Death Stranding
Death Stranding is one of the most divisive big-budget games of recent years, and while I love the game, I don’t care to relitigate whether it’s bad or brilliant. For now, I just want to comment appreciatively on its hopeful vision of America.
Read More: Death Stranding: The Kotaku Review
A wonderfully sincere game, Death Stranding sees you, as Sam Porter Bridges, effectively reuniting the United Cities of America (and the people in between) as you travel on foot across the game’s heavily compressed, dreamlike version of this vast nation’s geography. All the while, you can help other players—and they can help you—as you contribute to infrastructure that can make your future travels that much easier. It all feels very collaborative and, well, unifying. The game’s director, Hideo Kojima, uses gameplay mechanics to make us feel connected to other players while we play as someone who is connecting characters with each other. It’s a simple, earnest, and beautiful enacting of an ideal that feels very American, albeit one we very often fail to live up to.—Carolyn Petit
