Pilgrimage

Death Stranding is a heavy name to hang on something this small, and it doesnt carry all of the load. What it does have is a mood it holds from start to finish. Not much to do, and it stops before it develops into anything, but almost nothing else out there looks like this.

Slow. Quiet. Mostly you are moving through empty space, and nothing hurries you along. The sound and the emptiness carry nearly all of it between them.

Journey to the West, retold as a long walk across a dead network. I would happily read that as a novel. Where most games put combat at the centre, this one puts company, and all that empty digital space gives the loneliness somewhere to sit. Do the systems match that ambition? Separate question... but ambition pointed this way is rare on its own.

Long walks, barely any talking, the odd bit of company on the road. Its chasing that Death Stranding loneliness and it gets nearer than I expected. Not for everyone, and not trying to be.