When I was in Arches National Park a couple years ago I hiked a trail without a path. Figuring out the route meant keeping an eye out for cairns and following the footsteps of those who’d gone before — which was easier on the dirt than it was when scrambling along rock formations. The hike became a mild puzzle where I knew where I was trying to go and had to navigate a route towards it. That process of charting out a path is an element shared with some of my other favorite hikes, like exploring Landmannalaugar in Iceland or scrambling up Sentinel Dome in Yosemite, California. All those hikes were as much about figuring out how to get from A to B as they were about getting to wherever they were going.
Death Stranding 2, like its predecessor, is a game about many things. It is also a game about hiking. A quick summation of the core gameplay loop: You can go to location A, collect some items for deliver, go to location B, deliver said items. On paper it sounds very dull, but Death Stranding creates a world where, like a good hike, that process of getting from A to B is a puzzle and challenge unto itself.
Going from A to B in a straight line is seldom feasible in the game. There’s rocky terrain, rivers, narrow ravines, and more between you and your destination. For many deliveries I find myself checking the map before hand and identifying a route that avoids as many obstacles as possible (while still being fairly direct) and deciding what tools I’ll need to get there while carrying massive amounts of cargo on my back. Those tools are another way that Death Stranding makes the process of walking so much fun. The climbing anchor lets you rappel down steep faces and ladders can be used to climb up them (or to cross rivers!). With more ways to traverse the environment, you start to think about the world differently. I plan for when I’ll need to use my ladder or what route will let me take a truck (with much more cargo) while avoiding sharp drops and bandit camps.
All those choices also means you can do things in Death Stranding that you can’t (and shouldn’t) do in real life — and I mean beyond fighting zombie-ghosts. In real life, hiking off the trail can hurt local ecosystems and you leaving ladders and climbing anchors all over the place is a quick way to get in trouble with the authorities. I don’t get to bust out a ladder when I’m hiking in real life, but I sure can in this game! The fantasy of the game extends beyond just a really good hike to being a mountaineering expert who’s never found a cliff face they couldn’t scale. It’s all a puzzle of navigation.
I do honestly find it hard to explain why I find Death Stranding’s gameplay so much fun when it’s just, well, walking. A lot of it has to do with the game scratching that same itch that a really good hike does, thought heightened considerably in line with it being a video game. Either way, it’s an idiosyncratic game that I’m enjoy immensely and can’t wait to see where it goes next.
Essays, Not Rants! 