Highlights
- Death Stranding 2 could learn from sci-fi titles like Hardspace: Shipbreaker to expand its post-Stranding world and emphasize resource management and the use of reclaimed materials.
- The environmental message in Death Stranding is reflected in the post-stranding world, with nature reclaiming America. Sam is encouraged to recycle and donate unused items to keep America functioning.
- Death Stranding's gameplay, described as a "walking simulator," provides a meditative experience. Death Stranding 2 could incorporate the cozy loop of recycling and breaking down items for a larger scope.
With a heavy emphasis on managing resources and making the most out of reclaimed materials in the series, Death Stranding 2 could take notes from similar sci-fi titles for how to expand the scope of the post-Stranding world. One similarly meditative title that could help to influence different tasks for Sam Porter Bridges to take on when helping to rebuild America is Blackbird Interactive's Hardspace: Shipbreaker and its array of disassembled spaceships.
The original Death Stranding put a lot of effort into showcasing the need for Sam Bridges to make the most out of what he could find from one location to another, as well as breaking down well-used gear to recycle for materials. However, taking Death Stranding 2 behind the conveyor belt and holographic drop-off booth could help add depth to this need to make the most out of even destroyed pieces of gear.
Recycling Death Stranding's Environmental Message
There is a lot of messaging in the first Death Stranding, as the post-stranding world allows itself to reflect the ways that people isolate themselves, while also showing the impact the modern world is having on the environment. If the crude oil-adjacent Chiralium around Death Stranding's terrifying BTs or the consistent imagery of beached whales wasn't enough, the lush environments across America could help to tell the ideology of the game. As the modern world with its roads, buildings, and constructed civilization crumbles, nature has retaken America, with the Timefall accelerating the process of wildlife and vegetation making the world green again.
This environmental message continues as Sam is encouraged to donate anything that he's not currently using to the cause of keeping America and the Bridges company functioning. The rewards of basic materials that can be used for gear, vehicles, and structures down the line are enough to incentivize most players to hold onto even broken pieces of equipment long enough to recycle them at a resource center. However, if Kojima Productions wants Death Stranding 2 to step further than its predecessor, then that process should be taken a step further than simply delivering items to a kiosk.
Cozy Meditation in Death Stranding's Mundane Gameplay
It was a popular complaint before Death Stranding was released to compare it to a "walking simulator" because most of the game was little more than walking packages from one location to the next. However, this description really misses out on exactly how it feels to walk through post-stranding America, with the journey being an almost meditative experience along a carefully plotted route. So, for Death Stranding 2 to go beyond the original's shadow, this new title should lean into those moments to create a cozy loop around recycling.
One title from 2022 that succeeds at creating this meditative, cozy loop while breaking materials down is Hardspace: Shipbreaker, which tasks players with picking spaceships apart and sending its many resources to the appropriate areas for processing. Although somewhat repetitive across its career mode, the need to assess each shift and best decide how to depressurize ships and break off components without being killed out in space has the same ability to get players in the zone as plotting a route in Death Stranding. So, with a much larger scope on display in Death Stranding 2, this same gameplay concept could fit well as a new way for Kojima Productions to explore the otherwise mundane process of breaking down items for recycling.
With Death Stranding already being a game that moves between modes as protagonist Sam Porter Bridges travels from calm plains to BT or MULE territory, this shift wouldn't even be all that sudden. Taking the time to break down a vehicle that has otherwise deteriorated before using the salvaged parts to build a new one, or even completely new gear, would fit right in with Death Stranding's gameplay. Heading into a processing plant to pick apart vehicles or smaller gear would be no different from making the quick transition from hiking, to mountain climbing, to brawling with terrorists.
Death Stranding 2 is currently in development by Kojima Productions.