This video game has nailed 2020’s unique loneliness
Alone delivery man slowly clambers up the steep incline towards his destination. It almost feels as if he has the whole world to himself. Eventually arriving at a bunker, he is greeted by the hologram of the occupant. He thanks the delivery man for bringing his much-needed medical supplies before ruminating on when he last saw another person, realising he can’t remember when that was.
In the 20-plus hours I’ve sunk into
Death Stranding so far, this is how most of the encounters play out.
The game, directed by Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear Solid fame, puts you in the shoes of Sam Porter Bridges, who is basically a post-apocalyptic DHL driver.
After taking on orders from a terminal and loading up the supplies, you set out into the broken landscape.
The going is slow and arduous. You trek over rivers, which pose the threat of sweeping you away, and climb up rocky terrain, taking care not to slip and damage the packages you’re carrying.
Eventually you arrive at your destination; yes there are buildings and signs of human life, but you don’t actually see the people. You interact with another terminal and are greeted by a hologram. There is no face-to-face, real human interacting: you converse with virtual avatars.
Picking up the game again after nearly nine months of lockdowns, of working from home, of seeing my family and friends exclusively through a computer screen, it really struck a chord.
Each time I set out into the almost completely abandoned wilderness, it captures the unique sense of loneliness that I have felt in 2020: the feeling that you are completely isolated and cut adrift.
You can look out the window and see the world, which still looks the way it did in February but the life you once lived is completely out of reach.
Perhaps that is just projection on my part, latching my current mood and frustrations onto a piece of interactive media. Yet I can’t escape the feeling that despite being from 2019, Kojima has managed to capture and distil the experience of 2020 better than anything else has so far.
Picking up the game again after nearly nine months of lockdowns… it really struck a chord