Ghost-like figures hover in the wilderness, attempting to touch the living and drown them in sludges of an oil-like substance. In its opening moments we learn that the environment has become so perilous that rain - “timefall,” the game calls it, for its ability to hasten death - will destroy everything it touches. I had to learn that it constantly upends standard video game tactics. To embrace “Death Stranding” I had to stop fighting it. “Death Stranding” presents us with a serious, somber hellscape, practically daring us to continue. Yet this is for the good of the country, a proper burial in the world of “Death Stranding,” for to allow the deceased to decompose will see the worlds of the living and the dead collide to create a catastrophic, nuclear-like event. One of the game’s initial tasks has us taking the dead body of the first female president and tossing it into an incinerator. While arguably troubling on what this says about personal autonomy, it still somehow becomes normal, almost playful, about 10 or 15 hours in. It’s explained early on that the baby can recognize the dead who hover among us by somehow connecting with its brain-dead mother on life support. There’s a baby, for instance, in a jar, and the player regularly taps into its consciousness. “Death Stranding,” released after years of myth-building hype, at times makes the grotesque palatable. The game asks us to put in the work, to learn its systems, its desires and its language. Its 60-or-so-hour narrative demands that its audience fully engage and forget whatever expectations come with a blockbuster game.įor all the talk of Kojima as a cinematic game developer - he’s considered a video game counter to filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, a pal whose likeness appears in the game - “Death Stranding” is tailored specifically for the interactive medium, failing to fully work if its participants aren’t in it together.
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In the hands of Kojima - the mastermind behind the “Metal Gear” series - a video game challenges, confuses, inspires curiosity and only succeeds if you meet the designer halfway. That’s a shame, for while “Death Stranding’s” overcooked plot and incessant walking may turn some off, it’s a work that should be celebrated.Īt a time when there’s a robust debate as to what is or isn’t cinema and the value of franchise works, “Death Stranding” is a bold statement about what a video game can be. There’s even a “very easy” mode, which game auteur Hideo Kojima has joked is for “movie fans.” Even so, many non-gamers will miss out on “Death Stranding” because of its requirement, at least for now, of owning a PlayStation 4. To skip “Death Stranding” is to miss out on one of the weirdest and most lovingly imperfect narratives of the year. The most talked about video game of 2019 will likely confound, occasionally bore and most definitely cause frustration.