Stranded on the Much-Billowing Beach

I finally finished (the main story of) Death Stranding a couple of days ago. I’ll really try not to be spoilery within, more to give my impressions of the game and such, in a bit of a sketch. Not spoiling anything, but the epilogue of the game is wide-open and indefinite, allowing you to tie up loose ends and seek out things you may have missed in the (c)rush of the rest of the game, which is totally cool with me. I don’t think I’ll do any of that right away, which is fine. It’ll be there, waiting for me, like Amelie for Sam on the Beach.

If you haven’t heard of the game before, it’s the game where Norman Reedus pees on ghosts, as AV Club so eloquently put it. Honestly, their capsule synopsis of the premise of the game is pretty much flawless, and also somehow mostly spoiler-free. There is a ton going on in the game, even though it mostly seems incomprehensible. My best advice is just to roll with the incomprehensibility, embrace the internal (lack of?) logic, and immerse yourself in the world.

The game is set in a post-apocalyptic, tattered, disjointed, divided America: the United Cities of America (UCA), not the USA. Makes me think of the scattered city-states of ancient Greece or something of the like; that is the general idea. The game came out in 2019, just before COVID hit in 2020, and some have even said that Hideo Kojima, the game’s creator (of Metal Gear Solid fame) predicted COVID. Fanciful theory, but an intriguing one. Cities are closed off to the rest of the world, and “preppers” live secluded in shelters; everyone interacts via hologram, and rarely do you see another person coram, in the flesh. Everyone is disconnected.

This is where you, Sam Porter Bridges (played gruffly, and masterfully, I’d argue, by Norman Reedus), come in. You are eventually tasked with actually uniting the United Cities of America, connecting everyone to the “chiral network,” and reconnecting everyone. The “chiral network” is (to use AV Club’s term) a sort of “magic internet” allowing for the transfer of information, communication, and vast computing power. The eponymous “Death Stranding” is a cataclysmic event that led to the overall collapse of society; you are trying to bring society back from the brink of the Stranding. At the same time, Sam is bitter, with baggage and resentment, and a reluctant hero at best. But he forges a path forward nonetheless.

A note on mechanics. Most of what you’re doing, while linking up different nodes of the chiral network (chiral from χείρ, kheir, Greek for “hand”), is delivering packages and various cargo to others, whether the cities themselves (“Knots”), or “preppers” in their solitary shelters. This means you’re often carrying a couple hundred kilos of cargo at any given time, and you look like a ridiculous pack animal, with cargo containers all over yourself. Eventually you can get and fabricate vehicles that will lighten the load a little bit, but most of the time you’re trudging through often-rough terrain, weighed down with all the cargo. And you have to keep your balance; if you fall over, you could drop and damage all of your cargo, which is not good.

While you’re dealing with cargo management, you’re also dealing with natural hazards (rough terrain, rivers to ford), hazardous entities (MULEs, rogue “porters” who want to steal your cargo and knock you out; “terrorists” who do not want to join the UCA and want to cause chaos; worse things – we’ll get to that in a bit). Not to mention weather. Part of the aftermath of the cataclysm is that you will often run into rainstorms. This normally wouldn’t be an issue, but this rain is very dangerous: timefall. This rain can rapidly age anything it touches, such as exposed skin, and also damage cargo containers; a side effect of this rapid aging is that plants can also grow faster, which some farmers harnessed for better harvests. So it’s a two-sided coin, but mostly a deleterious thing. You’ll not only deal with timefall most places, but also timefall in snow form in the mountains. It’s a lot going on.

The other worse things I alluded to? BTs. I thought there was some big secret to the acronym, but it just stands for “beached things.” These are the terrifying entities to avoid at most costs. They exist between the world of the living and the dead. When they appear, and if they grab you, the whole field around you will turn to tar, and the souls of the dead will try to suck you under the tar. You eventually find effective countermeasures to BTs, but it takes a little while, and until then, they’re best to avoid. If a BT sucks you under and you can’t get away, it results in a “voidout,” which basically creates a crater and functions like a nuclear bomb (BTs are explained as consisting of antimatter, so that makes sense). BTs and timefall go hand in hand, so when timefall starts pouring down, BTs are not far behind.

So, while you’re delivering cargo to people, you have all these dangers to avoid while you try to keep the cargo in one piece and deliver it to people. It’s a lot going on. Plus, there’s a narrative going on at the same time; some cargo orders advance the story and others are optional side quests. Most of the time, you have a lot going on, and when you get a chance to rest in your private room, it is a respite from everything else around you.

So those are the basics of the game. Your goal is to unite the various cities scattered across the country, convince people on the fence to join the UCA, and generally focus on connecting people. I think it’s a lovely goal. It’s obviously more complicated over time, but I really enjoy the premise of going around the country, walking or whatever, and helping people. People are generally very happy to see you and happy to receive what you’re bringing them. Often they’re happy to assign you more things to deliver to others, who in turn assign more things. Sometimes it’s exhausting hearing “new order available” at the delivery terminals, but at the same time, you know you’re contributing and doing something right, since people want your services. And you feel like you’re making a difference to the people around you, bringing a smile to lonely souls all over the place.

