DEATH AND CHECKPOINTS
In a normal videogame, if you die during gameplay or in mission, the game gives you a simple choice: reloading the game to the location and time before you die - this system is called checkpoint. However in terms of 'real life' game itself allows you to travel back in time. So we can keep playing the game or complete our mission regardless of our previous 'death', almost as if it never happened. Because your death in videogame is not real, its not acknowledged, in fact its denied. After ‘reloading our game’ before our death, we need to figure out a new way to play, maybe using a different equipment, solution or simply just play harder or smarter in order to complete the mission without a failure this time, otherwise we can't progress in the story and uncover the plot. If you can’t finish your mission, and you can’t progress in the story and if you can’t see whats next, it simply means your character really died on meta level. Its safe to assume Death Stranding will play with this idea of death and checkpoint mechanics that we are familiar with.
Hideo Kojima*: Games started over 40 years ago with arcades. When the player dies, it’s game over. You continue, and time goes back to before you die. You can die as many times as you want, but you always go back to a little bit before you die. That was a mechanic made specifically for putting in coins, and it hasn’t changed since then.However, unlike most games which set you back to a point before you died, Death Stranding acknowledges your defeat, and seems to even embrace it. You’re transported back to the world after your death -- like in Dark Souls or roguelikes -- where your actions maintain an aura of persistence.*
So if you die during your mission, does that mean all your progress is lost ? Isn't there a way to go back and finish your mission ? Is that mission will be gone forever ? It would be a poor design choice if the game doesn't allow you to replay or being able finish your missions and see the progress of your own story. If your death and consequences of your failure are permanent in Death Stranding’s world there is no way to complete the story or see the entire cutscenes in the game (what really happens if you don’t fail and just complete your mission without a failure).
Hideo Kojima*: So as you saw in the trailer, you saw the crater, and when you come back, it’s still there. Most games would’ve taken you back to before the crater was made. So depending on the player, you might have a lot of craters all over the place – depends on each player.*
UNIQUE FAILURES
Imagine this situation; lets assume 3rd trailer was a mission and has gameplay choices. Before you played it yourself, you watched your best buddy attempting to complete this mission. Scene turned out exactly like in the trailer. Corpse Disposal Team, Sam and the baby died, explosion occured after the monster appeared and after Sam come back from Purgatory you saw the crater. Most games would’ve taken us back to before the crater was made. So depending on the player, you might not have a crater at all. After seeing your buddys gameplay you decide to do something different in order to prevent the crater. You shoot the guy stuck under the truck right away. So he didn’t scream and you flee before they even arrived. You manage to survive.
So its safe to conclude that, some players will be able to survive where others die; some will escape the lion of Man in the Golden Mask and some won’t. According to where, when and how we die, the game (map, handprints on Sam’s body, maybe even some quotes or additional cutscenes) may reflect the consequences of our previous failure or death – thus presents somehow unique experience for each player. Maybe all the locations shown in E3 2018 trailer are the same one after all – but all of them shaped with different gameplay decisions of different players. According to how you choose to play or what happened in your missions; your ‘world’ will have waterfalls, streams, mountains, flowers, forests, animals or it may be reduced to a barren wasteland, full of craters , deserts and toxic environments. Thats why at some scenes it looks full of life, positive, very beautiful and colorful (almost like a poetic painting) as well as very empty and very dead. Huge contrast between the two is very intentional; according to how we play, we may experience heaven or hell. When I keep the skeleton soldiers in mind; at some point of the game I expect to see those beautiful female characters as haunting half decayed corpses. Very detailed and almost exaggerated beauty of the game, creates a huge potential for the horrible dramatic opposite that Kojima can play with. Rapid aging, lifeless environments, dead walking upright (and more) is the proof that game is really scary and depressing like Norman Reedus mentioned. Normal videogames rely on your success and keeping your character alive, I think Death Stranding is kind of game that relies on your failure and death. Think of it as Kojima's favourite video game 'Outer World', in order to solve what you are supposed to do, or which way to go, you need to die several times. It is already stated there are too many choices in the game and I'm looking forward to explore all of them.
Hideo Kojima: When you die in Death Stranding, you’re transported to this purgatory, where you’re free to explore in first-person... When you’re ready to return to the world of the living, you can get back into your body.
GAME MECHANICS ARE LITERAL IN DEATH STRANDING
When we die in Death Stranding a liquid blackhole swallows our body into another dimension (or beings pull you into that dimension even if you are still alive) - dimension of purgatory. However, those who have 'strand equipment' are able to leave a trail behind even if they die. In fact, I assume the strand device hanging on Sam's belt works automatically to leave a trail behind in case of failure. Liquid blackhole is the door between those two dimensions (our world and purgatory). This strand is the trail to find our way back. Rope between two dimensions, rope between life and death, rope between land of the living and land of the dead. So, when we are transported into purgatory our previous body that died in our previous gameplay or previous mission leaves its trail behind - pinpointing the exact location of where we died. Necklace and the physics formulas on Sam, supports the possibility that in its own world checkpoint system is a scientific accomplishment (or ability) and it is no longer something that can only be done in videogames.
