Death stranding is a narrative adventure game set in the premise of reconnecting the world after an apocalyptic event through the delivery of packages over harsh landscapes filled with dangerous timefall and BT events as well as the MULE’s who aim to take advantage of wayword postmen and steal their packages away from them for supplies.
While a lot of focus on the game is about it’s exploration of the world and delivering large quantities of packages there is far more to this game than simply taking items from one place to another as many would have you believe, there is a much deeper and intricate story which unveils as you progress throughout the game.
Sam is a mail carrier who is one of the few “repatriates” that have come back from death and therefore have DOOMS which allows a resistance to the aging effects of the timefall and provides powers which at sams level allows him to perceive the BT’s in the world around him. The fact that timefall is upredictable and rapidly ages everything it touches alongside the BT’s which are remnants of those who have passed which if they interact with the living can have catastrophic effects creating an antimatter explosion known as a voidout is one of the big reasons humanity has spread out into their own shelters and don’t venture beyond these cut off communities and why postal workers are so essential in this world.
The story branches off from here as we discover more about the world and get roped into a quest by the government, where peoples surnames seem to be their roles in society to reconnect america and bring back society through connecting all of these shelters in an internet network of sorts which uses chiral matter from the other side in order to take advantage of instant transfer of information and transfer of items in order to bring everyone closer together again.
It isn’t long before sam is connected with a bridge baby, which becomes sams sidekick and lifeline in order to detect BT’s out in the wild, which becomes a major part of the gameplay in order to not only navigate around the challenges of the physical world but also to navigate the dangers from the other side, where often you will have to traverse BT infested locations trying not to get grabbed as this has dire consequences in order to deliver your packages and reconnect the world.
As you progress you will discover more about what happened in the death stranding while meeting new people and forging new friendships and new connections along the way, and the game is as much about how together everyone is stronger as it is about sam being special in his own right. This becomes a major factor in the second area of the game where it very much becomes a communal aspect of the game to help rebuild the area across all players in the game, forging new roads and utilizing the tools and equipment other players have set up in order to make the deliveries possible through working together, this also becomes a plot point in the game with characters mentioning how it feels like there are “many sams” doing the work and how could one person do all this alone.
The further you progress the more tools you have at your disposal, but also the more challenging it becomes to achieve your goals. There is a lot of story which gets unveiled as you progress also, so it never feels like you are simply doing fetch quests (or mostly delivery) which is impressive for a game that essentially is taking packages between locations, plenty is done to throw spanners into the works which make it interesting and fun challenges to overcome and ensures that you cannot be cheated out of the challenge via the online community as until you connect an area to the strand network you don’t have access to any of those tools in order to maintain the games intended challenge.
There is a deep storyline that evolves as you discover more about who you are working for, their motives alongside the motives of someone who early on announces their desires to go against you and attempt to destroy what remains of humanity. Along the way you will learn more about all of the characters involved as alliances occur and secret plans unfold, but you will also be left with questions that never truly get answered in this game.
After playing through I definitely had my own idea’s on how the strandings could be used to potentially put things right and about the origins of the BB which never really get answered and while you will get answers to other things and a sense of fulfillment and completion it definitely did leave things open ended which at the time I didn’t realise there was going to ever be a sequel but it has been announced now that death stranding 2 will be released in 2025 so I have a feeling that my questions may get answers and my theories may indeed be true as to who the BB is and perhaps even there still might be opportunities for my path to saving the world to ultimately be an option that is explored later in the series as it seems they plan for this to at the very least be a trilogy of games.
I put over 100 hours into the game as I wanted to fully complete and 5 star connect all the networks and be the true legends of legends of legends, and the game does a good job of providing a great many sidequests and easter egg missions too alongside the regular storyline so there is plenty to keep you satisfied for many hours. I would say even if you focused the main storyline it could be at least 40 hours plus to even complete if you didn’t do sidequests or get sidetracked with the communal road building.
This is why I do believe this game is a must own, because as the developer put it trying to establish their own genre of game as a strand like, there really isn’t another game that does the whole sense of community working together towards goals whilst also being your own individual adventure quite so well, you can go alone and do everything but also building ziplines and roads to connect and be utilized by others and all of the other ways finding strangers lost packages and returning them to help with their quests works so well and in a non intrusive way that none other quite does whilst also being a very fun and challenging game with an immersive and extensive plot fully acted by some very talented actors that I have to give this game an indelacio star as a must own game.
I am surprised that so few people focus on the storyline and how effective and well told it is along with it’s pacing that does escalate like a well told movie, everyone focuses on the “walking simulator” or “postal delivery simulator” and it definitely is so much more beyond this that you cannot put it down as simply these, there are far more challenges to overcome as well as combat elements that allow you to play your own way, with decisions as to whether to go non lethal or to take down enemies but risk voidouts with corpses being created in the world you have to deal with, and definitely provides you opportunities to approach all situations in your own way with a variety of tools.
I would recommend this game to anyone as it is a very well told story with great gameplay elements and many hours of fun to be enjoyed.
Get death stranding for yourself at humble now at https://www.humblebundle.com/store/death-stranding-directors-cut?partner=indelacio&charity=114393 Also available on steam now at https://store.steampowered.com/app/1850570/DEATH_STRANDING_DIRECTORS_CUT/
