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Death Stranding 

PlayStation 4, Kojima Productions

I HAVE a confession: I am an Amazon Prime addict. With two young children, ordering nappies and household items that turn up the next day is a lifesaver. It is so easy, it is practically magic.

Of course, I am aware that my convenience comes at a cost. Amazon has been accused of , and the rise of other online delivery services is clogging up our streets and increasing air pollution. I just try not to think too much about the morality of the gig economy.

Playing Death Stranding, I got a slight idea about life on the other side of the letterbox. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic version of the US, where a cataclysmic event known as the Death Stranding has relegated people to living in bunkers to avoid ghostly creatures that infest the landscape.

You play as Sam Porter Bridges (depicted by Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus), essentially a delivery guy and cable repairer in one. Tasked with ferrying cargo between locations, you trudge across the landscape, on foot and in a variety of vehicles, while dodging human and spectral enemies. On arrival, you hook up locales to the chiral network, a kind of successor to the internet.

“What takes the game to another level is when I place a ladder, it shows in the same location in other people’s games”

It might sound dull, but it isn’t. I was hooked. Getting from A to B involves carefully planning your route and managing your load, because overburdening Sam sends him tumbling. Ladders and ropes assist in mountainous areas, and later you get access to other kit that helps you get around.

What takes the game to another level is that when I place a ladder, it not only appears in my version of the game, but can also show up in the same location in other people’s games. Players can “like” each other’s equipment, just as on a social network, by way of thanks, though you never interact directly.

At first I thought this liking was pointless – why should I care about random internet strangers? But making my way through the game, I found myself hammering the like button with abandon. You see, delivery is hard – one wrong move can send you down a crevasse, or your electric car battery can run out halfway through a journey.

Desperation mounts: you won’t make it in time. Turning a corner to find someone has placed a bridge or recharging station in just the right place never failed to lift my spirits, as did receiving likes back. It felt good to work together.

In the real world, I rarely bother rating Uber drivers or Deliveroo riders, telling myself I am feeding a tech giant’s algorithm or, worse, risking someone’s job with a low rating. I always try to say “thank you” to people I have summoned via apps, but after Death Stranding, I wonder if a five-star rating would deliver a swifter dopamine hit.

Deliveries aside, the game brims with ideas. “Death Stranding” is an obvious analogy for climate change, with ghostly creatures that can take the form of tentacled beached whales, slick with an oil-like substance. My first encounter with one triggered eco-anxiety. One of the game’s antagonists seems to take inspiration from the Higgs boson, and characters discuss how everything from Neanderthals to AI play a role in the current state of the world.

There is a lot to get your teeth into, but (spoiler alert) it never quite comes together. The finale is a barely interactive 2-hour film . Don’t let that put you off: it is a cliché, but Death Stranding really is about the journey, not the destination.