As to how double strands work; they are reaching to sky - to the chiral dimension, the reflection of our own world. Afterlife of our world. If you kill an NPC, he will we waiting there for you as an alive corpse. I think the chiral dimension is invisible for the same reason why those beings are invisible. If you accept those strands could be checkpoints, they may lead to where you die in different missions; maybe we will be forced by the game itself to die in numerous different locations and missions, so we have to go back and forth between the missions to find the best equipment (in order to complete the mission 1 you need to find the equipment in mission 30) or find out best solution with the particular character (should we kill the antogonist or not).
NECESSITY OF THE REPLAY CHOICE
In order to let each player experience the whole story without interference of death and failure; one dimension has to acknowledge our death and consequences of our failure, meanwhile also giving us a choice to continue from where we left off, so we can return to finish what we didn't – Sam has to keep coming, revisit where he failed and where he died. Kojima already said that when we come back – to the world of the living – we will face a crater (affects of our failure), but however strands reaching the sky indicate there is somewhere else beyond the world of the living. We will surely replay the missions but not in the world of the living, but at the world of the dead/purgatory. After the voidout, not only we died (as Sam) but also our entire mission is dead. Our mission is dead as well as our character, therefore we can only replay our mission in ‘death’. In other words; Sam has to revisit where he dies and complete his mission as a ghost. As theories suggest we can also expect to face those who we previously killed but in Purgatory (as demons who wants revenge against Sam). It is no coincidence that the first and third trailer starts with Sam lying on the floor as if he was dead but somehow bringed back to life (similar to how Norman wakes up at the concrete room in PT, at the beginning and after death). In that sense Sam may be already dead when that truck crashed, but his revival and the beginning of the scene is beautifully portrayed when everything around him starts to die (crabs and vegetation).
THEORY
In the 3rd trailer, Sam dies after the voidout and goes to purgatory. When he comes back everything is gone. However there are lots of strands reaching to the sky, similar to how strands are reaching out to sea. I think connecting with those strands allow us to replay those missions, because there is nothing else to besides connecting with those strands in that desert, map is empty besides those strands. For example: voidout cause a crater to occur in the region (after we come back from purgatory), however after we come back we can observe double strands reaching the sky (similar to Sam at the deep of the ocean - one for Sam and one for the baby). Map suddenly becomes a barren wasteland, empty and shallow. There is almost nothing to observe, play or enjoy – as if the game is really over and all you can do is walk in that barren wasteland without a simple purpose. I think this screen is equivilant of a pause screen or like ACC in MGSVTPP. Safe zone, outside of your mission. However like Pause Screen in PT, you won’t be able to stop the game but as we progress creatures or beings leaked from other dimensions will be interfering us. I think thats why map in E32018 is so silent and empty. We already theorized, there is a chance that there won't be any HUD or any visible crosshair and life indicator like we expectfrom any game. Death Stranding may be very realistic, almost like P.T. but in 3rd person. As if Death Stranding took any gameplay element literal and futuristic technology in its ficitional world allowed game mechanics to be real. In fact protagonists feet starts to bleed if you walk too much. I think Kojima will take things to the next level and there may not be any main menu or players interface where you select your missions either - the map itself will be our main menu. I think black strands are pinpointing the locations of where you died in your previous mission - therefore they are checkpoints and I think white strands are the ropes given to human beings by invisible figures - therefore they can be new missions. If thats the case, comparing to MGSVTPP, DS will be very different. You have to control a character with limited physical abilities in order to reach the missions. We won't be selecting missions from iDroid but go great distances and discover the entire map to find one. Map is the interface. I think at the beginning it will be very calm, empty and almost dead. However in time, some beings may leak from Purgatory or from other dimensions where we complete our missions. In PT Lisa attacks you even if you pause the game, Death Stranding may try to achieve that on bigger scale.
Think of Death Stranding's real map (shown in E3 2018 trailer) as Animus Island in AC: Revelations, and think of Purgatory as connecting to Animus in order to replay memories that will set us free at the end. To expand the theory, maybe multiple missions/dimensions will be available at the same time, however in order to really complete those missions we need to obtain certain things from those missions/dimension and go back and forth between missions/dimensions. If thats the case it is a very labyrinthine game and seeing those connections between missions, dimensions and events would satisfy the premise - connection between everything. Or they may lead to different timelines in missions – decision points. Our goal is to connect and time travel so realities collide until we reach the desired reality. Where we don’t die and finish the mission, progress in the story and saw the main cutscene we are supposed to see.
CONCLUSION
I'm aware there are too many 'if's and 'may's in this theory but I did my best to make it reasonable. From what I observed; desert as a map isn't efficient in terms of gameplay. When we die, we can observe double strands reaching out to sky from our previous body. After we die and come back, we can observe a map with nothing in it (caused by our previous failure - explosion in that case) and many strands reaching out to sky. We know that when we die, we go to Purgatory. We know that purgatory beings/monsters leak to real world sometimes. We know that in locations of where Chiral Density is higher, there are changes in terms of gravity, temperature and effect of rain. So in Death Stranding you are either pulled in to Purgatory involuntarily or you enter the Purgatory voluntarily to complete your mission.
No comments:
Post a Comment