Death Stranding, the 2019 PlayStation 4 game made by Kojima Productions, is at its core is movie video game, which proves more a cinematic experience than an interactive one. In place of complex gameplay the player controls Sam, a courier, who scales mountainous terrain to strand together the fragmented country of America. Truly it is more involved than a plain walking simulator—it being dubbed a new genre, a “Stranding Game”, by creator Hideo Kojima—but the base mechanics and main interactions suggest it stems from this style of game. Using the simple tasks of walking and delivering goods, Death Stranding slowly builds its complex world, displays the grandeur and weight a Porter, deliveryman, must bare by his small existence, and how the act of reconnecting the world is no simple task yet not a journey left to one.
First, the game opens on the vast landscapes yet to be explored: picturesque hills, fields and mountains, which seem innocuous by their simple presentation. Once the player becomes Sam Porter Bridges, the camera is held closer to the ridges of the mountain. By exploring the terrain more intimately, what was a serene view becomes an enemy. Climbing the mountain to retrieve lost cargo requires precise input from the player, as climbing in reality would warrant precise footing. Conflicts begin to be introduced alongside this such as the Beached Things (BT’s), fallen Americans who experience “necrosis”, become a crater, and hunt living people; and Time Fall, a sort of rain which both slicks the jagged terrain and ages anything it touches. Introducing these concepts in quick succession would be overwhelming to a new player, so once descending the mountain, Sam follows a river to the distant Knot City seen on the horizon. Just as some walk along a trail to clear their mind, Low Roar’s Don’t Be so Serious begins to play, and the player can simply take in the landscape again and reflect. They are singularly immersed in the world soon to be embarked upon.
Now, the main conflict of the game is its name sake, The Death Stranding, a phenomenon which threatens the extinction of mankind. If the resulting BT’s were not ominous enough by their handprint markings, or their looming invisibly which might only be sensed by unborn Bridge Babies (BB’s) or special individuals, then the limited capabilities and high responsibility of being a Porter most certainly solidifies it. Later, when Sam is tasked with disposing the corpse of his mother before she fully succumbs to necrosis, BT’s encroach on his return journey. Now the player is tasked with both the perilous mountainside and shadows of death who you must slowly evade while crouching and holding your breath. The mechanical limitations placed on the player’s abilities demonstrates the helplessness of mankind in face of The Death Stranding. In games where the player might fight back, an enemy who more actively threatens the player beyond haunting seems unimposing, but Sam is only a human deliveryman; he might only walk and hide until an accompanied, connected America can face extinction together.
Conclusively, what separates Death Stranding from being a simple, single-player walking simulator is its passive online features. Sam is not the only Porter; all Porters bear the responsibility of building the bridges of America. Rather than being a Massively Multiplayer Online game, other Porters’, other players’ items (e.g. ropes, ladders, etc.) and paths leave an imprint on other players’ terrain. The theme of connection is furthered by this mechanical choice. Players’ dynamic becomes not direct cooperation but shared struggle. A path walked by another Porter grows less rugged; by walking this shared path against strife, each trip becomes less burdensome. In a way, the new threat of The Death Stranding returns mankind to a simpler yet pure conflict. When so often technology reforms how conflicts are managed, destruction has returned man to his own two feet. Even so, never must Sam fight alone; America walks the same path. Sam is not stranded to his own effort, all Porters are connected by strands which mark the world they walk. Even if another is never known or directly beheld, even if you are seemingly alone, we as a country, we as a people, we as a species impact and guide one another towards a shared future.
“I want to tell a great many stories, and to build connections between people and each other, and across worlds and times. Those connections may become “the creative genes” that will present us with worlds no one has ever experienced before.”
– Hideo Kojima, creator of Death Stranding
