Welcome to Death Stranding

In Breaking Bad, Walter White, a High School chemistry teacher, mentions the word ‘Chiral’ which derives from the Greek word meaning hand. “Just as your left hand and your right hand are mirror images of one another, identical and yet opposite, so too can organic compounds exist as mirror imageforms of one another all the way down at the molecular level. Although they may look the same, they don’t always behave the same.”

In the new game from Hideo Kojima, society is fragmented having been affected by events known as the Death Stranding. Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus) is tasked with reconnecting these strands where human life has become isolated and unknown creatures plague the landscape.

BTs they call them. Beached Things. Entities that have become stranded in the world. They are invisible, leaving behind imprints in the mud, yet they do not appear to exist in the same space, but rather the other side. Perhaps another dimension. Sam exhibits signs that indicate he can sense the beings when they are near to him. He can sense them in a way he is allergic to them, and his skin develops rashes every time they are near; he feels them through a chiral allergy.

There are other elements to the world that are strange in their nature. There’s the otherworldly rain, what is known as the Timefall, that causes plants to grow, human bodies to age rapidly and deteriorate in a matter of seconds. Surrounding elements appear to fast forward, manipulated by the droplets that hit them.

There is also a beach in this world, but’s not like any other. It’s black and cold, with deceased marine life laying among its shores. A phenomenon known as a cetacean stranding. When Sam meets Heartman, a researcher working for Bridges corporation who researches the Death Stranding, he tells him that he has a condition that causes his heart to stop every 21 minutes. After dying, for three minutes he is where he prefers to be. Searching for his family on the beach. “My body may be present, but my soul is on the beach. I’m already dead”. Given his complications, Heartman dies approximately 60 times per day.

Normally in a video game, when you die, you come back the point just before your death. The events that took place right before your demise are non-existent and you resume right before you left off. For Sam however, if he dies, it triggers a voidout. A large crater appears at the site of his death and the story continues. There is no end or attempt to try again. Life and death appear to be connected. Just as life exists, so does death on the other side.

The character of Mama tells us that her baby was born on the other side, but the two of them are still joined. She can’t leave. Her daughter is not of body like she is. The infant that Sam carries in the portable pod on his chest is different, what’s known as a Bridge Baby or more commonly referred to as a BB. Sam’s BB, and others like it are kept alive in the pods that simulate the conditions of their still mother’s womb. It’s what gives him the ability to sense BT’s.

While what’s left of the remaining of the human race are scattered across the vast wastelands, the threats are imminent. A militant extremist group known as Homo Demens, meaning “Mad Man” in Latin, seek to slaughter the residents of remaining towns and engineer voidouts. The Man in the Golden Mask allies with them. Higgs his real name is. Somehow he is different to the others. He has the ability to manifest abnormal creatures from the black tide and poses a threat to Sam directly.

The world is no longer what it was. How did we get here? A version of life that’s so far from the existence we knew. The people that do remain in the desolate landscapes live in fear of being bound to Hades. It is up to Sam to re-connect the isolated cities for the sake of mankind. Or are we better off alone? We must seek to find our own answers and way of understanding. From Sapiens to Ludens.