Some of Death Stranding’s spoilers and biggest story reveals are simply, in a word, crazy. That’s coming from a game that pulls no punches when it comes to telling the sort of narrative Hideo Kojima is known for, complete with a convoluted, anachronistic plot involving multiple dimensions and people with superhuman abilities. That’s before diving into the fact that human technology has now incorporated the use of deliberately aged fetuses to help combat spirits that have transcended worlds and come to inhabit the physical realm.
Death Stranding hits hard, fast, and not everything makes sense, even when it’s pretty obvious it’s a spoiler or big reveal. That’s part of the charm of Hideo Kojima’s first game after leaving Konami, as Death Stranding is a game that has completely split critics on whether it’s game of the year or a massive letdown. That kind of response means that, if nothing else, the game is trying something new, something that is not tailor-made for as many people as possible, and something that makes Death Stranding spoilers even more enticing as a result.
Of course, not everyone wants to see Death Stranding spoilers, and many people haven’t had a chance to reach the end of the game and it’s more revelatory stuff. For those who want a taste of what Death Stranding spoilers are like but don’t want to ruin the whole game for themselves, we’ve assembled a quick hits list of a few of the most important ones that happen early on. Nothing past Chapter 3 will be discussed until later in the game’s release cycle, but obviously, there are still Death Stranding spoilers here, so readers beware:
Sam Bridges Can Resurrect Himself With DOOMs
Sam Bridges dies early in Death Stranding. Within the first hour or so, he’s sent on a mission to deliver a corpse to an incinerator facility to make sure it doesn’t “necrotize,” Death Stranding’s word to define the way that corpses now attract BTs and cause massive explosions if they’re allowed to fully dissolve into tar. The mission doesn’t go as planned, introduces Higgs briefly, and then launches into a brutal, haunting segment where everyone around Sam dies and he watches a behemoth of a BT eat a crewmember, triggering a Voidout and wiping him out - alongside the surrounding area, including the Bridges base of operations.
Sam wakes up submerged in water, where he can follow “strands” of reef up to the surface, which in turn allows him to resurrect. This is later explained as Sam being a repatriate, a classification of DOOMs sufferer that means they can return from the afterlife. It also explains how Death Stranding works as a game - even if Sam falls victim to BTs, he can survive and return to the world of the living, although when he dies he leaves a giant crater on the map.
BBs Are Neither Alive or Dead
This is the Death Stranding spoiler that is probably the most surprising early on just because BBs have featured so heavily in the game’s promotion leading up to launch. BBs, or Bridge Babies, are not actually considered alive or dead. They’re separated from their mothers, who are kept in a coma as “still-mothers,” and incubated within the technology seen equipped by Sam. BBs have developed enough to have sensory understanding but aren’t fully-formed babies, either, and, like their still-mothers, they’re tied to both the physical world and the other side.
What that means from a practical standpoint is that they’re able to sense BTs, which makes them useful technology. What it means morally, however, is a lot more difficult to grapple with, and will come up in Death Stranding as Sam gets more used to using BB technology and learns more about it.
BTs Used To Be Human
BTs, or Beached Things, are the supernatural enemies found in the game. As far as an early Death Stranding spoiler goes, there’s none more heart-wrenching than the knowledge that these clearly suffering spirits, connected by umbilical cords to hulking monsters, used to be humans. This isn’t that shocking, given the fact that they are humanoid in shape when they appear on screen, but it’s still troubling knowledge. The past of humanity is cannibalizing its future in Death Stranding, and grim fates await those who aren’t incinerated properly once they pass on.
Next: What The Negative Reviews Of Death Stranding Are Saying
Death Stranding is available now on PS4. A PC version of the game is set to release in summer 2020.
