#it feels like higgs could be saying all of this to sam so easily way too easily

[vyragosa]

to be quite honest

APAC being in name, a reference to the pacific ocean

then you show me Paz Ortega Andrade, Pacifica Ocean

the angel of peace triple agent “love deterrence singer” in red with an absolutely horrific storyline about bombs inside her and i’m supposed to sleep well after learning of it...? i don’t think i will. i just don’t think i will.

[idontfindyouthatinteresting]

Death Stranding: A Love Letter

Death Stranding, we’ve been waiting for you for a long time and to be honest there were times where we thought, we’re never getting this game, it just isn’t going to happen. I had this game on pre-order for over 2 years. 2 YEARS! The expectation level was obviously very high, and from my perspective it firmly... delivers. 

WARNING - SPOILER ALERT - This is a review/breakdown by someone who’s finished the game, for people who have finished the game. You have been warned!

Death Stranding revels in it’s cinematic credentials constantly and with intense consistency. From panoramic mountainous vistas which you can control, to dazzling close ups of it’s digitally recreated stars, to just watching Sam go to his Private Room. It’s stunning and a testament to Kojima's cinematic knowledge with every shot. 

Not only does Death Stranding handle this beauty, and intricate world building and story telling with ease and grace; it’s concepts and emotional ideas (which I’ll go into more later) are translated so strongly that you can’t help but get swept up in it. This is the sort of experience that I’m used to getting from films, who embed this framework within their narratives so deeply, in a way it’s expected. Death Stranding hits you like a freight train. Through the power of the performances, the narrative and the fresh nature of the ideas it’s portraying. 

Death Stranding’s emotive credentials are set firmly in 2 scales, the more typical big stuff, saving the world, stopping the extinction, well trodden video game territory. But where it truly sets itself apart, embodied so perfectly when Sam walks away from Die-Hardman’s Inauguration speech, and sets to surprise is in how it handles what could be argued to be the smaller scale stuff. 

Sam’s emotional world is rich and powerful, from his Aphenphosmphobia to the fact that we see him openly weep and break down holding a crying child. This is a male lead in a video game, and as a woman I loved seeing Sam being so vulnerable, to the point where he’s physically naked in those shots (ssshhh, there are academic reasons too.) It’s fresh and poignant, and as a woman it gives me access to media rejecting the male gaze so completely. 

On the notion of the Male Gaze, there is some stuff to unpick about the game’s female characters, as much as I would have loved to have seen more, with some ethnic diversity also, it doesn’t subject it’s women to typical video game stereotypes. The creators of the network (whatever it’s true intentions) are all women, Amelie found the path through the country to place the terminals, with the hardware and software created by Mama and Lockne respectively. This network is recognized as the saviour of humanity, the only male input is Sam connecting the terminals with the Q-pid, a Q-pid created by Mama and Lockne. Fragile is the only character powerful enough to get Sam and all the other characters to where they need to go through her DOOMs. I think the shows opinion on Male Gaze is shown in the story, when Fragile is using Sam’s shower, and Sam moves to the glass, his intention is to see her timefall damaged skin, but Sam is punished for it by Fragile as he questions her motives, she’s aggressive and she puts him thoroughly in his place for it. I love love love the physical powerplay in this scene between them. 

Sam is reluctant, profoundly unhappy, arguably suicidal, and is convinced to do all of this purely to help save his friend. Sam is a constant reminder that there is so much more at play here, drilled home every time he flinches away or holds Lou in his hands. Although there is a world to save, it can be for nothing unless you save yourself too. Sam and Fragile’s final discussion brings this home. Before leaving to stop Amelie Sam is full of hope, but in losing Lou, he does a 180, he’s just a man getting to the next sun rise. Something I’m sure a lot of people can identify with. 

