I had to put "hands-on" in quotation because, even though I got to control Norman Reedus, the game gave me such anxiety that I quickly had to hand over the controller to my friend. I felt much safer just being a spectator; here is why.
Yep, Death Stranding gave me nightmares! Never in my 20-something years of gaming have I ever felt so hopeless and lost while playing a videogame. And it has nothing to do with the game mechanics, but the world itself. Death Stranding's environments are nightmare inducing. The world of Death Stranding is indeed a strange one. Imagine this:
You are wondering a almost barren alien planet with no knowledge of what kind of life it harbours. It's a massive open world with wide open spaces and you are completely exposed. As night falls you begin to hear creepy sounds but you have no idea what they are. You try to look around for signs of danger but a thick mist slowly begins to suffocate your site. The sound gets louder and you strain your eyes to see if you can see something and, lo and behold, there seems to be something floating in the mist, and towards you, I might add. I don't know what this is, I don't know what to do, I just freak out and toss the controller over to my friend. That's my experience in a nutshell.
Death Stranding's environment is one of the scariest and immersive I've ever experienced in a videogame. Although the world may seem barren and void of life, it never feels like you are truly alone… and it is terrifying. You don't know what will pop out from where and it feels like there is this larger than life presence constantly watching you through the friggen' clouds! It feels like Hideo Kojima took the Silent Hills vibe and injected it with steroids.
I'm calling it now, it will win Game of the Year. But I may need to find someone to keep me company while I play through it. The game has literally traumatised me; I had a nightmare about being stuck on an alien planet after only 15 minutes of game time… and I don't even think it's supposed to be a survival horror! Perhaps I was just so terrified because I was thrown randomly into the middle of the game with no context, no idea of story, or explanations of the game's many beings.
