Themes About Strands and Connections
It would be disingenuous of me to try to explain what Death Stranding is gonna be about, considering Kojima’s tendency to over complicate his stories, but we’ll try anyway.
From what we know of the game so far and what Kojima himself has stated, Death Stranding is very much a game about, well, strands. That is, we’re supposed to think of strands as ropes or strings that tie us together.
This is, of course, a metaphorical explanation for the bonds and connections that human beings create with one another.
The game’s latest trailers have leaned heavily into this concept as well, as its characters talk about how the world has been fractured after some sort of cataclysmic event. Death Stranding seems to be all about bringing the world and society back together as one cohesive unit.
Playing as Sam, you’re tasked with walking from one coast of the United States to the other, reactivating communication nodes in an effort to spread messages of hope to whoever’s left and bring humanity back together again.
Sam is on this mission for Amelie, the daughter of the President whose been kidnapped by a terrorist organization known as the Homo Demens. So, along with spreading your hopeful messages, you’ll also be looking to rescue her from the bad guys.
One other interesting thing worth mentioning is that Death Stranding will have some sort of asynchronous multiplayer function. We have some theories about how this will play into the theme of reconnecting, but whether it’s accurate remains to be seen.