This narrative nuance is reflected in Cliff. Through the memories we’re shown a man just trying to save his child, not the world, not willing to sacrifice his child to be made into the activation code for a city, no matter the cause. He just wants to be a father and that is his driving force. Mads Mikkelsen was my gateway into this particular world, safe to say I have an intense soft spot for him. I can go on all damn day about how talented he is. He’s the best in the business, no one does what he can, no one else can give a performance that is so real and so raw but so full of fight. Mads can take the your most profound story line, otherworldly in it’s extreme, and he embeds it so firmly in the human experience, you’ll never be able to untangle that web. That is why his ability to do what he does can almost never be questioned. You let him get to the heart of your story and that is what he’ll do to it and that is why it works. Mads Mikkelsen could easily have been Higgs, based on early trailers we suspected he was Higgs, but he isn’t. Could not be further from it. 

Death Stranding’s narrative dichotomy in this way is resembled perfectly in the games two ‘Boss’ characters, Cliff and Higgs. Higgs represents the greater plan, the end of the world stuff, and Cliff the smaller scale human to human emotion. Sam must overcome both. 

Death Stranding has an even wider scope, an even wider message. Kojima hasn’t been shy about his message of connection being prominent and poignant in the current political climate, being from the UK I feel this so keenly, but the same is present in the US as well. Humanity driven further apart, through legislation, walls and boarders. You can see the potence of the message being translated through a video game, when alternate reality, video game violence and social media is being blamed for these things. It’s fighting back in a way. Death Stranding’s gameplay is full of positivity, from the signs that other players can leave you that replenish your stamina, make your BB happy, to the fact that if you knock a MULE out in water they have a neck float so they don’t drown and die. 

The lack of violence in this way and use of ‘non-lethal’ guns, which are described as such, were again refreshing. I’m not a first person shooter gamer, never have been, could not be less appealing to me if it tried. But Death Stranding doesn’t just have a gun aversion, to me it is explicitly anti-gun. Again another important message, particularly when the game is set in the US. One of my favourite moments in the whole game is Sam listening to Die-Hardman’s grovelling apology for his actions, his thoughts and his prayers, only for Sam to shove the gun Die-Hardman brought to the Beach back at him, warning him with disgust at his actions, by passing on the message, “that gun won’t work here” and walking away. I completed a video game without taking a single human life. It rejects the notion so fully and completely. You stop the extinction, save humanity, not with a gun but by hugging Amelie, reminding her about how valuable human life is, every human life. It’s not to be thrown away, you need to give it a chance to bloom.

In Death Stranding humanity is left cowering underground, separated by an invisible enemy in the form of BT’s, it has to learn to fight back, with literal blood, sweat and tears. If you couple the notion of the invisible enemy with Bring Me the Horizon’s ‘Ludens’ Lyrics:

Sticks and stones may break my bones but soon the sting will pass But names can dig so many graves, you won't know where to stand

I love this line. (BMTH wrote that song in 5 days to get it into the game in time, by the way!) As children we’re taught that names shouldn’t hurt us, but actually they do. In a time where the effects of racism, sexism, homophobia, all of this “name calling” are putting people in their actual graves, these lyrics should be heard more keenly. Political leaders put people in their graves with their words, through direct or indirect means. These words are the BTs of our world, invisible hands which destroy people.

Some of the criticisms of the game are based on elements of game play, like the deliveries you need to make, as slow and tiresome. Higgs himself addresses this asking whether you’re tired of the grind, begging for a “game over”? 

The game is not only acutely aware that perhaps trudging all over the US with vast cargo loads isn’t what you want to be doing, but it knows it’s what you need to do. And truly, in what way is that different from shooting your way through levels and scenarios to get to the end? Death Stranding makes you feel the sacrifice Sam is making and you experience that with him, every time you fall and drop your cargo, every time you stumble down a mountain side, every time you wreck your stamina bar climbing an incline. Video games can’t really make you feel what it’s like to kill an enemy soldier with an air strike, but hell it can make you feel frustrated at having to climb another mountain with a boat load of heavy gear. 

