We hear a lot about polarization. Increasingly, our culture and discourse seem hellbent on making binary choices out of everything from picking sides in console wars to acknowledging climate change. Scroll through YouTube and you’ll notice almost every thumbnailed face is showing either agony or ecstasy. Things are either great or terrible, and anyone looking for the middle is often exhausted by the push and pull of the extremes. Ironically, we got a game five years ago that was all about the importance of connection and common ground, only for it to be one of the most divisive games of its era.
Death Stranding was released on November 18, 2019 by gaming auteur and Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima. It launched with an unbelievable hype train behind it. A star-studded cast showed off groundbreaking visuals for Kojima’s first independent release. Free from the confines of his decades-long relationship with Japanese publisher Konami, the fabled game director and designer served up a visionary dystopia where a delivery man must navigate a North American continent that has been besieged by strange interdimensional creatures and rain that makes things old. It only gets weirder from there.
