Crystals, an invaluable resource when building certain structures.

Chiral Crystals can be found in the environment, as seen here,
but can be harvested in greater numbers after defeating a Catcher.

Of course, there are more lethal weapon options, but the game actively discourages the player from creating corpses, as the player will then have to take the bodies to an incinerator far way from everything else. If they don’t, the bodies will eventually necrotize and turn into BTs themselves that can potentially cause a voidout, a Big Bang-like explosion caused by a collision between matter and antimatter, resulting in a sizeable crater in the environment. If Sam is forced to go the stealth route with MULEs and Terrorists, however, he can also sneak up behind them and use a Strand, a cord made from his blood, to bind them and knock them out.

The consequences of not cremating a body.

While lethal weapons are generally discouraged, there are, however, three Episodes where they are encouraged. During those three Episodes, Sam has been sucked up by a large Chiral storm and ends up on Clifford Unger’s Beach, with each visit representing the battlefield of WWI, WWII and the Vietnam War respectively. When Sam arrives, all of his cargo is removed, forcing the player to survive based on what they can pick up (all of Sam’s cargo is retained when the Episodes end). Since shooting Cliff and his soldiers are the only way to advance, these Episodes are linear and more action-oriented, providing an interesting change of pace from the main gameplay loop of delivering packages. In what I’d consider a great move on part of the developers, these Episodes can be replayed in the Private Room, which is a nice option for players who want to revisit these unique areas.

The battlefields of war are the only times when Lethal weapon use is encouraged.

The Clifford Unger Episodes, however, are not the only major action sequences. There are also a handful of boss fights between major entities, including Cliff, but also Higgs, a colossal BT piloted by Higgs and a massive whale-like BT. While these fights are some of the bigger moments in the game, some of them are just disappointing. I struggled against Cliff sometimes, but it was more my own fault and I felt a sense of accomplishment when I outsmarted him. By comparison, the fight against Higgs was mostly easy, as there was a clear, exploitable pattern to his moves. There is some satisfaction considering what he puts you through during the game, but I didn’t have the same feeling as I did with Cliff. The fights with giant BTs, however, were more disappointing, as it amounted to just continuously moving and firing off the most powerful weapons at my disposal without requiring much in the way of skill; you’d have to try to lose those fights and they’d feel more rewarding if they had the same tension as regular BT encounters.

While defeating Higgs is cathartic, the actual fights are underwhelming.

When Sam has been through a lot, he needs some time to relax away from the field. At this time, he can enter a Private Room, available at Knot Cities and Distribution Centers, to do just that. Entering a Private Room not only heals Sam, but also repairs vehicles from Timefall, soothes BB-28, regulates his blood levels and creates a Blood Bag. While inside, the player can drink Monster Energy to temporarily raise his maximum Stamina, eat Cryptobiotes and use a combination shower/toilet to create various EX Grenades. There’s also the ability to customize color schemes and the backpack, as well as look at figurines collected during normal gameplay and, in a playful touch, interact with Sam to get different reactions out of him.

Private Rooms allow Sam the opportunity to create EX Grenades.

The Private Room system provides a good break from regular gameplay and gives Sam an opportunity to properly rest. While this does introduce a lull into an already slow-paced game, I appreciated the opportunity to heal when I needed it the most, as well as check on mail that wouldn’t have popped up otherwise. Considering that it’s possible to build Safe Rooms out in the open world, it didn’t hurt to have easy access to one when needed.

Some of the destinations you’ll be making deliveries to are Preppers, people who have managed to create their own shelters after the Death Stranding. Completing deliveries for them helps widen the Chiral Network, making it possible to place more structures in the open world and getting a high enough rating can often provide unique benefits, including access to unique tools and upgrades, such as Chiral Boots, Custom Hematic Grenades, Custom Blood Bags and a handy Backpack Cover. As such, it’s often worth the effort to make extra deliveries for additional benefits or make multiple trips to get additional copies of certain tools.

Prepper Shelters, sprinkled about the map, are worth the effort to find.

The NPCs that represent the Preppers are unique enough to stand out, with codenames such as The Doctor, The Film Director, The Engineer and The Cosplayer, to name a few. They also provide opportunities for celebrity cameos, including Jordan Vogt-Roberts, Junji Ito, Geoff Keighley and Conan O’Brian. Fittingly, the Lost Cargo and deliveries for each one is relevant to their interests, which shows a great attention to detail.

Geoff Keighley as Ludens Fan (voiced by Matthew Mercer) is a notable cameo.

