079REVIEW
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Reedusasked
Kojimaforextra
muscles.benefits of collaboration and of belonging to a
larger, more involved civilisation and so hastening
humanity’s extinction.
Bridges is an organisation of the United
Cities Of America, and it’s enlisted Sam to join
settlements together as part of its ‘chiral network’.
A prior UCA expedition laid the foundation for
the network, but Sam finds himself going solo as
he follows in its footsteps, thanks to a terrorist
attack he witnesses wiping out Central Knot
City, and with it the second expedition team. To
make matters worse, his adoptive sister Amelie,
who led the first expedition, is now trapped in
the far west in Edge Knot City, where terrorists
are keeping her from leaving. Despite being
previously ousted from the organisation, Sam
feels it’s his duty to pick up the torch and rescue
Amelie in honour of their relationship, and the
wishes of their dying mother (who also happens
to be the American President).
Sam is perfectly suited to
the task because he has a
DOOMs mutation, which has
manifested in some people
since the Death Stranding.
This means he can sense
Beached Things (BTs), the
lingering, ghostly forms of
the deceased, who are still
attached to our world despite
also existing on The Beach (a sort of limbo
between the world of the living and what’s past
it). Desperate for connection, these creatures
will drag away humans they manage to touch,
causing more voidouts. They manifest along with
Timefall, a frequent rain that tears across the
environment, rapidly ageing anything it touches,
from human skin to plants.
BB DOLL
Unlike some other people with DOOMs,
Sam can only sense when BTs are nearby and
isn’t able to see them. That’s where Bridge
Babies (BBs) come in. Thanks to a maintained
connection to their brain-dead mothers, the BBs
exist halfway between the world of the living and
the dead. Sam carries one such little fella around
with him in a clear yellow pod. The Bridge Baby
is able to connect to Sam through the Odradek
Terrain Sensor and intermittently reveal outlines
of the weird, floating BTs. Thanks to that, Sam
can stay out of the way of their inky hands and
the ghoulish umbilical cords that tether them to
the Earth. As long as his BB remains happy, that
is. Take too many tumbles without soothing the
distressed baby and it becomes toxic, needing to
be plugged back in at a distribution centre to be
pacified. If that happens, you might find yourself
deep in BT territory with no lifeline, which is
genuinely nerve-wracking.
Thankfully, even if Sam does get worse for
wear, he can’t actually die. He’s a ‘repatriate’,
which means he can come back from the dead.
If he cops it, he’ll end up in The Seam, a sort of
underwater version of the real world, where he
has to swim towards his own body to survive
- essentially putting his soul back into
his body. This means the game has the
wonderful effect of essentially never
stopping outside its own context.
Nosedive off a cliff, and within the
world that’s been created Sam’s
journey will continue. It’s a
bit of a shame this isn’t seen
through, however. There are
some hard Game Over states
that’ll send you back to your
last save point, which mostly
revolve around other characters
dying. In these instances the
ability to create multiple save
points when outside enemy
territory will save you more
than repatriation.NET PARTY
Essentially the entire game
has Sam moving from east to
west, connecting waypoints
to the network as he goes.
Usually you need to take cargo
to people at these points to
convince
them to join
up, and some
of the more
wary bunker-
dwelling
preppers may
need extra
persuasion
(often in the
form of yet more deliveries). If
you don’t connect each major
point, the network won’t have
enough coverage for you to
make it to the next one –
though in between them there
are optional points which you
can connect to provide greater
coverage on the map, as well
as give access to new tools to
help you on your journey (the
optional ones often feature
cameos from director Hideo
Kojima’s famous friends).
Each region is split into
chunks, which come online
when they’re connected to the
network. If there’s no network,
Sam won’t be able to use it to
fabricate new tools, or interact
with the objects left by other
players. Using the things left
behind by others online is a
major help as you try to make
deliveries, so leaving places
unconnected can seriously
make things harder, especially
if they’re points between major
locations in the story.
You also might miss out
on tools that will make your
journey easier, such as a
hologram projector that can
make you look like a rock
(fooling both human enemies
and their sensors), or
the chance to unlock
higher-levelled
versions of key
items like Active
Skeletons that can
dramatically buffSam’s capabilities at the cost
of battery. The speed skeleton,
for example, enables Sam to
run at some pretty incredible
speeds, and the power skeleton
dramatically increases the
maximum weight he can carry.
However, simply progressing
the main story will reward you
with plenty of tools. Ladders
and climbing anchors are
mainstays, but over time Sam
is able to build more structures
with his PCC units (futuristic
3D printers), from big bridges,
to things like generators or
shelters from the rain. These
will be shared with other
players whose worlds you’re
connected to automatically.A TO Z
Between the new tools and the
way Sam is constantly pushing
forth the frontier, Death
Stranding constantly throws
interesting challenges at you.
That could mean forcing you
to come up with additional
methods for conquering the
environments you have to
cross, or introducing more
challenging areas. It’s a
gameplay loop that shines.
Some of the time we spend
in the snowy mountains
or noxious ravines provide
genuinely tense experiences,
the tools we’re carrying slowly
dwindling, requiring us to
think on our feet.
Because your tools can
run out. Sam doesn’t only
have to physically move cargo
from place to place, he has
to find a way to carry every
single item he wants to take
out into the field (with some
leeway in the form of things
like the grenade pouches you
can craft later in the game).
A large part of the challenge
results from the decisions you
make as you prepare for your
journey. In doing this Death
Stranding never feels unfair –
it tests your ability to adapt,
and respects your intelligence
in figuring out methods that
you feel comfortable using. By
the end of the game we have
our own mental checklist of
must-haves to tick off before
we set out (three ladders, a
climbing anchor, two PCCs, a
non-lethal gun... we could go
on). But each player’s list will
look different, and the terrain
you’re planning to tackle might
call for entirely different things.
Decisions don’t get too minute,
though – the option to auto-“DEATH STRANDING
CONSTANTLY THROWS
INTERESTING NEW
CHALLENGES AT YOU.”