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+ content="Most games are colonial, about conquering a harsh world. But some, very special ones are about leaving the world better than you found it."
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+ <h3 class="blog-title">Breathing Life Back To Paradise</h3>
+ <h3 class="datestamp">20/07/2025</h3>
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+ <div class="content">
+ <div class="content">
+ <a href="../img/entries/deathstranding2.jpg">
+ <img
+ class="blog-img-lrg"
+ src="../img/entries/deathstranding2.jpg"
+ alt="A screenshot of Death Stranding 2. Sam is sat on a road looking out over a foggy, valleyed horizon. His pick-up truck is parked next to him. The image could have been taken anywhere in the game's world, but for me, it was taken somewhere very, very special."
+ />
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+ <h1>
+ this blog post isnt ready yet. if you found it, congrats, i
+ like you. we can make out.
+ </h1>
+ <p>
+ The screenshot above looks pretty generic. Death Stranding 2
+ is a very beautiful game and its vistas are what make it. But
+ not all of them are particularly breathtaking, and I'll
+ happily admit the above image is one of them.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ To me, though, it's very special. Because the spot in this
+ image is the very last road I needed to build to complete the
+ entire Australian highway. It's probably the greatest
+ achievement I've ever accomplished in a game. And it's
+ completely unremarked upon.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Completing the road network doesn't earn you a new tool, or a
+ playstation trophy. Hell, unlike opening all the monorails, it
+ doesn't even warrant a Social Strand Service post. I didn't
+ know this, before I set out on the endeavour to complete the
+ network. But it didn't matter if there was a reward - it was
+ <i>the right thing to do.</i>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Death Stranding 2 is a game all about
+ <i>the right thing to do.</i> It applies on the macro level,
+ of course; pummelling Higgs is
+ <i>the right thing to do.</i> But every order you take, every
+ action in the world, every ladder and anchor you place, is
+ <i>the right thing to do.</i>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Kojima called Death Stranding the first game in a new genre,
+ the 'strand-type' game and while that might be grandiose, I
+ don't think he's strictly wrong. No other genre is as focused
+ on encouraging collaboration both inside and outside the
+ fourth wall, and it is undeniably successful. The whole game
+ is a joy of discovering a bit of cargo is positioned awkwardly
+ on a high ledge, then spotting a ladder from xXCriminalNukeXx
+ right next to it. Of course you're gonna hit the like button.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ And the roads are the zenith of that idea. Restoring a road
+ between two destinations is a huge, expensive, multi-step
+ effort. It requires everyone involved to be completely
+ invested in the game, to be making side-quest deliveries to
+ get access to more resources, to expand the network. But the
+ reward it offers is unlike anything else - that challenging,
+ rough terrain that you've battled over to get to the paver is
+ instantly nullified by a flat, powered road.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Finishing a road connection is instantly rewarding, yes, but
+ the game makes concerted efforts to reward it long-term, too.
+ You'll fairly regularly be asked to retrace your steps, to
+ make a delivery to a prior bunker. Without roads this is
+ challenging - albeit less challenging than the first time
+ through since the network will have other player's structures
+ populated in - but with a road, it feels like you're being
+ congratulated. "You have made this world better for everyone
+ who inhabits it. Take a victory lap."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I attached to the roads in the first game, and was rewarded
+ for it in a similar fashion - at the climax of DS, the chiral
+ network goes down, trashing all the structures you and others
+ have built. It's supposed to be one final test of what you've
+ learned. But if you built the roads, they remain and the
+ journey back to the start is trivial, that victory lap.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ So I did the same in the second game, and it returned the
+ favour multiple times. But none of these events are a
+ traditional reward - it's purely generated from your own
+ knowledge of how much it would have sucked to backtrack
+ without it. It encourages you to <i>do the right thing.</i>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ So I built out all the roads, continuing after the game ended,
+ when there was no chance of any backtracking missions. Because
+ building this infrastructure, for the people you meet, the
+ porters you have played alongside, and those who will come
+ after you, is <i>the right thing to do.</i>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ You're probably thinking that's a bit pretentious. It's just a
+ video game, after all, and most of the characters in Death
+ Stranding are just holograms. But all of that artifice somehow
+ falls away, because you're making this world better, and
+ doesn't that feel good? Doesn't
+ <i>doing the right thing</i> feel good?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Of course it does. That's kind of the basis of most leftist
+ thinking, after all. The <i>right thing to do</i> may not be
+ the most optimal choice for you, personally - certainly
+ building every road was not optimal, the optimal choice would
+ be building roads just over the most tricky areas - but it
+ feels good to do it! It feels good to help others out!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ There's only two strand-type games in existence, but another
+ 2025 game actually comes... strangely close. It's a purely
+ single-player experience and it's called
+ <i>Promise Mascot Agency</i>, from the developers of
+ <i>Paradise Killer.</i>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The high-level concept is batshit. You're a disgraced yakuza
+ who must transform a mismanaged love hotel into a successful
+ 'mascot agency,' that rent out giant mascots to events. Except
+ the mascots are sentient, not costumes. And also it's secretly
+ a game about leaving a run-down, corrupt and forgotten town
+ much better than you found it.
+ </p>
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projects / gnargle.github.io.git / blobdiff