By far my favorite thing about Death Stranding, however, is the implementation of asynchronous multiplayer. Like the Souls series, players are able to interact with each other’s worlds. Unlike the Souls series, however, this interaction is indirect and more positive. As long as parts of the map are connected to the Chiral Network, players are able to use each other’s structures and leave behind tools and equipment for other people to use. Place a ladder to help yourself cross a river? Someone can use it later. Use a Climbing Anchor to safely navigate a steep cliff? Someone can use it later. You can also willingly donate supplies for other players to use by placing them in Shared Lockers; if you want to keep something for yourself, you otherwise place it in a Private Locker. If needed, you can also request specific items from other players if you can’t otherwise obtain them easily.

Players are able to freely use structures that others have placed.

Players can also work together with this system. Some structures, like Bridges, require a lot of materials, which players can all pitch in to help complete. Other times, players can choose to upgrade or repair each other’s structures to increase their power and range or help them resist Timefall a bit longer. Additionally, players can leave signs for each other to warn others of danger and to helpfully guide each other towards a safer path, which I found tremendously helpful at times. Later on, in my own game, I started leaving more and more signs to help others find a specific collectible and guide them towards a harder-to-find Prepper.

Interestingly, you can hide spoilers from signs.

The most satisfying and beneficial structure to complete, however, is the Road network within the Central map of the game, accomplished by placing materials into Auto-Pavers. There are a lot of Auto-Pavers on the map, each requiring a high amount of materials to complete, but once all the roads are finished, the journey between the Lake Knot, South Knot and Mountain Knot Cities becomes significantly easier to complete, as players can now bypass rough terrain and drive out of danger from MULEs and BTs. I personally took the effort to gather Materials multiple times just to finish dumping Materials into all the Auto-Pavers in my server, if only to make deliveries easier to complete for myself and others who would benefit from having the roads laid out for them.

The Roads are well worth rebuilding.

One last benefit to the asynchronous multiplayer is the ability to indirectly assist others during BT fights. If you find yourself low on Blood Bags or ammunition, then eventually figures representing other players will rise out of the tar and throw supplies at you. This may seem like it would trivialize the encounters, but the items tossed by others aren’t guaranteed to be exactly what you need and defeating a Catcher still comes down to your own ability to keep up with a moving target and avoid getting hit.

What helps greatly with incentivizing collaboration between players is the prevalent Likes system. When using other players’ tools and structures, you have the option to leave Likes and increase the user’s social rating; you can give any number of Likes as long as you’re within the window to give them. This leads to a reciprocal effect where receiving Likes makes it more likely for other players to give back Likes in return. As a result, players are more likely to see the cargo and structures of others. In short, building connections with others through Likes makes it easier for players to assist each other in the long term. This type of interaction also allows you to form a Strand Contract with other players, which increases the likelihood of seeing their tools and structures out in the open.

You can also receive Likes from NPCs when completing contracts, which affects your Porter Grade in five categories that affect your abilities: Bridge Link, which increases the number of Strand Contracts you can make with other players; Delivery Time, which increases Sam’s Stamina; Delivery Volume, which increases Sam’s carrying capacity; Cargo Condition, which makes it harder for Sam to lose balance; and Miscellaneous, which increases the number of Likes you receive from completing requests. Completing contracts also deepens the connection Sam has with each NPC by increasing their Star Rating of him, which opens access to additional rewards like the ones I mentioned earlier.

Your deliveries affect your Porter Grade, which affects other aspects of gameplay.

A faster way to gain Likes from NPCs is by taking on Premium Contracts, which are like regular Contracts but with extra restrictions like a lower threshold of cargo damage, a higher amount of cargo to carry or a lower amount of time to complete timed deliveries. This introduces a high-risk, high-reward element to each delivery that heightens the stakes and can make a successful delivery feel more satisfying. While Premium Contracts can require more effort, the results are often worth it.

While there is plenty that I like about Death Stranding, I have to address the flaws that nagged at me throughout the main story. It’s annoying that Timefall deteriorates whatever it touches, but while I can tolerate it to some extent, as you can repair containers and vehicles, there are certain things that can never go back to normal, including Ladders and Active Skeletons. This means that eventually, you’ll have to invest in the resources to fabricate specific items again. There’s a similar annoyance when you finally unlock the ability to fast travel, or Jump, between Private/Safe Rooms in that you lose everything you have equipped (sans Boots and Active Skeletons), but at least you can plan that out in advance.

