Social walls and isolation in Death Stranding’s vision
Days have passed since the release of Death Stranding, a game developed by Hideo Kojima, one of the best-known names in the gaming company, and as it is his game, we already know that there is a complex story and social criticism behind it. But what is Death Stranding anyway?
Death Stranding launched on November 8 of 2019, exclusive to Playstation 4, but with a PC port released in July 14 of 2020. The game has strong collaborations for the story, such as the filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, the actors Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelsen and Léa Seydoux. It was to be expected that with so many names like that, along with Kojima’s mind, the game wouldn’t be the same as we’re used to.
The story takes place in a dystopian future, where mysterious bombs ended up destroying the Earth, polluting and making many places uninhabitable, in addition to generating a phenomenon called “temporal rain”, where everything that is touched by it ends up aging. The protagonist of the game is Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus), a renowned delivery man at the company “Bridges” who has the job of connecting people through deliveries. In addition, we still have the emergence of EPs, dead touched by the temporal rain that are connected by an umbilical cord to the ground, representing their prison to the living world, not being able to rest until this connection can be broken.
That’s what the game wants to show us: connections.
According to an interview given by Hideo Kojima to BBC News, he says that “The current era is surrounded by individualism. The connections made today allow many people to end up attacking each other, uttering senseless hatred, because it’s so easy to connect with someone you don’t even know.” The fact that Sam is a delivery man in a devastated and “disconnected” world, echoes what Kojima said, we are in an era where connection is crucial, but many seem not to care about it.
“Trump is building a wall. The UK is looking to leave the EU. People on the internet these days create walls and virtual versions of them to isolate themselves, to feel good about themselves. In Death Stranding, we used the Bridge company for exactly what its name stands for, a bridge that connects people, a bridge that spans all these walls.” ~Hideo Kojima to BBC
“This is not what the human being was created for, he was created to socialize, to talk, to interact with other human beings, because it makes him feel good”
The fact that it is easy to connect with a friend or family member nowadays can be a gift but also a curse, because people end up just imagining this social interaction on their cellphone and computer screens, thus losing touch, the search for outdoor conversations, the weekend hug, a barbecue with friends and a good outing with the family, everything is stuck there, on a black screen, false emotions through emojis and a future increasingly focused on the material and less for the social side of the human being. Where everyone is slowly dying without even realizing it, a world where the living will stick to the earth following virtual patterns and not seeing a new life beyond the one created artificially in their social network.
In addition to this social criticism, the game also portrays many religious and political issues, but in this post I will focus only on this topic. Death Stranding has being played by thousands of players around the world, and its positive impact has brought joy to its developers, who lovingly made every part of this game until it was officially released. What is your perspective and opinion on the game? Share your point of view in the comments of this post and see you in the next one.