The story beats are really rather intense. It keeps getting weirder and weirder, and just when you think you’ve pinned it down and figured out the game, it throws something else at you. And the story is surprisingly deep. You get to know the characters, and there are stakes… these people’s lives matter, and you matter to them. It becomes clear that you really are the reluctant hero, the one to unite everyone and improve the world, however you can. One major theme of the game is doing your best, even against impossible odds and hopelessness, fighting to survive. Humanity is fighting an existential threat in the game, a battle between the worlds of the living and the dead. But others manage to find harmony between those dissonant realms, somehow.

I’ve already gone into a lot more of the story and mechanics than I planned to. I really don’t want to spoil anything, since I hope you play it at some point. I got sucked in and spent about 75hrs on the game total thus far, finishing the main story. I probably spent a little more time than most, doing side quests &c.; the game can be “rushed through” in 30-40hrs, apparently, if you mostly avoid side quests. But the extra time has been worth it, getting to immerse myself more in the world and its characters.

Somehow the game’s really had a profound effect on me. It will stick with me for a long time. Walking across miles and miles of seemingly-endless, windswept plains, trudging through snowy mountains, walking along beaches and looking to the far-off horizon… it is really atmospheric and wonderful. Despite the dangers all around, it really is a gorgeous game, and worth spending time enjoying the scenery. The score is also fantastic; pretty but also terrifying at times, just like the game. A lot of alt./indie rock songs were selected for the soundtrack as well, many by a band I’d never heard of called Low Roar, and they’re pretty good as well; those tracks show up at certain points in the game. There’s even a music player feature so you can revisit them later! The story is really convoluted but also really fascinating, and eventually it makes a weird sort of sense. It takes a while, and I think I mentioned before, but you need to embrace the strange, internal logic of the game, and the setting, and really buy into it to have a good time. So many things in the game world are very confusing and different for most people, I’d think, but if you “commit to the bit,” just as the game does, it will be very rewarding.

If you play it enough, you’ll start thinking critically about cargo loadouts (what weapons/supplies to bring on an order to stay safe), ideal paths to get where you’re going (the game nudges you on this a bit, and you can plot routes, but you’re generally free to do whatever you want in terms of your route), and other concerns. You begin to get a sense of how things work and what works best, and eventually pick it up as you go. Eventually you can craft more and more things for yourself, which is very helpful (“chiral printers,” like fancy 3D printers, are extremely useful), and bonus: you can even use others’ structures and equipment! Sometimes people will build bridges over particularly difficult terrain, or install generators (vehicles, and even you, to an extent, are battery-powered) so you can charge on the go. Often a well-placed generator (or timefall shelter) were lifesavers, and I am grateful for other players for creating them. I even spent a good deal of time in one area feeding resources (ceramic, metal, &c.) to “auto-pavers” which, once the materials requirements were satisfied, “printed” highways to travel upon with vehicles. The highways have an “energy zone” which is powered, which means you don’t have to use battery power with your vehicles if you stay in that strip. So I am hoping others will find those useful in their own game worlds!

That said, not only is the game about uniting people and working with others, but the online aspects of the game also allow you to work with others, albeit indirectly. This even came up in boss fights! Sometimes I’d see another player throwing weapons and health items (“blood bags”) at me, which was make-or-break for some of the boss fights! So that is really cool. I never found out how to do that myself for others in boss fights, but I sure would have if possible!

All in all, it’s a fascinating game, and also really quite fun. Lugging hundreds of kilos to the ends of the earth doesn’t, on its face, sound very fun, but it actually is, somehow. Somehow it works and it’s glorious. And the story really pays off; I got a little misty-eyed at the end even! It was really lovely, despite all the muck and death and despair in most other places. A dream of a brighter, more connected future, with less loneliness. Working incrementally, if that’s all that’s possible, to make things better, howsoever we can. The power videogames have to rouse emotions and touch the heart and mind is uncanny at times. This game often felt very cinematic, like most of Kojima’s games, which was cool; that makes me wonder how they could make a movie of it, when it’s already so cinematic to begin with. But oh well.

The name Death Stranding makes me think of Homer. “Strand” is an archaic term for “beach,” and the game has a lot to do with both beaches and people being “stranded.” There’s a famous passage in Iliad 1, where the priest Khryses is walking along the lonely Trojan shore: βῆ δ’ ἀκέων παρὰ θῖνα πολυφλοίσβοιο θαλάσσης [be d’ akeon para thina poluphloisboio thalasses], “(Khryses) silently walked along the shore of the much-billowing sea.” And I kept that passage in mind when playing the game, where the beach is both alluring and terrifying; think of DOOM’s “the shores of hell,” for example. It’s sort of like that, but not quite. It’s more sinister in a way. Maybe you’ll see what I mean when/if you play the game.

I’ve had these thoughts percolating for a while now and wanted to set them down as best as I could. It’s not a perfect culmination of my thoughts about the game; it’s kinda hard to explain most of what I am thinking about it, but this is my attempt. I hope you check it out; I played the Director’s Cut, available on Steam, and it was really great. If you’ve already played it, I’d love to hear your thoughts about it. Did you have a similar experience and did you enjoy it?

Thanks so much for reading!