Revisión de la muerte varada

No es el destino, es el viaje, dice el viejo adagio. Y aunque la pasión por los viajes generada por esta gran visión filosófica no coincide con el tono de Death Stranding, la idea de tomar algo a tu propio ritmo suena real. 

La última obra de Hideo Kojima no es un juego para consumir rápidamente. O al menos, ese es mi enfoque. Si algo me ha enseñado este juego durante el tiempo que he jugado, es que tomarse su tiempo, ser metódico y hacer lo que cree que es mejor es a menudo la ruta más ventajosa. Después de todo, apresurarme podría hacer que perdiera mi carga. Que, por el bien de la analogía, son todas las pequeñas piezas de la construcción del mundo empaquetadas en lo que, al principio, parece un páramo desolado y posapocalíptico.

Salir al mundo por primera vez, solo, mientras Sam se sentía abrumado. Sin embargo, ese sentimiento no duraría mucho. Death Stranding es esencialmente una tarea en constante desarrollo, con una solución simple. La forma en que aborda esa tarea, cómo llega de A a B, depende de usted. El recorrido (por cualquier medio) y la recolección son el 90% de este juego y si ese ciclo no hace clic contigo temprano, nunca lo hará. 

‍ Death Stranding no es lo que yo, o probablemente nadie, llamaría tradicionalmente ‘divertido’. Caminar bajo la lluvia, una espalda llena de carga (que dispuso cuidadosamente para obtener la máxima eficiencia) y equilibrar su peso para dividir en dos una ruta traicionera no es probable que le dé a nadie una descarga de adrenalina. Sin embargo, esta simple idea es extrañamente atractiva. Ya sea bajando por la ladera de una montaña con una escalera y un ancla para escalar o enfrentándome a un campo de BT (el enemigo central fantasmal del juego) y viviendo para contarlo, la sensación de saber que había superado las probabilidades. , llegar a mi próximo punto de entrega y generar otra conexión siempre fue una satisfacción.

Sí, está justo ahí abajo a la izquierda.

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La conexión es clave en Death Stranding. Casi todo en el juego se ve afectado por otros jugadores, jugadores con los que probablemente no tengas conexión fuera de este juego. Esta forma cooperativa poco convencional forja firmemente esa idea de conexión que ha prevalecido tanto en la historia, las misiones secundarias y cada pequeña parte de la historia. 

Conectar un nuevo centro a Chiral Network, el tejido conectivo digital del mundo, introduce ayudas simples como escaleras y cuerdas, estructuras más elaboradas como puentes y carreteras, e incluso vehículos en las vastas áreas del juego. Cuanto más progreses y reconstruyas este mundo, más serás recompensado, ya sea con artículos, refugio o un pasaje seguro a tu próximo destino.

Ese sentimiento de ser salvado de una situación terrible, o simplemente ser ayudado en el camino, es el mayor logro de Death Stranding . Impulsó el tono esperanzador que, bajo el exterior sombrío y gótico de su juego, Hideo Kojima está tratando de promover. 

Construir esa conexión con BB (tu Bridge Baby) fue igualmente importante. Flotando en una cápsula en el pecho de Sam, el BB se ha convertido posiblemente en el aspecto más icónico de Death Stranding.. Aunque le insistieron a Sam que un BB es simplemente un equipo, una herramienta para hacer un trabajo, pronto queda claro que este no será el caso. Especialmente en lo que se refiere al jugador. ¿Hacer un viaje desagradable por la ladera de una montaña? Tendrás que calmar a tu BB devolviéndole la felicidad con tu DualShock 4. Sí, lo digo en serio. Sin embargo, no te preocupes, este elemento del juego no interfirió tanto como esperaba. Da la casualidad de que BB es una herramienta importante para alimentar su escáner Otradeck para ayudar a encontrar carga perdida y, lo que es más importante, detectar la presencia inminente de BT. Además, ¿quién no necesita un compañero en un viaje tan grande como este?

Ayuda a quitarse un peso de encima.