Timefall on a vehicle can be repaired, but other things can't.

Then there’s deteriorating Boots. The more you walk or run, the more your Boots will naturally deteriorate. You can gradually unlock higher levels of Boots to equip that will deteriorate more slowly, but it’s inevitable you’ll have to change the pair you have on you; the best pair is the Prepper-exclusive Chiral Boots, which take a long time to deteriorate. If you don’t change pairs every once in a while, then Sam will walk barefoot and suffer blood loss from damaging his feet. The game mitigates this somewhat by providing Sandalwood for emergencies and allowing you to attach two pairs of Boots to your Boot Clip, but this is one more thing the player has to juggle in the game’s quest for realism.

One unique gameplay mechanic is Grip for Balance, where the player has to maintain Sam’s center of gravity. However, this gradually got annoying for me, as it put strain on my fingers from occasionally holding L2 and R2 for an extended period and forced me to make some more awkward moves when carrying a large amount of cargo. There’s also a mechanic where certain actions cause BB-28 to cry from increased Stress, which has drawbacks like reducing the viability of stealth in MULE or BT territory. To reduce BB-28’s Stress, you have to take a moment to detach it from your suit and rock it by moving the controller; failure to do so and BB-28 may suffer from Autotoxemia, impairing its ability to sense BTs until you visit a Private Room. While this made sense from a realistic standpoint, it got annoying to deal with during harder BT fights where there’s almost no opportunity to reduce BB-28’s Stress, not to mention how long it can take to complete the process.

Another annoyance, this time from the writing, is how characters, mostly Die-Hardman, will occasionally chime in over the Codec and tell Sam something he (and the player) had just learned, creating an unnecessary repetition to fill in silence. Then there’s certain animations that play every single time certain things happen, mainly all the animations that occur in and around the Private Rooms or a close-up of the Odradek unfolding itself when BTs are nearby, as they take up a lot of time. Fortunately, you can skip a lot of animations once you grow tired of seeing them, like Sam drinking Monster Energy or using the shower/toilet, but the Odradek one can’t be skipped, happens even when you’re driving and takes so long that you start to think, “I get it, BTs are nearby.” On that note, there were also times where I had to scan the environment with the Odradek multiple times to actually see BTs, something that became especially annoying while driving, as it’s all too easy to bump into one and summon a Catcher at that point.

Be prepared to see this a lot (Pictured: Deadman)

One of my bigger gripes is the number of rocks there are in the game. Not the fact that rocks exist, as they are necessary for the puzzle aspect of the terrain, but the fact that there are places where you can’t go five steps without bumping into a rock and they can sometimes stop vehicles cold. There are even falling rocks as an obstacle when you’re up high enough in the mountains. The falling rocks are easy to dodge, mind you, but sometimes the number of rocks in my path just got annoying. On the subject of the terrain, I also had frustrations with trying to drive a truck up a mountain. While it’s certainly possible, veering too far in one direction would cause the vehicle to slide back downward on its side, eliminating some progress.

Well, there are rocks.

Thousands and thousands of rocks.

Of course, I can’t get this far without mentioning the blatant product placement. Monster Energy is easily the worst offender, as it’s literally a central gameplay mechanic and Sam is able to drink actual cans of it in the Private Room (the cans are accurate down to the Nutrition Facts label). There’s other product placement that pops up when you find Memory Chips, like a Kotobukiya Ludens figure or a Ludens Jumbo Nendoroid, but these are easily ignored. One thing that can’t be easily ignored, however, is that whenever Sam uses the toilet sitting down, the player is treated to an ad (as a still image) for AMC’s Ride with Norman Reedus. This feels out of place more than the Monster Energy, as I can’t see that show existing within the world of Death Stranding outside of the context that AMC paid a lot of money to cross-promote a Norman Reedus show. At least with the Monster Energy, you could believe that maybe at least one company survived the Death Stranding.

The Monster Energy is hard to ignore, especially with the accuracy of the can.

This is near-impossible to justify and breaks the immersion more than the Monster Energy.

An alternative version of the AMC plug from late in the game.

The one thing I have really mixed feelings about is the pacing. I don’t mind playing a slower game every so often, as Shadow of the Colossus was also a fairly solemn game and I loved it. While I didn’t mind the pacing of Death Stranding most of the time, there were certain points in the story that seemed to drag more than others and I wished they would end a little sooner. However, the slowest part of the game is easily Episodes 1 and 2, when the opening area is smaller and designed more as a tutorial for what’s to come, as well as Episode 6, where you have to navigate the snowy mountains through BT territory with a significant handicap. Once I pushed past these sections, however, my persistence seemed to pay off, as the game world really opened up at Chapter 3 and showed its full potential.

