There’s a lot happening in The World™ right now, so why not turn to games for comfort and escape? There’re any number of fantasies to slip away into and I know that I’m going to be relying on my Steam library for the days and maybe even weeks to come. I’m also eyeing sales right now and one particular deal caught my eye that I think might be of interest to everybody else…
Y’all ever heard about this little game called Death Stranding? It’s the most recent game from the video game auteur Hideo Kojima, known for games like the genre-defining stealth series, Metal Gear Solid and it’s on sale on Steam at the moment! You’ve got till November 11 to pick up Death Stranding Director’s Cut for $20 on Steam, and I think it’s the perfect game for the moment.
In Death Stranding, you play as Sam Porter Bridges, a sort of post-apocalyptic delivery man who’s tasked with trekking across the ruins of the United States of America, reconnecting the various cities and settlements you find via the erection of new infrastructure, and healing a fragmented nation. I don’t know exactly why, but something about that just feels so resonant and timely.
In Death Stranding, you literally walk across the country. It’s kind of abridged, because that version of this game would take even longer than Death Stranding currently is, but that is the literal goal here. There are alternative ways of traveling, including zipines that you can establish, as well as vehicles that you can eventually unlock, but the main thing you will do in Death Stranding is walk across plains, hike up mountains, and stumble into creeks and rivers. If you’ve ever wanted to touch grass from the safety of your bed or couch, this is the game for you.
When Death Stranding was first released in 2019, it wasn’t the most popular thing in the world. Many balked at the thought of Kojima making a game that’s essentially one big “walking simulator,” a term that’s been thrown around derogatorily for years. Though Kojima’s narratives and characters are often larger than life, Death Stranding appeared to steer more into the esoteric than fans of his were willing to entertain, with hokily named folks like Die-Hardman taking up significant space. Despite the fact that Death Stranding did feature stealth, combat, celebrities from film and TV, as well as some major set pieces, it didn’t land with the impact of a typical Kojima game, and was even viewed as a bit of a rogue move from the esteemed developer.
As always though, Kojima was simply a bit ahead of his time. This is after all the guy responsible for countless prescient Metal Gear Solid titles, specifically Sons of Liberty and Guns of the Patriots. The year after Death Stranding—a game about the isolation bred from the increasingly polarized political attitudes in the world, as well as a pandemic-like cataclysm—COVID-19 upended the lives of everyone around the world, initiating a global shutdown and plummeting society into a deeply isolating and dark period in our history. As people began to note the parallels between our own nightmare of a reality and the world of Death Stranding, the game outgrew its oddball status, took on cult acclaim, and now there’s even a weird-ass sequel on the way.
Now it’s timely all over again for, y’know, other reasons. Reasons for which it was also timely this time four years ago. Maybe we all ought to sit down with Death Stranding and learn a thing or two from Sam Bridges so that we can sidestep the cataclysms in our own lives.
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