Hideo Kojima is the creator of one of the greatest video game series, a man of mystery and a genius. Or is he not a genius? He was nicknamed so for his past achievements, but is he worthy of wearing this title for his new project, Death Stranding? We will try to find out in our review.
Death Stranding – the beginning
Death Stranding is one of those games that remained a mystery even after long gameplay demonstrations. Did the author of the great Metal Gear Solid series really decide to create a courier simulator? Come on, that’s nonsense, there must be a surprise waiting for us! After all, Hideo Kojima is a puzzle man capable of causing a storm of discussion on the Internet with just one action. This time, however, he was honest with the audience and did not hide anything – what was shown was what we got.
Have you ordered a courier simulator?
In the role of Sam Bridges, played by Norman Reedus, we are engaged in the restoration of the United States of America. No real cities are named directly, but the characters talk about the American nation and its importance to all of humanity all the time – sometimes it’s hard to shake the feeling that nothing exists outside of the UCA. Anyway, the world is destroyed, and all the people are hiding in bunkers and do not come out because of the temporal rain, which spoils things on the surface and accelerates the passage of time.
The actors did a great job with their roles, even though it was their debut in video games
Sam becomes the only hope of humanity – wearing a jumpsuit, he sets out to establish communication between all terminals, restoring the so-called chiral network. To do this, he takes an order at one terminal and carries the necessary items to another, after which the person in charge of the new territory allows the courier to connect it to the network. Some people agree immediately, while others require one or two more orders. As a result, the whole of America has to be connected – Sam himself doesn’t care about the country, he doesn’t believe in the possibility of its revival, but in the story, he quickly finds reasons to help the tormented.
Bridges’ life consists of courier deliveries. He goes to the terminal, takes the order, slings the boxes on his back or carries them in his hands and goes to the next terminal. There he takes the order, picks up new boxes and moves on. All this quickly slips into a routine, and the characters say the same thing in different words. “Sam, look in the delivery terminal.” “There’s a new order in the delivery terminal, Sam.” “Don’t forget to check the delivery terminal.” Of course, they always supplement their speeches with story monologues that reveal details about the universe, but this does not hide the monotonous structure of the process.
Peace and quiet
The fact that Death Stranding sometimes resembles No Man’s Sky with its identical bases in terms of design does not help either. Here, all the main nodes and all the bunkers with terminals look absolutely identical. And you will have to visit a lot of them! In addition, you will rarely meet real people, except for hostile opponents. But more about them later. Everyone in this world communicates through holograms. Orders are issued and received in the same way. It’s hard to care about the fate of America and enthusiastically re-establish some kind of connection when you don’t meet anyone (with rare exceptions). The world seems dead, even though you communicate with dozens of its inhabitants.
The bunker residents like to talk for a long time, but rarely say anything important – it’s more often about the need to work together
The situation outside the terminals is no better. Mountains, stones, rocks, rivers, grass – no trees, no animals, no people. There are some people in some areas, but they become aggressive when they see Sam – these are the Mules, the local hooligans whose small camps the story will have to visit several times to return the stolen goods. However, there is no point in contacting them and engaging in combat – even on your own, you can run away from them. They throw their electrified spears and that’s it. And if they do force you to fight, a couple of strong punches will knock everyone out. Killing people is not recommended – the game has a storyline explaining why this is a bad idea. And there is no desire to take someone’s life, as there is no reason to do so.
As a courier simulator, Death Stranding is excellent. This is not just a pedestrian version of Truckers (although you will have to travel), everything is much more interesting. Almost after every delivery, Sam acquires some new capabilities. At first, these are banal ladders and cables that help when crossing rivers and descending from high cliffs, and then you start building bridges, restoring roads, placing all kinds of generators, and even building bases. Through the latter, you can enter your personal room and use the teleporter, although in this case all your cargo will remain in place – you cannot make deliveries in this way.
I can also rely on the others
It becomes clear what Kojima meant when he called Death Stranding a “game about connections”. It is not only about connections between the same terminals, but also between all players, as the world around you develops thanks to the community. You build bridges and roads together, which require a lot of materials, install the same bases and generators, and upgrade their levels. You can finish work on one part of the road, return to the game the next day and see how, thanks to the efforts of other users, it has become noticeably longer, and it is much easier to ride a motorcycle from one base to another. All such objects are offered to be liked – if you are grateful to a stranger for a generator installed on the top of a mountain, keep pressing the touchpad and make him happy with a bunch of likes. For this reason, you should not play the game without access to the Internet.
Thanks for the stairs, strangers!
However, you won’t see other people’s buildings until you connect a particular area to the chiral network, which means that you will have to get to each new terminal on your own. This is when you will feel the weight of the burden that Sam is carrying, struggling for balance. Struggling in the literal sense: you either run fast and press L2 and R2 depending on the direction the hero is leaning, or hold both buttons (i.e. hold on to the straps) and walk slowly but surely. However, there are other ways to move, such as air transporters flying low above the ground, on which you can put cargo and tie it to yourself with a rope so as not to lose much speed. There are also so-called contours – a leg exoskeleton that takes on part of the weight of cargo or accelerates the hero.