Past Episode 3 I didn’t mind the pacing as much, though I do have to note that Episode 2 seemed to be a breaking point for a lot of potential players. I’m not going to tell anyone that a game gets better 10 hours in, since it does feel progressively more freeing after Episode 3 begins, but I will admit that it’s a shame that getting to the meat of the gameplay requires the player to invest time into what is comparatively more of a slog. Death Stranding doesn’t need to be a straight-up action title, as that’s not the point of the game, but having tighter pacing at the beginning hours would certainly help. I’d say it’s like how Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix is perhaps the best Kingdom Hearts game in terms of its smooth combat and depth of gameplay, but you have to sit through a slow, two-hour story-critical tutorial as Roxas in order to get to the main meat of the game as Sora.

There's some very striking imagery that requires a good amount of patience
to get to and then fully digest with new context.

I’ll admit here that I actually found myself able to find more fun during the post-game section, Episode 15. Without the story guiding the player down a specific path or imposing certain limitations, I was left entirely with the gameplay. At that point, I found myself trying to complete more side missions and max out my Connection Level with each NPC, which would in turn give Sam stars to proudly display on his uniform. I also kept challenging myself with Premium Deliveries and motivated myself to interact more with other players by completing all the roads and leaving helpful signs and equipment. Additionally, I explored more of the world and grew more familiar with it, which allowed certain things to click in place when figuring out the best route to finish certain deliveries and know when to strategically Jump to another Private Room to make certain tasks easier. Overall, I feel like the game would be easier to recommend if it allowed more of this state of freedom.

Before I finish, I should bring up the sound design and the music. I liked the sounds during menus and interacting with objects in the world. There’s a pleasant combination of organic and electronic noise that I never really grow tired of hearing and would often think about them even when not playing the game. The music is also implemented in an interesting way. While roaming around during the story, a song will sometimes play along with some more controlled camera movements in an attempt to highlight the mood. There are some original songs written for the game by artists like Chvrches, The Neighborhood and Bring Me the Horizon, but most of the soundtrack seems to be songs by Low Roar. In moments when music randomly plays, it doesn’t seem to be timed quite right, as it’s possible to either hear the entire song and not be at your destination yet or get to your destination and barely hear part of the song. Either way, the song selection wasn’t bad and I may or may not want to check out Low Roar in the future.

A soundtrack that collects the songs written for the game.

So, with all of that said, is Death Stranding worth the buy? Well, it has an intriguing story that incorporates a lot of seemingly disparate ideas, including the Earth’s own history, and a unique way of telling it that takes full advantage of the video game medium. The theme of connection is explored to its most logical extent to where I wonder if Death Stranding will be another Metal Gear Solid 2 in the sense that it’ll be years before players find more to appreciate about it. It’s convoluted, sure, but well-acted and something that will be talked about later on, for better or worse.

The gameplay itself is also unique in that it focuses on playing as a courier trying to reconnect the world through deliveries. The unique approach to asynchronous multiplayer is easily the best part of the game and there are some aspects of the core gameplay that I also like, such as the puzzle-like approach to the world design, but there are some frustrating moments that are difficult to ignore and some minor mechanics that feel superfluous, like Grip for Balance. Some animations also play too long and too often, plus there’s not much of an opportunity to experience the gameplay in its purest form outside of the post-game, where I felt the most freedom to push myself with the various deliveries.

Overall, I think whether someone will like or not strongly comes down to the pacing. This game demands a lot more patience than other games, especially the beginning hours that explain everything before the world opens up. The story also goes at a slower pace than other cinematic games and features very long cutscenes that sometimes feel like short films. Death Stranding is an instant recommendation for fans of Hideo Kojima’s previous work, while everyone else should consider if they’re ready for a slower-paced game with a convoluted story. It’s a shame, however, that any potential players have to sit through a lengthy tutorial just to get to the good part, which has plenty of strategic depth that can challenge anyone. If you're on the fence, try renting it if you can to at least lower the investment going in.

As for me, I’m satisfied in my knowledge of what Death Stranding is and, for better or worse, I’m still curious what Kojima Productions will release in the future. This first project with Hideo Kojima completely unchained has demonstrated that whether that’s a good or bad thing is still somewhat up in the air. Hopefully they take the right lessons from this game and improve with the next.