Death Stranding rejects the idea of a ‘game over’ and other video game staples in other ways, it mockingly calls Higgs and Cliffs narrative end “Boss fights” and when Deadman says that wiping Lou’s memories, her connection with Sam in order to make her work better than a piece of equipment is just a ‘do-over’ a reset, normal, Sam rejects that it’s not that simple and Norman’s performance brings that home acutely. It’s not just a game. 

From style, to message, to performance, to rejection of the Male Gaze, Death Stranding is an intense and beautiful game. It managed to hook me so thoroughly (as I’m sure you’ve been able to tell from my live tweeting/blogging) and I don’t imagine I’ll get the hook out of my heart for a while. It speaks to something higher and I love it for it.

Keep On Keeping On.

[devil-kindred]

WIP Tuesday!

I was tagged by @chyrstis for wip tuesday! Thanks for the tag! I tag: @chazz-anova @vvitchofhemwick @nightwingshero (as always, if you’ve already been tagged or don’t want to participate, please ignore this!) and anyone else who’d like to participate! 

First up: what will be the next installment of “forge a connection” brought about by my getting poor Sam eaten by the BT equivalent of a kraken (sorry Sam!). 

“I can handle it! Go! I can’t keep an eye on you and them, now go!” He yells, shaking off the figures emerging from the tar as it spreads.

He misses the flash of emotions that dance across Jade’s features as she turns and runs⏤ going as fast as she can and feeling guilt pool in her gut with every step. She considers turning back, considers trying to just drag Sam out of BT territory. Surely if they went fast enough they could make it to safety and just wait out the storm? She’s half-way to the river, slowing down with every step she takes, when a loud noise shakes the air. She turns her head and feels her jaw go slack at the sight⏤ a whale, of all things, plummeting from the sky.

“What the hell?” The words fall from her lips in a whisper as it lands out of sight, sending up a splash of tar in the wake of it’s impact. Another chilling noise echoes across the landscape and she claps her hands over her ears at the intensity of sound as she sprints with renewed vigor, splashing through the river and stumbling across the rocky field before the way station. She manages to get up the incline, mere steps away from safety when the blast happens. The voidout’s ensuing shockwave sends her flying and she lands flat on her back, vision going dark as her skull whacks against the payment.

Up next: a bit from the disconnect//reconnect verse-- my modern death stranding au. What originally started off as me trying to explore the Higgs/Jade dynamic while I plot out the story has, um, taken a bit of a turn. I’m not sure if this will make it into the actual fic or be posted as an extra that fits into the universe.

“I could eat you up.” He drawls from his seated position on the floor, laying his head back against the couch to look up at her. “Or out, if you’d prefer.”

Jade scoffs at the flirtatious praise, but maintains her focus on the book held in her hands even as Higgs reaches out to run his fingers along her calf. She jerks reflexively at the touch, fingers tensing on the book as it nearly flies out of her hands. Higgs gives a low laugh, one hand closing around her leg— in part an effort to keep himself from being kicked in the face— and the other braced against the floor as he turns turns around; kneeling in front of her.

“Feel like playing a game?”

“What kind of game?” She questions, glancing over the edge of her book and noting the mischievous gleam in his eyes. “Higgs.”

He grips both her calves and tugs gently, urging her to slide forward until she’s nearly on top of him— her ass nearly hanging off the couch and her skirt riding high on the tops of her thighs. She averts her gaze as he parts her legs and settles between them, placing a kiss on the inside of her thigh just above her knee. He trails a line of open-mouthed kisses up her inner thigh and nips at the delicate skin just before her clothed core, smirking up at her when her gaze meets his own in shock. He tutts when she looks away again with color burning on her cheeks.

“You mentioned a game.”

“So I did. Y’know, you’re still very bad about eye contact, darlin’. I thought for sure your roommate would’ve broken you of that habit by now.”

“We aren’t like that.” She snaps, irritation clear and posture tense, all the relative relaxation she felt earlier gone.

& finally: a bit of what I have written for one of the chapters of disconnect//reconnect.

“Just toss ‘em.”

“I– What?”

“The pans.” He says, as he enters the kitchen and begins picking up some of them. “Most of them are no good anymore. Lu-“ He starts, then catches himself. “I was never a very good cook.”

