I'm sure by the
time you're reading this, you've probably already gotten tired of the
discourse surrounding Death Stranding. Such seems to be the story
with most of the people I know, even ones who like it. And yet, as I
was trekking along the snowy peaks surrounding Mountain Knot City, an
insidious though began to creep into my mind, one that I couldn't
shake even as I began to reach the end of the game.
Taking place in
a post-apocalyptic America where the barriers between the human world
and the afterlife are worn thin, Death Stranding has the player
assume the role of Sam Porter Bridges, a courier working for Bridges,
a subsidiary of the United Cities of America (UCA). His objective,
set forth by Acting President Samantha America “Amelie” Strand,
is to travel westward, starting from Capital Knot City in the east,
to annex the various cities and shelters across the remnants of the
old country in order to “make us whole”. As a student of United
States history, this began to draw parallels to the real life
doctrine of Manifest Destiny.
