You Can’t Say You Don’t Know What Death Stranding Is Now
For the majority of its promotional period, Death Stranding has been a game shrouded in mystery. It’s the first title Hideo Kojima is intricately involved with since his incredibly messy departure from Konami, and the first non-Metal Gear game he’s directing with since the 1990s. This explains why he’s putting so much into this game, with a good deal of help from the other development team members at Kojima Productions, to make sure it can be distinguished from the franchise he’s still known for. His “all,” however, has been pretty goddamned weird — mostly in a good way.
The concept behind Death Stranding only started making sense with recent promotions, which began with the release date trailer shown weeks before E3 2019. Videos released since then have further clarified this. Since there were still outstanding questions about exactly what the game is, the plethora of Tokyo Game Show media was focused on providing further answers. Yes, “plethora,” because Kojima Productions provided damn near two hours of media. They addressed nearly any piece of confusion they could without blowing too many of the game’s twists — nearly.
This started with the Briefing trailer, released just ahead of TGS. The trailer introduced protagonist Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus), who’s given a special task from Samantha America Strand/Amelie (Lindsay Wagner in her Bionic Woman appearance), present in the Oval Office via a special projection, and Die-Hardman (Tommie Earl Jenkins). (These are the goofiest names Kojima and crew have come up with yet.) Death Stranding is a game about reuniting the country, specifically referred to here as the United Cities of America, following a catastrophic occurrence known as the titular “Death Stranding.” Sam isn’t entirely accepting of the task upon first hearing it, but it’s clear he’ll come to accept it given the goal behind this game.
Sam has to make long trips around the desolate environments of the UCA to create new “strands,” to link a divided territory and unite them. This will involve carrying and transporting the equipment necessary to do so, which the first and extremely long TGS showcase demonstrated in excruciating detail. The 50-minute video featured a mission where Sam is entrusted with carrying four aid packages from Knot City to Port Knot City. They contain food, medicine, weapons, and “sperm and eggs,” all considered crucial to ensuring the survival of society.
The actual traversing aspects are where this will get interesting, given how much of a balancing act it will be for Sam. In addition to the aforementioned items, Sam has to carry other useful equipment to ensure his own survival, like an extra pair of boots (made for walking), weapons to defend himself whenever trouble arises, a ladder, drinks (including cans of Monster energy drink), and more. Carrying all these items will affect Sam’s mobility and total weight, which will determine how well he can climb, cross rivers, fight, and more. Fortunately, there are ways to alleviate this, like through taking a luggage cart or hoverboard to put all the items on, and have everything follow behind Sam. There will also be vehicles he can drive, which he can presumably place the items on or in.
This game will feature a lot of travelling, which led to some gaming types calling it a “walking simulator” — some jokingly, some not. The traversing controls and environmental ambience will help determine whether it’s fun or boring to venture from one place to another. The quality of Kojima Productions’ previous title, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, suggests that it could be the former.
But don’t worry about the experience being conventional: The game will have its fair share of off-the-wall weird shit. That Sam will be carrying a baby with him the entire time is bizarre alone, even if it’s for practical reasons. The Bridge Baby, also known as “BB,” will let Sam see “Beached Things,” also known under the much cooler name of “BTs.” The BTs are supernatural beings who’ve invaded the real world after the Death Stranding, which Sam can either avoid or take on in combat — reminiscent of Metal Gear’s encounters, though perhaps not as focused on stealth. The most effective weapons against more powerful BTs are created from human blood, if you want more inspiration for your nightmares. Some encounters have to be avoided, or they’ll pull Sam to the Apocalypse Now-inspired “other side.”
A combination of conventional and bizarre content was demonstrated in the second TGS demo, which detailed activities Sam can do while alone in a Private Room. Basic activities will include listening to an assortment of music, drinking beer, and sleeping (and having nightmares in the process). But anyone who knows Kojima shouldn’t be surprised at all the weird stuff involved here. If you stare at Sam’s crotch for too long, he’ll punch the camera. The drinks will also fill his bladder, meaning he’ll need to take a trip to the bathroom. A team within Kojima Productions clearly spent a lot of time on putting this together, and had Norman Reedus perform all this, though he ad-libbed a bunch of it. Bless them for it.
Yes, we pretty much know what Death Stranding is about now. But only “pretty much,” because several elements are currently still headscratchers. What’s happening with the “other side” that’s been shown in previous trailers? Why can entities from that side weak to human blood? Why does Sam create some kind of digital mushroom when he urinates!? We might find those answers out when the game arrives on November 8th. Keep your eye out for the final batch of previews.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
