DEATH STRANDING
Sometimes a man’s just got to take a strand
Hideo Kojima’s enigmatic ‘strand game’ arrives – but will it connect with you?
Sam Porter Bridges might be the name of Norman Reedus’ Solid-Snake-like gruff lead, but after we’ve strapped a ladder to each of his limbs he might as well be known as Ladderman – in keeping with the codenames afforded to the rest of the supporting cast.
Our ladder-strapped arms and legs don’t allow us to zip around the post-apocalyptic landscapes Doc-Ock-style, but they do afford us a certain mastery over the realistically designed environments. Most of the game revolves around Sam having to deliver packages from one point on a map to another (and mostly on foot, thanks to its unkind terrain).
Unlike in open worlds like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s, where you can sprint easily across Greece, every route you take in Death Stranding has to be carefully considered. It’s fantastic that the open world’s very existence is a key part of the game, rather than it just being somewhere you go to travel between missions. Death Stranding’s one of the few games we’ve played where a river has caused us to stop and nervously consider our options.
ROAD TRIP
In the wake of an incident called the Death Stranding (a series of ‘voidouts’ which instantly destroyed large sections of the country and began to break down the barriers between the world of the living and the world of the dead), survivors have been isolating themselves, losing the
“IT’S FANTASTIC THAT THE OPEN WORLD’S VERY EXISTENCE IS A KEY PART OF THE GAME ITSELF.”