497 Words About: Building Highways in Death Stranding

Death Stranding is a videogame I’ve played a lot, mostly because of its emphasis on connections, in-game and cooperative play. Most videogames that employ online play foster competition (some healthy, some…not), but Death Stranding is unlike any videogame I’ve played because of the way it encourages and benefits players who work towards a common goal. While playing online mode bridges, ladders, ropes, safe-rooms, mailboxes, etc. will appear marked with green to indicate that this is a structure made by another player, and all of them can be used while I make deliveries and make connections between cities and prepper stations.

Building the highways however, is a game changer.

Stretching across the remnants of the United States, highways provide long stretches of uninterrupted travel that lets me transport a higher number of deliveries in a shorter amount of time. And, best of all, I don’t have to fight any MULEs (former porters who now hijack deliveries to get a rush). There’s something about driving past Mules on a motorcycle on a brand new highway that’s personally fulfilling. It’s more than just the convenience, it’s the brilliant “Fuck-You” high I get while watching them watch me speed past.

It’s the little things in life.

Building involves collecting large quantities of metals, ceramics, and Chiral Crystals and lugging them to the printer sites which takes time and energy that could be spent on deliveries. While there is a story to Death Stranding, I’ve found now after multiple playthroughs that I tend to get bogged down rebuilding the highways instead of actually rebuilding America. 

Looking for an explanation to this I think the latter is too abstract whereas the former has a real dimension.

That’s one way of saying I rely on the roads more.

The highways that I ride along as Sam (and BeBe) are more real. I drive (or walk) across highways, back and forth delivering packages to npcs who thank me for my help and tell me that I’m making their lives better. The physicality of balancing 30 packages on my back, or loading them up onto a truck or bike and then actually making the trip constitutes 90% of the actual gameplay. Likewise, as more and more roads are built I begin to encounter fewer and fewer Mules, and even less BTs(Beached Things) which can kill me or damage my deliveries.

Besides making the trips easier, there is a growing sense that I, and the other players, are building something greater than what once was. The ease of travel is convenient, but it’s the consistent use of the roads that begin to build an emotional and intellectual impression. 

Sam is a porter, he makes deliveries. While npcs around him mourn the implosion of society, he sticks to delivering packages and so the physical presence of roads is far more important than political ideologies. An alternative explanation is that highways are the connection between places and peoples that wind up meaning more than any government ever could.

Joshua “Jammer” Smith

4.8.2024

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***UPDATE***

I’ve uploaded a video on YouTube of myself reading this essay. You can listen to me read it by following the link below:

497 Words About: Building Highways in Death Stranding - YouTube