What makes the most boring game fun to play

    Death Stranding is an open-world game with beautiful landscapes set in a post-apocalyptic America. The game's design forces you to manage every single resource. You need to arrange each tool and equipment, carry weapons, go number one and number two by yourself. The player also needs to plan each step they take as they traverse the world. I mean step literally, as in left foot forward, right foot forward. You can also look into the mirror with your character and admire your face. I'm pretty sure no one asked for that feature. In short, DS is a walking simulator with a really weird story. The main campaign can easily take you more than 40 hours to complete. But damn the game is so boring. DS is accurately described as a walking simulator. Despite all of this, a legit argument can be made that DS is a masterpiece. There are many awesome video games and I think DS also belongs on the Mt. Rushmore of videogames. 

   The Death Stranding is a cataclysmic event that occurred in a dystopian future. The game was popularized by the world-renowned game designer, Hideo Kojima, when he briefly showed a naked Norman Reedus with an umbilical cord attached to a baby at an E3 conference. Weird. The OST, I'll keep coming by Low Roar was also playing in the background of the trailer and the trailer ended when some alien entities appeared in the sky above Norman Reedus. This intense atmosphere built up a high expectation for the game. Kojima is also known as the game director for popular titles like MGS and Silent Hills. It also happened to be Kojima's first project after leaving Konami. If you don’t know Kojima, he is known for inventing the stealth genre, then reinventing the stealth genre. After obtaining huge funding from Sony, the marketing team revealed next to nothing about the game apart from the cryptic trailers heavily-laden with celebrity features.

   The beauty of Death Stranding lies in the simplicity of the game. You work as a delivery man. That's it. Your character, played by Norman Reedus, is indifferent to everything that occurred after the Death Stranding. He has no delusions of saving the world. You play as Sam Porter Bridges, a grumpy man who prefers to keep to himself. Your character happens to be a repatriate, which means you cannot remain dead so you are forced to make deliveries across the country since you are the only one who cannot die outside in the post-apocalyptic world. The focus of the game is how we can make meaningful connections. When playing online, other players online during your session get to leave their tools and equipment in useful places. You can even complete deliveries for fellow players. The game has also implemented a “Like” system, where you can show appreciation to other players for making your journey a little bit easier and vice-versa. I can’t remember the number of times I’ve appreciated a bridge across a stream or a generator at a convenient place to charge my bike. DS also forces you to be intentional about a lot of stuff. You need to meticulously plan your route on a map, before setting off for your destination. Planning your journey also includes looking for the right equipment to help you traverse deserts or snowy mountains or grasslands. Some routes will force you to encounter BTs and terrorists, which will require you to carry weapons and load ammo. You need to manage your resources or you’re going to have a lot of difficulties reaching your destination. Carrying too much stuff will also cause your stamina to deplete. Initially, I thought it was annoying for a game to make me think about where my character should step. The game punishes you when you walk on uneven terrain recklessly by depleting your stamina and causing the baby attached to your umbilical cord to cry furiously.

   The game’s take on violence is not necessarily unique. Like stealth games, DS discourages using lethal force. It warns you that killing someone and leaving the body will trigger a voidout. A voidout is the cataclysmic event that happened in the death stranding. There are a lot of non-lethal options to use to deal with hostiles. You can simply sneak around, taser them unconscious, or bind them with a special gun made to restrict the movement of the terrorists. I thought the boss fights were not very challenging. The game makes it absolutely clear that in any situation, violence should be the last option. It is not entirely against using violence, but it discourages the use of violence to a very large extent. However, it does handle the action sequences pretty well. The game provides you with weapons in the instances where you have to battle whales and squid-like monsters. Defeating a boss is not challenging, but the experience is rewarding because you get to go all out in the game.

DS is a very weird game. I can't get into it without spoiling the story. There are a lot of things that make death stranding absurd. The goal of the game is to connect the remaining outposts to the chiral network, which is a sort of futuristic internet that can be used to transfer materials for 3d printing. Death Stranding is a game where you are ultimately encouraged to make life a little easier for the other person. In that sense, you get to have a very rewarding experience knowing that someone out there appreciated your zipline or climbing anchor. It also builds on the idea that the human race can only progress when we live our lives in service of others. Encountering a simple message to look out for the cliff, getting your deliveries completed by strangers, a post box filled with useful stuff all teach us that someone out there cares for us. In turn, we are also encouraged to look out for others as we play the game, even though we might never meet. 

The fact that this boring game manages to make me complete my deliveries and chores means that it deserves to be acknowledged as a masterpiece.