Although the trailer for Death Stranding 2 features singing from Troy Baker, and a potential appearance of his golden mask, it’s unclear if Higgs is behind the new threat for Death Stranding 2 or not. Hopefully, he has some involvement, as Higgs was a fun charac

Central to the themes and gameplay of Death Stranding was Timefall. It functioned like rainfall but caused anything touched by it to rapidly age and degrade. It was key thematically, tying into the ideas of extinction, but just as important in gameplay, deteriorating your gear and any cargo you were carry

Kojima did speak at The Game Awards . Although he kept his lips zipped regarding what to expect from Death Stranding 2 , he did mention that he had written the game before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, after living through the pandemic, he decided to rewrite everyth

Despite the power of this weapon, one has to question what it was created for. In what world would humanity need a weapon that is capable of shooting a hole into the surface of Mars? The BFG9000 is too dangerous to be a practical weapon in war, as casualties may be from every s

Death Stranding takes place in a world that doesn't afford much human interaction, and as such is a largely single-player experience. That 'largely' is important though. The perfect antidote to a solitary world is the asynchronous multiplayer elements, letting you quite literally see the steps other porters have taken in their journeys, every piece of equipment left behind helping your

One of the many talented inventions in the Half-Life universe is the Gravity Gun. This tractor beam-type device was designed to handle hazardous materials, and heavy lifting. On paper, the Gravity Gun is a good idea, as it helps people to do their jobs easier, with less ri

Die-Hardman is a loyal ally. He wants America reconstructed to glory. Not for its military power, but for the connections that it brought people. Die-Hardman is stoic and loyal and deserves to see his dream of a united Amer

Never coming to terms with the loss of his family, Heartman purposely stops his heart every twenty-one minutes for three minutes. He is eternally trapped in his facility to undergo this, day by day to find his family. Heartman deserves eternal rest with his family, something he hopefully achieves in Death Stranding

While the landscape of Death Stranding looks nothing like the America we know today, the changes are mostly explained by Death Stranding’s Timefall phenomenon, apart from the smaller scope of the map. After the titular incident called the Death Stranding took place, the barrier between the world of the living and the dead weakened. Timefall was one of the accompanying symptoms, a form of rain that causes whatever it falls on to age rapidly. In gameplay terms, Timefall can erode the integrity of Sam’s containers, which imperils the cargo within them. The Timefall could also be the reason for the absence of animals in Death Stranding’s America as well as the changes to the landscape. Porters wear protective gear to avoid Timefall aging them prematurely, a process that shapes the backstory of the character of Fragile and her vendetta against Hi

Despite being set in America, Death Stranding doesn't exactly give off the vibe that you're travelling across America, aesthetically at least. There's a good reason for that, seeing as the world is actually based on scans of Iceland. It works for the game, the craggy plains and towering mountains proving the perfect adversary to your jour

Death Stranding's unusual depiction of America proved to be prescient in a number of ways. A country that many of its citizens perceived as invincible was proven to be just as vulnerable to disease and contagion as any other nation, and a country that proclaims itself to be "indivisible" has never been more starkly divided. Civil liberties such as reproductive rights for women, once thought unassailable, have been stripped away, and still more hang in the limbo of future jeopardy. In many ways America has become just as strange and alien as the unrecognizable landscape of Kojima’s game. Some think that poor vehicle options like the Reverse Trike highlight the worst Death Stranding 2 guide Stranding elements the sequel doesn't need or can find ways to fix, but the struggle of transporting goods across the strange landscape was central to the game’s experie

Weeks prior, Kojima fans had speculated that the game may feature aquatic environments. This was mostly fueled by leaks claiming that Death Stranding 2 is being worked on under the codename Project Ocean . Having water as a new type of terrain to navigate would certainly bring new elements to gameplay and make the sequel feel fresh. Nevertheless, with no gameplay shown yet, it is difficult to determine precisely what Kojima has in store for gam

Among even the most avant-garde tabletop RPGs, few match Death Stranding’s strange surrealism . A version of America that looks like Iceland, that one can walk across in a few hours, could be considered part of that surrealism. The void of animal life and the presence of ghosts and cargo-mad delivery personnel add to that feeling as well. Even before the pandemic forced people to question their notion of reality and realize that human vulnerability to disease crosses the borders drawn on maps, Kojima saw the changes taking place, and made a game to reflect those. The USA was chosen as a setting both for its highly visible role in world politics, and due to the obvious, growing polarization among its people. It is almost a given to note than any modern story about a post-apocalyptic future carries a metaphor for climate change, and likewise Death Stranding’s inhospitable America can also be seen through that l