Death Stranding-Baby Ghost: Coast to Coast

Chris,

I think you and I have played Death Stranding in a similar manner, which to me is astounding. You mentioned your love of Breath of the Wild (a love I do not share) and feeling compelled to explore in a similar manner in Death Stranding. I also have spent countless hours exploring the nooks and crannies that liter the games massive world, but this was not something I usually do in games. I don’t know what has compelled me to go off the beaten path when I’m making my 20th return trip to drop of a package for a secondary mission, but I do it anyway. The exploration of this game has grabbed me like none other before it and I am interested to see if any other game does any time soon.

However, for as much as I’ve explored the broken America that Death Stranding takes place in, I have spent even more time constructing roads and zip line routes for both myself and other players. Early in Chapter 3, when you first learn to build roads, I spent hours building four sections of road from start to finish because I knew it would make my life delivering packages from Lake Knot City easier. What I didn’t expect was how much it would impact other players.

As you know, when other players use your structure, they can give you “likes” which serve as a form of experience. After creating my expansive road network early in the game, the likes started pouring in immediately. My social level rocketed from  1 to 30 in a manner of minutes and because of that early boost my social rank was my highest of the five when I finished the game.

You wrote in your letter that you aren’t sure who the person is that climbs a lofty peak to drop a climbing anchor down for others to use, but I am that person. During the later half of the game, as I was climbing over its equivalent of the Rocky Mountains, I decided that I was going to unite these outposts and cities in a way beyond what the game expects with the chiral network. No, I was going to create a zipline system to connect these isolated outposts and help me and my fellow porters deliver these packages in a harsh and unforgiving environment. So I climbed tall peaks equipped with only a PCC device to create my network, because the higher I climbed the more options I had in regards to where I could place my next zip line tower. 

Climbing these peaks were my favorite experience in Death Stranding’s exploration. The environment was harsh, but I felt that what I was doing was going to help others in a way they would appreciate, especially as it was later in the game and some may just be rushing to finish the story. If I’m be really honest with myself, climbing the mountains was also just a huge pain in the ass and I didn’t want to have to do it again if I could avoid it.

 Building the zip lines also allowed me to see how gorgeous the game actually is. I have a PS4 Pro but had never hooked it up to a 4K HDR tv until Thanksgiving at my sister’s house. Seeing how crisp the game looked climbing the mountains was truly a sight to behold, and I’m not someone who is into graphics all that much.

Building the roads and zip line systems started out as simple chores just to experience some of the games mechanics. However, they quickly proved their usefulness and something clicked in my brain to create whole transportation networks. Was it tedious and sometimes frustrating to collect and transport all the materials I needed? Yeah, sometimes it really was. This experience also got to the core of what Death Stranding is, both thematically and from a gameplay perspective. I was connecting the world of the game, while also connecting the world for my fellow porters. For someone who doesn’t love exploring big open worlds, Kojima created a system that clicked with me and pushed me to go beyond my comfort zone, but in a way that didn’t feel forced. 

Death Stranding to me creates a world and online system unlike any other, and it’s one that I loved experiencing around the game’s launch. While I don’t think the systems involved in the game justify calling it a new genre like Kojima claims, I believe that what Kojima Productions has created is a unique experience, one that I want to go back to every day.