Death Stranding Review

A devastating event called the Death Stranding has occurred. It has warped and twisted what is left of this world. All over the United States, or what used to be the US, are areas crawling with BTs (other dimensional beings that will try to drag you down to a limbo-like world called The Beach). Too many have died, but there are still those out there clinging on to life trying to make the most of what is left. You will take on the role of Sam Bridges (sometimes called Sam Porter), and you are tasked with delivering more than packages across America, you’re going to attempt to deliver hope and the ability to be part of something larger (even if you don’t actually want to be a part of it).

This has to be one of the oddest games I’ve played. The star-studded cast of characters (Norman Reedus, Lindsay Wagner, Mads Mikkelsen, Troy Baker, and more) was enough for me to purchase the game. This game is 90 - 95% a walking/delivery simulator, there’s no other way for me to describe it. As you progress through the game more areas/people will appear on your map, and in order to connect them all to a central network you’re going to have to deliver minimally damaged packages to them to placate their nervousness of reconnecting with everyone who is still out there, struggling to survive.

Now there wouldn’t be much challenge if it was just deliveries, and that’s where the rain that quickens the aging process, BTs, MULEs (think of them as highway-men who steal anything that goes through their territories, and terrorists who really just want to kill people no matter if they are carrying something of value or not. When it comes to humanity you will get to decide if you want to attempt to avoid them completely, beat them unconscious (I did this consistently, just think of it as a way to get the stress of slipping on one two many rocks out of my system), or you can kill them. I do want to caution against killing too many humans, if at all possible. See if you think they are a pain now, wait until their corpses corrupt and they become brand spanking new BTs instead.

Although most of the game you will have to deliver your packages on foot, which means you’re going to have to craft new foot wear, A LOT of it, there are vehicles in the game that run on batteries. These batteries will slowly recharge or you can create a charging station, or perhaps stumble upon one that another player has set up. Oh, that’s right this is but isn’t a multiplayer game. You see your world will be affected by other players, but you’ll never see them. You’ll only see where they may have accidentally (or more likely intentionally) dropped a package that they were carrying, structures they have created, and vehicles they might have forgotten about. By delivering those packages you get more “brownie” points with the recipients and it will allow you to gain their trust faster. The vehicles and structures will slowly degrade over time and at some point they will just disappear, however you can rescue the vehicles and leave them at a garage, or you can use craft materials that you have on you to repair or upgrade the structures.

Speaking of structures I want to give a little bit of advice when it comes to structures there are going to be material requirements. It is impossible to get the exact amount for a specific material (e.g., 6746 Metal). All materials come in set increments (40 or 50, 80 or 100, and so on). Let’s also not forget that there is a limited amount of materials at each site you deliver to, so instead of trying to carry the most of something you’re going to need to do some serious math to decrease the amount of wasted material. I personally spent the majority of my playthrough (over 96 hours worth) trying to get enough materials to help build the roads in the middle section of the game (it’s not necessary, but man does it make your life easy since you can hop into a car and not have to worry about every little bump and magically slippery section on the ground).

At this point I’m sure many of you are asking, if this is really all that the game is, why the hell did I put over 96 hours into it. The answer is, I’m honestly not really sure, the pacing of the game for the most part was relaxing, yes there were some seriously aggravating parts, but even through those terrible moments there was just enough in the game to keep me going. I’ve intentionally left out most of the details of the story in the game, and the reason is that in order to find all the twists and turns and surprises you have to experience them. It also helps that the cast of characters are so good that when a new chapter of the story unfolds before you, you get hooked even more into the game. I really do wish I could explain the story more so that you could see that it was the key component to keep me playing from start to finish, but I really can’t without giving anything away. This is the type of game where if I tell you one thing, it might not be important immediately but when the importance appears you might feel cheated because I stole that reveal/surprise from you.

This is not a game for everyone, obviously, this is a game that is going to take quite a while, the pacing at some points is slower than a snail, but for me when I’ve put in a certain amount of time into a game I’ve got to see it through to the end, and that’s what I did. Do I regret putting that much time into the game, nope, I sure don’t, and the reason is the story, it all comes back to the story. Sure, there were areas where I delivered things to once and then never went back because I HATED the path I had to take to get there (e.g. snow, too many BT zones, too much rain, and/or the water in the creek/river is just deep enough that you lose your footing). So if you’re willing to risk a peek off of what I’ve said, I wish you luck, and do stick around until the story completely unfolds, you’ll thank me in the end.