Death Stranding’s Plot in 6 Minutes: A Bold But Impossible Feat
▼ Summary
– Mass Effect 2’s Genesis DLC provided a 14-minute recap for PlayStation players who missed the original game, while Sony’s Death Stranding recap is a six-minute video for a much longer and more complex game.
– Death Stranding’s appeal lies in its gradual unraveling of a bizarre world, including its unique mythology of extinction entities and overlapping realms of the living and dead.
– Sony’s recap video skips many key story elements, such as Bridge Babies’ origins and Mads Mikkelsen’s role, simplifying the game’s intricate plot.
– The recap may help refresh memories for Death Stranding 2 but omits significant details, smoothing over the game’s depth and complexity.
– The video serves as a quick refresher for major plot points and characters before Death Stranding 2’s release on June 26, though players will likely still face confusion in the sequel.
Condensing Death Stranding’s complex narrative into a six-minute recap proves as challenging as traversing its treacherous terrain. When Mass Effect 2 arrived on PlayStation 3, players received a 14-minute story summary through the Genesis DLC, a reasonable compromise for missing the original 30-hour RPG. Sony’s attempt to summarize Hideo Kojima’s 60-hour surreal odyssey in half that time inevitably leaves entire dimensions of its bizarre mythology unexplored.
What made Death Stranding special was its gradual unraveling of an incomprehensible world. By the finale, players grasped its unique vision of extinction events, where overlapping realms of life and death trigger cyclical apocalypses, each guided by a chosen “extinction entity.” The mental image of an enlightened ammonite comprehending this cosmic pattern remains one of gaming’s most delightfully absurd concepts.
The official recap video barely scratches the surface of these intricate ideas. Key elements like Bridge Babies, infants harvested from braindead mothers to maintain connections with the afterlife, get omitted entirely. Mads Mikkelsen’s haunting performance becomes a fleeting cameo rather than the emotional cornerstone it represents. While the video efficiently lists major characters and events, it transforms the game’s deliberate strangeness into bullet points.
This isn’t to say the recap fails its purpose. For players needing a quick refresher before Death Stranding 2’s June 26 release, it successfully jogs memories about Sam Bridges’ journey and core conflicts. Just don’t expect it to replicate that signature Kojima experience, the slow burn of confusion giving way to revelation. The sequel will undoubtedly provide another 60 hours of beautifully bewildering storytelling, making this speedrun through the original’s plot feel like skipping straight to dessert.
(Source: PCGAMER)
