Bridge Site Alpha

Reconnect the world, one delivery at a time.

Death Stranding is a 2019 action-adventure game developed by Kojima Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It marks the first title from director Hideo Kojima following his split from Konami in 2015. The player controls Sam Porter Bridges, a courier tasked with delivering supplies to isolated colonies known as Knot Cities in an apocalyptic United States. Set against a backdrop of destructive creatures called Beached Things (BTs), the game focuses on reconnecting humanity via a wireless communications network called the Chiral Network while navigating threats from a genocidal militia led by Higgs.

Quick Facts

Developer: Kojima Productions
Publisher (consoles): Sony Interactive Entertainment
Director: Hideo Kojima
Main character actor: Norman Reedus

Lore & Background

The world is defined by the cataclysmic event known as the Death Stranding, which caused invisible creatures originating from the Beach to roam the Earth. These BTs are created from the dead via necrosis and produce Timefall, a rain that rapidly ages and deteriorates whatever it hits. When a BT consumes a living human, it triggers a voidout, an explosion on the scale of a nuclear bomb that permanently damages the location with an untraversable crater. The remaining population confines themselves to Knot Cities within the United Cities of America (UCA), relying on Bridges porters who carry Bridge Babies (BBs) to sense these invisible threats. Individuals known as repatriates can return from death via the Seam, though contact with a BT still causes voidouts.

Reader's Guide

Players control Sam Bridges to deliver cargo to Knot Cities and researchers while connecting them to the Chiral Network. Performance is evaluated based on delivery success and cargo integrity, earning 'likes' that improve statistics like stability and weight capacity. The game features asynchronous online functions where players leave structures like ropes and bridges via the Portable Chiral Constructor (PCC), though Timefall eventually destroys these creations. Sam uses an odradek sensor to scan for invisible BTs, which are surrounded by damaging Timefall. If killed by a BT, Sam revives in the Seam but risks causing a voidout if consumed. The game extensively utilizes music from Silent Poets and Low Roar to enhance traversal.

Did You Know?

As of March 2021, the game had sold 5 million copies worldwide.
The game won several Game of the Year awards in 2019, though it did not win the most—that distinction belongs to titles like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice or Resident Evil 2, depending on the count.
Kojima stated that without Low Roar, Death Stranding would not have been born following frontman Ryan Karazija's death in 2022.
A sequel titled Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is announced for a 2025 release, though no specific date has been confirmed as of the latest information.
The game features likenesses of film directors Guillermo del Toro and Nicolas Winding Refn as supporting characters.