“But-“

“Warped.” He holds up one, then grabs another. “Never been able to get whatever was burned on here off. I don’t even need half of these.”

Jade stares, bewildered, as he takes half of the pots and pans and promptly chucks them into the trash. “Are you sure about that?”

“It’s fine.” The oven timer beeps shrilly and they both wince. “Whatever you made appears to be done.”

“Right.” She stands and grabs a mitt before opening the oven, pulling out a tray full of muffins and setting it on the stovetop. “Blueberry. I mean, the muffins are blueberry.” She amends, glancing his way and then quickly focusing on her next task. “First batch. I think there’ll be at least three. Feel free to have some—“

Whatever Jade says next, Sam doesn’t know. Watching her work so easily in the kitchen reminds him of another time and he balks even as the memory breaks over him.

Smoke pouring out of the stove as Lucy struggles to open the window; giving an apologetic smile when she finally succeeds. “I was trying to bake but as you can see...” She waves a hand at the open oven containing the charred remnants of what must have been some sort of baked good, then at the flour encrusted counter splattered with batter. “I thought you might like to take some—“

“—for work.” She turns to look at him over her shoulder, finding him starting back her with a stricken expression. “Sam? Are you okay?” Her only answer is his hasty retreat and the opening and closing of the front door.

[homoloquens]

RELATIONSHIP THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS

i just want to make a little infodump post on my general thoughts and opinions on various ships (be them romantic or platonic) so people know what i’m about. keeping it short and sweet, though.

⸺ HEARTMAN & CLIFF // ok so this is now the #1 ship for me bc of the groundwork toast and i have laid down and i can’t wait to do something with it when she gets her blog going tbh. the best fact is that time doesn’t move on the beach, so heartman can basically exist on the beach for as long as he wants despite the three minutes of death in the physical world, which means anything with cliff isn’t beholden (at least not as stringently, as heartman does still have to leave the beach) to the 24 minute cycle. there’s just a lot of potential with sad dads and their shared emotions that drive them, as well as accepting what happened and moving on together (without completely letting go, because they both get it).

⸺ HEARTMAN & SAM // this one is also cute romantically, although i more or less stop at “heartman sees the himbo and instantly develops a quick crush” and don’t really delve into anything more... romance-y. i think they deserve more conversations about their very similar traumas and experiences with voidouts taking their families about the same time ago, and the way sam’s deadpan nature works with heartman’s chipper personality is very fun. and i’m bitter about heartman getting no closure at all come the end of the game.

⸺ HEARTMAN & DEADMAN // this one is very interesting, because there’s definitely some deep, deep respect and care for each other in how they talk about each other, but there’s also some aspect of extreme impulsivity and a lack of anyone else to reign them in (see: how quickly they go to Secret Keeping without any hesitation). it’s a very fun friendship and i wish they’d been allowed to interact more.

⸺ HEARTMAN & DIE-HARDMAN // i don’t really have much to say on these two, as i have a feeling they don’t really... know each other all that well. professionally, yes. after all, they’re both core bridges members and clearly work together. but i don’t think there’s ever been an opportunity for any sort of friendship to form, especially looking at how easily heartman joins in on keeping secrets from him.

⸺ HEARTMAN & HIGGS // fascinating. the world’s kindest, gentlest man meets the world’s biggest asshole. both need hugs. there’s definitely potential for... something here, although i can’t quite pin down what exactly it would be. there would definitely be some chaos, though, considering one of them is exceptionally dramatic and the other is very excitable at times. i think, speaking generally, they’d both have trouble for the longest time working each other out, because there’s so much difference in how they process the world, but i think there could also be a balance there.

⸺ HEARTMAN & FRAGILE // this friendship means the world to me now, actually. i don’t even think they really speak to each other in the game but i know they’d get along well, okay. i just know it. heartman can be calm and quiet at times, but he’s very much open with emotions, which i think works well with fragile’s emotional maturity that she’s continuing to grow into. i think they have the potential to be an exceptionally open and honest friendship.

