The world will never forget when Norman Reedus was, effectively, stranded on a black sand beach, connected to a wailing baby only to turn into black ink and pan out to a dozen of dead beached whales. “Quite an announcement trailer, Kojima” we all collectively thought, but what on earth is going on? Well, three years later after gameplay reveals and character introductions, we can confidently say we still don’t have the faintest clue on what’s happening.
Or so the joke goes, anyway. Developers Kojima Productions – more importantly legendary gaming icon Hideo Kojima’s first game after his disbandment from Konami – have given us plenty of hints as to what’s gone down in the morbid world of Death Stranding, but we’re still scratching our noggins. In a sentence, Sam Porter Bridges (Reedus) must bridge (yup) the divides of several fragmented societies in America that have created ‘Walls’, which has them all living in isolation. That’s a big goal to achieve, especially since a lot of the gameplay we’ve seen is just about…delivering packages. But leave it to Kojima to make what is essentially a delivery simulator the most thrilling experience we want to get our hands on.
From lush green mountain tops with flowing rivers to crumbling urban cities to navigate through, Sam must go all Man vs Wild and Solid Snake to survive each environment and escape his enemies. And these foes are freaky things. Beached Things, or BTs, are otherworldly entities that have somehow “stranded” themselves on Earth following the Death Stranding event, and they seek to devour Sam. Then there are Mules, humans that don’t want to kill you, just nab all of Sam’s stuff. How annoying.
From kitting out Sam’s inventory to fit exdentable ladders to talking to a cast that includes a someone called Die-Hardman, this is a strange, mysterious game only Kojima could make.
Available Nov 8 on PS4.
WHAT IS IT…
We’re still not sure. We’ll get back to you on that
WHY PLAY…
For the purist Kojima experience gamers have been yearning for since MGSV