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Y qué viaje es. Cruzar una América caída de costa a costa no es poca cosa. Aún así, era importante tomarse un tiempo libre y disfrutar de los impresionantes entornos, ya sea mirando una montaña enorme y preguntándose “¿cómo voy a llegar allí?” a contemplar el caos de abajo cuando estás en las nubes. Death Stranding aprovecha enormemente el motor Decima de Guerrilla Games para crear algunos de los entornos visualmente más deslumbrantes y vistas impresionantes de esta generación.

Solo cuando te sueltan para explorar la América de Death Stranding , el juego comienza a mostrar su verdadero yo. El ritmo lento, algunos incluso dirían laborioso, de las primeras horas del juego podría ser suficiente para desanimar a la gente. Entendería por qué ellos también se dieron la vuelta. Si no estás convencido cuando ingresas al segundo capítulo del juego, Death Stranding podría no ser para ti. Pero para los Porters que están dispuestos a capear lo que el mundo de Kojima quiere lanzarles, (con suerte) descubrirán el juego que tengo. 

Por pretencioso que parezca, es cierto. No hay duda de que Death Stranding es Kojima reflexionando sobre el estado actual del mundo y esta es su respuesta: poner a los jugadores en una situación en la que ayudar a alguien más se siente como lo correcto. Poder lograr eso a través del juego en lugar de solo escenas de la historia es increíblemente poderoso.

Eso no es para ignorar la historia en absoluto. Si te gusta la marca de rarezas exageradas de Kojima, entonces encontrarás algo que te encantará aquí. Está muy en su timonera y no se sentiría fuera de lugar en el canon de Metal Gear . Sin embargo, el objetivo principal de Death Stranding ha pasado a un segundo plano para mí, explorando nuevas áreas durante horas y horas en más de una ocasión. Si eso se debe a que las historias paralelas con las que casi tropezamos están más fundamentadas que la historia de ciencia ficción ocasionalmente torpe, no lo sé. Sin embargo, aquellos que buscan una historia de Kojima ‘adecuada’ después de los intentos algo mediocres en M etal Gear Solid V deberían estar contentos.

Nunca, jamás, viaje ligero. ¿Tengo razón?

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‍Death Stranding is filled with memorable characters, the majority of whom are portrayed brilliantly (both visually and sonically), who made it easy to relate when everything else going on is hard to comprehend. The performances of Norman Reedus and Mads Mikkelsen, although brief, are fantastic, Margaret Qualley’s portrayal of Mama is understated but brilliant and Troy Baker steals the show as Higgs. These big story beats are so meticulously crafted and justify Kojima’s decision to do things his way. However, this means that when something is less than stellar it sticks out like a sore thumb and Death Stranding is not without these moments. 

Kojima’s uncompromising vision is what has earned him so many plaudits over the years. Fans — and I count myself as a huge one — will tell you what a treasure the man is, how he shaped videogames into what they are today. However, such an attitude has also been to the detriment of Death Stranding.

Some of the voice acting choices for side-characters are atrocious, but that’s almost forgivable in small doses. More egregious is just how overwritten (and therefore overcomplicated) the core story can be. Characters consistently repeat plot points (and even certain statements), almost as if they did two takes and decided to keep both. Thankfully, these unfortunate missteps are few and far between and rarely had an effect on the game as a whole. 

The reward of having such a creator at the helm has fortunately outweighed that risk on this occasion. Little things like Kojima’s ability to fabricate the required tone out of almost nothing astounded me. In a very early case, a simple switch in camera angle and a music cue were enough. Little moments like this only served to highlight the love and attention Kojima has surely afforded what could have turned out to be — and some will still argue is — a high-budget vanity project. If Metal Gear Solid is Kojima making an interactive Hollywood blockbuster, Death Stranding is his attempt at contemplative indie filmmaking. 

“There are few things more liberating in this life than having your worst fear realised” – Conan O’Brien

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The job of a Porter may seem mundane and it can be a lot of the time. Death Stranding is not an all action thrill-ride. There will be long stretches of this game played in almost abject silence, particularly in the opening few hours. As you grow into the game, occasional chimes of positive reinforcement will become easily recognisable. These often come from an artefact — a sign, waypoint, or other such marker — left by another player. It’s a system not dissimilar to that of bloodstains in Dark Souls; a way of letting other players that they’re not alone in what is otherwise a vastly empty world, save for the occasional NPC in one of the ports.