⸺ HEARTMAN & MAMA AND LOCKNE // lumping those two together for both obvious and non-obvious reasons. i think he got along very well with mama when they were at hq before the first expedition, although there was no doubt some sort of bumping heads of ideas. she was always a little brash while he’s very kindhearted. but he always cared for her, and lockne as well. the latter was always a bit harder to get through to, just because there was less to discuss, but i like to think now he looks out for her. she is, after all, only a few years older than his daughter would be now. not to say the feelings are necessarily paternal, but they’re just... soft. caring. protective, but in a distant sort of way.

[let-robots-dream]

I’ve got a theory that is probably dumb but would be rad if it was true; so hear me out, I think cliff is sams dad (or something like that.) I mean come on, look at the was Kojima has been so cagey about showing us stuff with cliff, and when he do see stuff it’s cliff fighting/looking for something or it’s him being a Horrible Dad™️ plus the matching scars, their entire life-and-death dynamic, (also this has no real evidence but maybe deadman was bringing bb to cliff to lure in Sam?) thoughts?

Sorry for the late reply! I wanted to rewatch the trailers in English and Japanese to make sure I was explaining myself correctly! (I’m not great with Japanese but let me tell you!!! The Subs on the Japanese videos are not always what the characters are saying aloud and it’s both fascinating and frustrating)

No such thing as a dumb DS theory!!! (Except that one sleep deprived night I was convinced the game was going to be a musical extravaganza)

I’ve gone back and forth on wether Sam is Cliffs father or Cliff Sams father... or if they’re related at all... I think it’s 100% possible either way. But there’s also so SO many possibilities, so I’m gonna break them down to explain my thoughts!

I’ve watched the trailers over and over, and at one point during the the gamepmlay demo (the one with just Norman/Sam in his quarters at the Tokyo Game Show) Kojima says “Everytime you connect, BB’s memories will flood your mind” and then you get a cut scene of Cliff pouring two glasses of wine “There’s many flashbacks” Kojima continues, saying EVERY time you connect to BB you’re getting a memory, and possibly getting a Cliff related cut scene. Which could easily be proof of Sam Bridges as Cliffs Son. Cliff says they (BB and him) will “drink together” when the baby is grown up (Japanese is fun language that doesn’t have masculine or feminine words, so the gender of the baby is always vague and I feel the need to point out Cliff could possibly know someone is connected to BB seeing the memories and is addressing them directly. I think this is unlikely given the heart bubble in the release date trailer, but again, Japanese is a context based language that can be vague) Cliff then says ‘cheers’ to “Misato” and turns off screen for a toast, so presumably the second glass is for Misato (a common female Japanese name) considering Cliff is in a Hospital-ish setting, and, if you watch the scene carefully, you can see a hand at the bottom of the screen (that appears to be in a pod/hospital bed) I suspect Misato could be BBs “still mother” as referenced in the Deadman trailer.

So could Cliff be Norman’s father? Toasting a wife who’s trapped on the Other side? Absolutely! But that would most likely mean Sam WAS a BB. And one who survived to grow up. Considering the time line of the Death Stranding happening 10 years before and Norman’s age... it might be possible but it’d imply some time travel or time discrepancy happening. (Totally possibly considering I’m 99% sure the Death Stranding is referring to the Higgs Boson particle and the particle Excelerator experiment of the 2010s)

Cliff could also be the scientist who figured out how “Still mothers” worked or possibly is watching over a kidnapped “still Mother.” Or Possibly his wife and his baby. Cliff could be on the ‘other side’ and only gets to see his baby on the rare occasion Sam Connects. He could EASLIY just be pissed they’re literally stealing his baby from him to use as a tool.

TL:DR

Veryyyyy long story short I think it’s possible!But time line wise I think it’s more likely Cliff and Sam are somehow related to the BB but not blood related to each other.

