TESTED GAMESt its core, Death Stranding
is a game about walking.
Other stuff happens, but
mostly this is the first AAA stroll
simulator. You pick up a package,
walk for miles and deliver it to
someone. You have a chat with
a hologram, restock your supplies
then do it all over again.
Essentially a 50-hour fetch
quest, this stupidly long, baffling
and repetitive game may well drive
you to tears. Yet at times it can be
strangely compelling.
You’re Sam, an almost entirely
humourless delivery man working
in an unrecognisable and very much
Amazon-less future America all
but obliterated by a series of huge
explosions. Sam is assigned the
task of plodding back and forth
across the wasteland, delivering
packages to people who now live
in bunkers and hooking them up
to the Chiral Network (the internet,
basically) so his employers can
rebuild their world.
In each of the game’s 70 main
story missions you’ll have to
micro-manage how much cargo
you can carry. There are ladders,ropes and eventually 3D-printed
weapons; bring too little and you’ll
run into trouble, too much and the
Jenga-tower of steel on your back
will get the better of you.
The online multiplayer element
works really well here. You’ll never
see another player on your travels
but you can leave ladders and ropes
to aid them, while theirs will appear
permanently in your game world.
You can even build communal
postboxes and charging stations,
and amassing popularity among
your fellow couriers can quickly
become quite addictive.
Sam carries a tank baby on his
chest, which helps him sense BTs- screeching ghosts that you can
either try to sneak past or fight
head-on. He also has run-ins with
violent raiders and a number of
Metal Gear-lite bosses, but all this
is secondary to the walking.
This is a merciless slog of a game
that has very little respect for your
time. But in its quieter moments,
when you’re hiking across
the bleak yet oddly beautiful
landscape, it’s like nothing else.
Matt Tate
STUFF SAYS Love it or hate it, Death Stranding is an experience like no other ++++,
Death Stranding
If you’ve ever fantasised about being a sort of post-apocalyptic
Postman Pat (but without the cat), this epic game could be for youA
Hannibal star
Mads Mikkelsen
plays Cliff, who
doesn’t eat
people but does
look a bit scary.“Be a courier,
she said. Pootle
around the
countryside in
a nice comfy
van, she said...”PS4 / stuff.tv/DeathStranding