Death Stranding is now out on PC
Hiking boots on!
Following its PlayStation debut last year, Death Stranding is now out on PC too. This is the latest game from Metal Gear Solid maestro Hideo Kojima and his studio Kojima Productions, and stars Norman Reedus as a post-apocalyptic postman traversing the wastes of the USA. Something's spooky has happened, see, so Norm needs a baby in a bottle to help protect himself from extradimensional ghosties. In short: some sneaking; a little action; lots of Kojima-y names and exposition; and loads of walking around lovely landscapes trying not to stack it and smash your packages.
I like that when before Death Stranding hit PS4, folks weren't quite sure what it was. Seemed hard to believe it would involve so much hiking and postmanning. But it really does. And you can build infrastructure to help both you and other players, bridges and roads and ziplines and things. Then there's the political and sci-fi intrigue involving folks with names like Bridget Strand, Deadman, Heartman, and Die-Hardman.
Die-Hardman!
I'm well up for this. I like walking around pretty virtual landscapes. I like mundane video game tasks like walking up a hill becoming a challenge to face carefully. And I like how seriously Kojima Productions commit to small details and patently daft conceits. It's easy to get swept up and before you know it, you're cheering for a mercenary named Revolver Ocelot who dresses like a cowboy, juggles with his revolvers, and eventually hypnotises himself into believing an arm transplant is causing him to be possessed by the spirit of his former boss.
Our Katharine recently had a go on the PC version and found not only does it look lovely, performance is great too. It also adds a load of weird Valve crossover bits, including Companion Cubes to find and fashion options for Norm such as Gordon Freeman's glasses, Alyx's cybergloves, a headcrab hat, and a wee Valve valve to stab into the back of his skull. And here's Matthew's video review:
Death Stranding is out now on Steam and the Epic Games Store, priced at £55/€60/$60. The PC release is published by 505 Games.
Kojima Productions recently started teasing their next game. All bets are off.