[sparrowsabre7]

Ok, strap yourselves in for me reacting to an hour long cutscene. Die-Hardman is president now and finally takes off his mask permanently. I feel we've been robbed because Tommie Earl Jenkins has an incredibly expressive face, much less stoic than Reedus and Mads. Looks like all of the preppers and scientists are at the briefing as DH explains that though extinction is inevitable, it is our duty to savour each moment and the promise of tomorrow. Sam steps out of the briefing and Deadman catches up to tell him they used Bridget's umbilical cord to pull him from her beach, but it was too late as her beach had already gone. Damn he was gone a month, meaning exponentially longer on the inside. They followed the revolver connection instead.

"The stick that became a rope" that's a nice way of tying in with the themes of nonviolence and cyclical storytelling. I like that.

Now Deadman's talking about Cliff. His "common law wife" was Lisa Bridges. And says John/DH killed him, which we already knew. Now DH is apologising for killing Cliff and says it's because he loved Bridget so much. He also says he's called DH because Cliff wouldn't let him die and he says he loved Cliff as much as he loved Bridget and is now torn up that BT Cliff didn't kill him. This is some powerful acting here, probably the single most emotionally raw performance in the game. Reedus and Mads are great at what they do, but they do largely stick to the moody, broody thing.

DH says he thinks Cliff brought him back as penance to make things right and Sam says that's bullshit, "if you aren't scared of death, how can you value life" which, while a little cliche actually resonates in this moment without feeling clunky. "That gun won't help you here" is repeated, again, reinforcing the nonviolent ethos of this new America.

Oh damn. Lou's gone. Decommissioning order came through and she's no longer online, as Deadman's points out BBs are not strictly speaking ever alive. Deadman disconnects Sam from the network temporarily, so he can take off his cufflinks if he wants to allow him to go wherever he needs to without being tracked by the UCA but when he takes Lou to the incinerator to prevent a voidout he will be reconnected if he hasn't done so. Sam embraces him and sets out, but Fragile stops him.

She says Fragile Express has been made the first official courier company in the UCA but also that she didn't kill Higgs, she let him choose: death or eternal solitude on the beach, and he killed himself.

I feel like there's a whole lot of expodumping going on that could have been more naturally peppered throughout the story. That Higgs reveal could easily have happened at the time instead of now. It has no punch now it's been at least 4 hours since then if not more.

Ok. One last delivery. Same as the first one. Another breathtaking piece of music to score the final mission as the camera pulls way back to see the full beauty of the world. It is quite powerful and I do almost get a bit teary. Like I keep saying, Kojima knows how to use music to sell a moment.

Sam arrives at the incinerator and connects to Lou and flashbacks begin again. Bridget and John discussing Sam as a BB candidate or a foundation... to build the Chiral network I presume. Repeat of the scene of Cliff giving Sam an astronaut and John comes in and they shoot the shit. More replaying of scenes, Cliff and Bridget arguing, John scheming with Cliff to escape with Sam. For some reason he has to shoot his wife too, I presume because as an act of euthanasia, but it's not really clear. Mads sells the subtle emotion well entirely through expression, showing how far performance capture has come. He kisses her forehead before killing her and I realise I think this is the only time we've seen her face. Does it count as fridging if the woman was essentially never even onscreen or came out of the fridge in the first place? Once dead her soul leaves her body and we see it from the repatriation camera and fly into Sam. So I guess, like Mama sharing a body with Lockne, maybe Lisa does with Sam.

Replaying of Cliff's death, John tries his best to save him and stop the Bridges staff.

Sam is now there in the flashback too, but imperceptible to other characters, except Cliff it seems at the end. Cliff tells him as his son he's his bridge to the future. A hereditary legacy. Clunkily then immediately over explained as "before you I was like any other Cliff a dead end with no way forward," and underlines that Sam brings people together and bridges them to the future.

Bridget shoots twice and Cliff falls to the floor, but bb Sam is hit too in what is probably the most horrible thing I've had to witness in a video game that isn't even that violent or gory per se. Bridget screams and breaks down, thus explaining her comment about the two shots that started it earlier and why she was so desperate to send Sam back.

