Death Stranding In Retrospect
The slog of a lifetime.
The main thing I learned from playing Death Stranding is how good most game developers treat their players. We are given many luxuries to avoid slow pacing, levels of difficulty, updates with bug fixes, fast travel on big maps and so forth. They make the game fun for us. I didn't realize how much we are afforded to make playing a game efficient and enjoyable. Not so with Death Stranding. This game is a mix of carrot and stick with more stick than carrot.
With Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding players are forced into a slog of epic proportions, sometimes getting a break with road building and vehicles only to be forced back into the slog again as the game progresses into areas not accessible with trikes and trucks. Fast travel for the main plot progression does not exist. Kojima seems bound to not make the play ability easy on the player. There is an attempt to lower the frustration of the game's mechanics so it does not become overwhelming, but the journey remains exhausting.
The game does not disappoint visually and in the hallmark of PS4 games it would be in the top 5 list. It runs solid too without hiccups, graphic glitches, missing audio, etc. The game was play tested well before release, something that is getting rare due to release pressures. Overall, the game's visuals are superb and probably the best of the PS4 generation.
Another element that does help a bit is the addition of online players building on the maps. You don’t interact with them, just see their names on the things they left behind from ladders and ropes to bridges and completed highway segments. It does invoke a feeling of gratitude to find a ladder that aids in a climb left by a fellow traveler.
Like many games there are the showdowns with boss characters. It’s been noted how easy they are to defeat and I found that to be true. It is ironic how easy the boss fights are compared to hoofing packages up mountain slopes in snow, rain, fog and slippery terrain. Death Stranding’s toughness is in the journey, not the destination or physical conflicts.
Death Stranding has been called a walking and package delivery simulator, however later in the game, it becomes a mountain climbing simulator. Imagine a huge load of packages on your back, often in knee deep snow, trudging up and down rocky crags sometimes in blizzards and whiteout conditions. On top of that you are under threat of the dreaded BT ghosts either to battle with or sneak past. Sneaking by them is a very slow process. I got to the point of dreading the next delivery and story arc. I took a break to go do some infrastructure building, mainly highways. I actually found this to be an enjoyable side occupation. One gets a sense of accomplishment going about gathering resources to complete a stretch of highway or place a bridge over a rushing stream.
Many have complained of wanting to play a game, not watch a movie. The huge amount of cut scenes are another part of the slog. Heavy on exposition; way too heavy with a mind bending plot that is a mix of reality and the paranormal. To speed through Sam’s (Norman Reedus) shower clips you have to skip through 4 cutscenes. Other parts of the narrative require this as well. To be fair, the videos are well done with excellent motion capture comparable to a big budget movie production.
One disappointment for me was that the main entities you battle with, the BTs, are never defeated. At the end of the game you can still go back to delivering packages and build infrastructure but the BTs are still there to torment your progress.
Worth a second play-through? I keep wanting to save for the memories of the experience, which at times can be quite grueling and fill me with enough dread to cancel the notion. The game’s plot is so rambling, at times weird and creepy (such as toting a baby in a glass canister), I never got the hang of what was going on. If I do play it again, I would only work through my favorite chapters and never finish it.
Update 5.27.23
After my experience with Death Stranding I decided to give it another shot in 2020 as the pandemic brought many insolation from the world. As I said I would do, I didn't finish the game this time and I spent the majority of my time doing deliveries and building the road, bridge and power infrastructure. It made it a much more enjoyable experience despite some deliveries being tedious to complete. I found shortcuts for the isolated, hard to find places I had not experienced in the first play-through.
The online experience remained largely the same, only this time there were a great deal more players. Many of these players developed the annoying habit of leaving an abandoned vehicle blocking a road or a delivery center. An update was released to instantly make them vanish but there was never a penalty for doing this prankish behavior.
During the time of the pandemic in 2020, when many were isolated at home, Amazon used curriers in private vehicles for delivery. In many ways Death Stranding became a metaphor for the lone delivery man or woman in those years. With the exception that they didn’t have to carry huge quantities of products on their backs, hiking through mountainous terrain.
I have a new respect for the Death Stranding and development that went into it after playing it again. If there is ever a sequel I will probably play it as well.