ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Death Stranding’s use of landscape and the use of physical traversal of the land as the game’s primary mechanic and the fundamental scaffold of its narrative. Within the story, protagonist Sam Porter Bridges undertakes a daunting journey to reconnect the Chiral Network from the Eastern Seaboard to the Western Seaboard of the United Cities of America, the fledgling, post-apocalyptic version of the United States. The player embodying Sam becomes inherently tied to the landscape and geography of Sam’s journey, one frequently lonely, as human inhabitants are scattered far apart. Package delivery, of everything from vital supplies to sundries, is the only form of connection human survivors of the Death Stranding have and the player embodying Sam plays an essential role in establishing connections—or “strands” as they are considered in the game.