We follow bb Sam through the seal to the beach. Ahhh, so the cross on the chest of the dolls and Cliff was a mirror of the scar Bridget left when healing his gunshot wound. I'm now trying to think if we ever saw Sam's belly button before now. Cliff is out in the waters of the beach wading out as Bridget places Sam into the sea to repatriate.

We're back in the tank now looking at John and Bridget. It seems in the shooting, being that it severed the umbilical cord, Sam no longer has his ability to be a BB since that connection is severed. John wonders if they should risk putting a repatriate out into the world, but Bridget says she'll raise him as her own.

Back in reality we see Sam has removed Lou from the tank and placed his cufflinks in the incinerator instead. A nice symbolic visual of burning his shackles which is surprisingly not overplayed, but given they seem to have been designed like handcuffs explicitly for this visual moment and literally any other design would have made more sense in-world, probably shouldn't heap too much praise.

He's desperately trying to revive Lou in a hwartwrenching scene before finally succeeding and leaving the facility. Outside it's raining, but the rain is normal and neither of them age. It's unclear what caused this, whether it was because of the separation with Bridget's beach or because Lou's been released but it's a quiet victory all the same, remarkably restrained as an ending that leaves a sense of satisfaction.

So it's all over, but before I sum up I wanted to share one of the more poignant quotes which is actually in an email from Heartman "About Sam's Return" unlocked upon completion. He talks about how in thousands of years, if intelligent life walks the earth again after the inevitable sixth extinction, they would find fossils and maybe even some of our records. "We cannot hope to guess how much the will understand about who we were. After all their intelligence will not be like ours ... (they will have) different conceptions of what it is to die. But it matters not if they never understand who we were. All that matters, in my opinion at least, is that they know we were here."

I think that's the best summary for the key argument of Death Sranding, that humanity is driven by its connections and quest to leave the world better than we found it. A legacy, something to remember and be remembered by. On these themes, I cannot fault it. It works so well in terms of gameplay and story synergy on that front that Ibthink the story would have been greatly improved if it had been significantly streamlined to focus solely on that. However, I can't deny the cool visual and atmosphere of the BTs, Cliff, all that jazz, but Bramelie was character definitely too overwritten and didn't have the charisma nor connection to back it up. She wasn't the Boss from MGS3 she was a mere plot device. Saying over and over "I an the extinction entity" just underlines that. Cliff absolutely worked for me, his whole story, acting, design; superlative.

Higgs definitely shit the bed as a villain. Quirky charisma only gets you so far and I still don't really get why he wanted to blow up the world. The Englert thing just made it weirder. Oh and some endgame journals reveal he was beaten as a child. Whoop de doo, what lazy writing to try and create empathy for a villain, especially when it's all delivered in an email.

Fragile, Mama and Lockne were... there. Typical Kojima women, supporting the protagonist but never really doing anything of their own accord. Their backstories wrought with uncalled for violence and tragedy.

Deadman was fun, good performance by Jesse Corti on vocals, as was Heartman. Given they both served almost exclusively as expobombs they still felt rounded enough to be interesting. I feel it's not entirely a coincidence that Kojima gave his director friends the most interesting characters.

Sam himself was played with minimalism, but not to the point of seeming wooden or unfeeling. Reedus showed surprising depth with relatively little material when compared with some of the support characters.

Gameplay I've already talked about enough, but it does astound me that on approaching 45-50 hours (forgot to check stats) it still remained fun to deliver parcels and traverse the world.

Overall, do I recommend the game? Yes, if you have the time and willingness to be open to something new. No if you hate weird shit and don't like the sound of the concept. If you don't like the sound of it, you probably won't enjoy playing it.

As to this play along. It was a fun experience articulating my thoughts as I went, particularly with a game as long as complex as this, but I did often find myself torn by relaying events and actually commenting on them. It was a lot of pausing for writing and interrupted play and I think, ultimately, I probably wouldn't do another, or do it in a different way.