There are other life forms
But in the end, the gameplay still boils down to travelling from one point to another, during which little happens. If you don’t count the Mules, who pose no threat, the only event on the way may be a fight with the Creatures – invisible creatures whose presence is reacted to by the alradec, a gadget on Sam’s shoulder. The more actively it blinks and the more unpleasantly it squeaks, the closer the Creature is to you. At such moments, it is advisable to move on all fours and periodically hold your breath. Otherwise, Sam will be attracted to figures emerging from the ground, he may drop the load, and if he suddenly falls over and loses his balance, he will meet with creepy monsters. They are not that dangerous, it is not a problem to escape from them in case of failure, but the encounters with the creatures turned out to be incredibly atmospheric. The further you progress through the game, the cooler such moments look (however, you need to fall into their clutches, and this will happen only if you want to), but this review cannot go into details. Instead, we can say that if you want to fight back against the Creatures, no one is stopping you – Sam will take a special weapon or a hematic grenade charged with his own blood (everything is explained in the story) and will inflict damage on enemies until the end, getting a lot of chiral. This is one of the materials needed to build structures and create consumables such as wearable shoes.
Some orders are requested to be delivered as soon as possible or in a way that is not damaged at all. There are no problems with time – it is given five times more than necessary
If you do not want to create bridges, cable cars and all kinds of generators, then you do not need to constantly fight with the Creatures – you just slip through their territory, holding your breath, and move on. You’ll run, jump, climb, run again, put up a ladder, calm the child if he starts crying because of stress. There is no irresistible urge to find out what awaits beyond that mountain, because there is usually nothing there – just the same rocks and stone-strewn plains, and in the distance there is another junction with a terminal and a “live” person. You don’t want to explore the world because there is nothing in it.
The developers understood this, so in many storyline deliveries, music comes on a few minutes before you arrive at the goal, most often one of the many songs by the Low Roar band. The names of the song and the label are written on the right side of the screen, as if a music video is starting, in which the hero runs through beautiful locations. The technique is familiar to those who have played at least Red Dead Redemption 2, but if Rockstar used it once and it worked, then by the twentieth time such attempts to diversify the adventure get boring. But the music in the game is gorgeous, no doubt about it – in the commercials, during deliveries, and in the final credits.
Branded madness and Japanese humour
The direction is also excellent – you look forward to each new scene with great anticipation, and it’s all the more sad that in between you have to kill time with such a routine. Perhaps without the famous actors and directors, the result would have been different, but every meeting between Sam and Fredgie, every appearance of Higgs and every moment involving Cliff (and there are a lot of them, but I don’t want to give away spoilers) make you watch without looking away. The excellent acting is complemented by gorgeous cinematography and cutting-edge animation, which looks like it’s being prepared for the next generation of consoles. Although the names Hartman, Deadman, and Daihardman sound ridiculous even after they are explained. It’s as if you’re watching the comedy Ace Attorney, where the detective’s name translates to “detective”.
We will have to listen to talk about the reunification of the country all the time
The universe invented by Kojima is intriguing, and it is fascinating to gradually collect details about it (whether it is story videos or numerous emails). There is some pretentiousness, and in the last two hours, the player is dumped with a tank of information that you don’t have time to digest, but this adventure is worth enduring for the not-so-exciting gameplay. There are no analogues to Death Stranding in the world of video games. It’s like watching a three-hour film called The Tree of Life and being surprised by the appearance of Brad Pitt and Sean Penn in such a haunting arthouse film that people almost ran away from the screenings.
The plot (although this is more of a complaint about the gameplay) is only disappointing with bosses, whose fights are monotonous and uninventive. If you thought that Kojima couldn’t come up with anything cooler within the Metal Gear Solid series, and now he’s going to go all out in a completely new game, then this is not the case. There’s no analogue to the battle with Psycho Mantis from the first MGS or anything that evokes the same storm of emotions as the fight with the final boss of MGS 3. The battles look great, more beautiful than the battles with the usual Creatures, but they are more interesting to watch from the sidelines than to participate in.
There is a road – you can drive safely without hitting stones
What can be said about the new masterpiece from Hideo Kojima
Death Stranding is not a revolution in the gameplay, but an evolution of existing ideas, and, let’s just say, controversial ones at that. There really hasn’t been such a meticulous courier simulator before, especially with such a big budget. And the idea of other people influencing the player’s world and helping to overcome difficult obstacles can be compared to the inscriptions in Dark Souls if you want, but yes, I must admit, the system is much more intricate here. However, it is strange that with the constant emergence of new features, the game cannot introduce a noticeable variety into the process. Being a courier in reality is not that fun, but it does not change the impression of the game.
And when, after the ending, you are offered to make dozens and hundreds more deliveries so that five stars for a job well done are lit in all terminals, you want to say goodbye to Death Stranding. Just to remember the great story episodes and fully comprehend what you’ve been watching for the last 35 hours. You can find out the news about the Mac and iPhone version of the game here
Advantage is in the game:
- a large number of mechanics related to the transfer of goods and their weight;
- an interesting idea with the influence of players on each other’s worlds;
- an intriguing plot and an unusual universe;
- excellent graphics and impressive facial animation;
- a magnificent soundtrack.
Disadvantages of the game:
- monotonous tasks – soon after the phrase “Sam, there is a new order in the terminal”;
- you start shaking as much as the settlements in Fallout 4 that need help;
- an uninteresting open world, where all bases and terminals look identical and there is nothing to explore;
- boss battles disappoint with a lack of ingenuity.