The world itself is drip-fed to you little by little, allowing you to become somewhat accustomed to your surroundings before you’re sent off in a new direction and have to do the same thing all over again. It’s a strange and lonely gameplay loop — one that certainly won’t click with everyone — but one that can feel immensely satisfying. Who would have thought that playing an hours-long fetch quest could be this engrossing? I’m being incredibly reductive, but that’s what Death Stranding often boils down to. Go here. Get this. Deliver it somewhere else. Repeat. And yet somehow Kojima has made me care about doing this. Through little bits of intrigue and a plot that is achingly slow to be revealed, the game has me hooked in a way that few games manage to do.

My immersion is only broken when it comes to combat. This game is categorically not an action game — or at least not a traditional one. Guns and hand-to-hand combat have little place here. Coming across a human enemy is something that I rarely wanted to do. In the sections I was drawn into a fight I felt close to powerless. And perhaps that’s the point? After all, Sam is a Porter not a fighter. Or he is to me, at least.

The moments that Death Stranding asks you to pick up a weapon and turns into a third-person shooter were by far my least favourite parts of this game. It’s not even that the combat is gruelling, but it’s certainly cumbersome. So when I was forced into combat situations, whole sections of the game with no other option other than to shoot my way out, I was left a mixture of confused and annoyed. I actually dreaded the moments leading up to them. It’s not that these sections are particularly hard — outside of unlearning the majority of the game’s mechanics — it’s that they felt shoehorned in and unnecessary other than to appease an audience that, if they even bought it, will have already abandoned the game long before this. And whilst they do serve to further the story in a meaningful way, there was no other need for them to be there aside to tick a box. 

It’s a little bit snowy, this feeling outside…

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‍Death Stranding undoubtedly handles conflict the best when it gives you a choice. Thankfully, for the majority of the time, combat is optional. Wandering into areas infested with BTs almost always felt like a threat. Carefully weighing up the risk versus the reward of cautiously sneaking past them or going for broke and smashing right through them was a decision I had to actively make each time that alarm sounded and my Otradek scanner started doing its thing. 

After a few run-ins with BTs and the huge Eldritch monstrosities that follow them, that idea of nonviolence and partial pacifism was drilled into me: a combination of combat not being particularly fun and seeing the explosive consequences of failure. Getting caught out by BTs and being dragged into a world of tar-built monsters is one thing, but causing an explosive, world-altering, voidout is something you’ll want to avoid at all costs.

As the game went on, and I earned new tools and abilities, these encounters got easier to handle. Still, there was always the chance that I was going to slip up, and potentially decimate that part of the game world. A world that I’d otherwise worked so tirelessly to rebuild alongside tens, maybe even hundreds, of other players. Because yes, whilst you as Sam Porter Bridges are alone in the world of Death Stranding, there are other Sams out there, in other worlds, all working towards the same goal.

An allegory for the political and cultural divides in the modern world, Death Stranding carries a heavy message amongst all of its eerie sci-fi trappings. It somehow created a feeling that made me want to push forward. 

So… where to?

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That kind of steely conviction is what has ultimately fuelled my time in Death Stranding. Not only did I want to take that next step into the unknown, I had to. This game captured me like few others and it did it in a way that was completely unexpected. I revelled in the silence, the frustration, fear and regret. I bought in to what it was trying to make me do in a way that, if you’d have explained it to me beforehand, I would have cynically dismissed.

‍Death Stranding is a game about connection. That theme runs throughout every facet of this experience. Despite it’s glaring flaws, I am convinced that this game is a masterpiece. The elements that are poorly executed, needlessly hindering or just plain bad, are outweighed by the sheer amount of good. Death Stranding is unlike any game I have ever played and I’m not sure we’ll see anything like this again. Not even from Kojima himself.

Be my, be my BB…