'Death Stranding 2: On the Beach': WTF Did I Just Watch?
Connecting Everything...
Normally, I play games but Death Stranding is a calming thing to watch. Fortunately the embargo dropped on Monday, which means everyone started streaming.
Also I’m skint and don’t have eighty pounds to drop on a game right now... I’m still knee-deep in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
So let’s talk lore…
Kojima Hideo is back again with the craziest walking sim to ever be made. Set nearly a year after the events of the first game, Sam (Norman Reedus) is now off-grid raising his former Bridge Baby, Lou, somewhere in Mexico. The game begins with Fragile (Léa Seydous) appearing to headhunt him for a new organisation she’s calling Drawbridge and the prologue (yes, the prologue, not the main game) has Sam connecting the country up to the pre-existing chiral network.
The original game was… a lot. The story was weird as hell, the gameplay oddly calming and the sequel is more of that and I’m not really surprised. With the main game focusing on Sam’s attempts to connect Australia (of all places, I did not see that coming…) to the chiral network. During his trip, Sam’s home is attacked by mysterious forces and Lou is killed.
Yes, they went there… Actually this is probably one of the less batshit things the game throws at you, even as it nearly leads to Sam’s suicide (even though he’s a Repatriate, meaning he’ll just come back).
The weird elements of the first game: B(eached) T(hings)s, E(xtinction) E(ntitie)s and B(ridge) B(abies)s return but this game is all about relationships and the connections between Sam and his found family including Fragile, Deadman, Heartman, Die-hard Man and newbies Rainy, Tarman, Dollman and Tomorrow.
Joining the Deep-tar Hunting Vehicle Magellan, Sam soon finds himself in Australia helping Drawbridge connect the continent as a way to work out his grief. As he does so, he meets a number of new characters like Tarman (whose appearance is based on legendary director George Miller), Charlie (who uses the voice of Die-hard Man) and Tomorrow (played by Elle Fanning).
Oh and Higgs (Troy Baker in his best role for years!) is back too. Because this game needs his batshit.
So, a quick primer on the lore, because this is a sequel and it’s a Kojima game. The worlds of the living and the dead are connected by Beaches, places where the dead pass on the way to the afterlife. As a result it’s possible for the dead to return as BTs, while humans often have DOOMS which gives them a sensitivity to them, like both Sam and Fragile (along with all their new friends).
Ultimately Sam learns things about his past which shake him to the core. His learns his wife, Lucy, was cheating on him with her patient, Neil Vana, and initially believes the baby they were expecting is actually Neil’s. However the truth is a lot more sinister.
In the first game Lucy apparently took her own life due to exposure to DOOMs via their growing baby (the original Lou). However On the Beach reveals that Lucy wanted Neil to smuggle her to Mexico because Bridges intended to experiment on the child of a Repatriate (confirming Lou is indeed Sam’s child…) Lucy is shot and dies, becoming a Stillmother, allowing Bridges to take the baby and turn it into a BB. Neil also dies but necrotises faster than expected and this is what takes out the city, leaving Sam as the only survivor.
So yeah, it appears Lou was indeed Sam’s actual child, making her also a Repariate. Except, after the attack on Sam’s home, Fragile took her to the Beach, specifically Neil’s Beach, and asked him to look after her. She then grows to adulthood, becoming Tomorrow.
Honestly, this reveal isn’t the shellshocker it’s supposed to be: Tomorrow has DOOMs and the way Fragile talks to her after she is released from her chiralium chrysalis is extremely maternal. By the end of the game, Sam is able to identify Lou/Tomorrow by a mole on her elbow and Tomorrow regains her memories of her time with Sam from the first game.
Fragile actually dies during the final battle, which is a shame because she and Sam have a lovely ‘moment’ within the narrative. Die-hard Man explains she was shot by Higgs during his attempts to storm Sam’s place.
However, because time on the Beach is different to the real world, Fragile was able to continue living in the real world until her fatal gunshot wound ended her life. Higgs knows Lou is Sam’s biological daughter and so he can use her to reach Amelie’s Beach, locked away at the end of the first game, and trigger the Last Stranding. So, basically, he wants to initiate the apocalypse.
Again.
I mean Higgs is consistent, at least.
The ending confrontation is … epic. There’s a giant Lou-BB, electric guitars (as in guitars which shoot electricity…), mecha-samurai, the mecha-Magellan. Honestly, it’s so crazy it feels like a fever dream.
My fave bits in no discernible order:
The music.
Woodkid was a major contributor to the sound track and the album is gorgeous, from the moment ‘Minus Sixty One’ begins to play (Complete with what sounds like a Japanese numeric code and the Suginami Choir, who did the vocals for my beloved Castle in the Sky!) to ‘Story of Rainy’.
My favourite track is ‘Amekaraninjie’ '(‘From Rain to Rainbows’). Also I can’t wait to listen to the actual score as there’s so many good little tracks not included on the Woodkid OST.
This batshit crazy dance sequence revealing who Charlie is. Also, this batshit crazy dance sequence for Dollman.
Sam and Higgs hitting each other with guitars. Also the GIANT baby at 15:12…
As with the first game, there are lots of homages to real people and cameos to boot. I especially like Tarman (and his flying tar kitteh) who uses the features of George Miller and is noted to be a doctor, as well as the captain. Miller trained as a doctor before becoming the director were all know him as today.
The promise of Death Stranding 3…