Like many single-player games, Death Stranding's narrative pushes players forward. As Sam Bridges, it is their job to reconnect a post-apocalyptic America and solve the mystery of the Death Stranding - a cataclysmic event that turned the world upside down with the fast-forwarding timefall and otherworldly Beached Things (BTs). To this end, they must deliver packages between various locations around the country. These include important supplies such as medicine and timefall-resistant equipment, but sometimes the odd request of pre-Stranding video games and pizza also makes it onto Sam's to-do list. The concept of a delivery man saving the world is strange, but this strangeness helps compel players to complete Death Stranding's story.
There are many activities for players to engage with once they have completed the main campaign, however. Players can collect memory chips, tie up loose story threads, unlock gear, and make an infinite number of potential deliveries.One of the biggest aspects of Death Stranding's endgame that keeps players coming back comes not from its single-player nature, but from its seamless online multiplayer component.
Bridge Links Connect Players To Good Samaritans
For those who don't know, Death Stranding's online mode connects many different porters (players) together to share their journey. Linked porters can interact in various ways, such as sharing signs that direct them to points of interest, safe areas, and hazard zones like Dark Souls' message system. Cargo can be shared either by placing it in a postbox or a share locker (other porters' dropped cargo can also appear in a linked porter's world, allowing them to pick it up and return it). Even vehicles can be shared in a garage or found scattered throughout the world, making deliveries easier. What's interesting is that unlike most multiplayer games that show other players wandering the world, Death Stranding's community can only identify each other's presence by the cargo they leave and the tracks, signs, and structures they create.
Speaking of structures, Death Stranding also allows players to share constructions with one another. These include simple structures like ropes and ladders, but later on bigger, more complex creations like bridges, ziplines, and safehouses. Players first need to connect an area to the United Cities of America (UCA) by making deliveries to locals, but once that's done, player signs and structures in the vicinity become visible.
Death Stranding's Real Endgame is Helping Others
Well after completing the campaign, players can still find ways to help their fellow porters. This may include putting a connecting zipline in a key location, sharing supplies in postboxes and share lockers, or simply delivering others' cargo to their intended destinations. Doing so will reward players with likes that increase their porter grade, part of a ranked system that rewards players by increasing their stamina, cargo capacity, and bridge link numbers with other players. The highest porter grade helps players attain 100 percent completion in Death Stranding, but players can easily reach it without too much effort. The more hopeful explanation behind the people who still play Death Stranding after the story ends is that they find satisfaction in helping others.
This drive to help one's fellow man ties into Death Stranding's themes of connection and unity. The game's world is unforgiving and bleak, and Sam Bridges isn't keen on interacting with other people. But with the help of strangers they connect with along the way, players find themselves less isolated and more optimistic when it comes to rebuilding a lost country.
Death Stranding is available now on PC, PS4, and PS5.
