Death Stranding’s America Is Unrecognizable (But It Doesn’t Matter)

screenrant.com:

With Death Stranding, Kojima Productions made a point of setting the game in a ruinous future version of the United States of America, but the America depicted in the game bears little resemblance to the real-world country, though this does not lessen the game’s message or its impact. Where the actual USA is about 3,000 miles across from coast-to-coast, the map of America in Death Stranding is estimated at roughly 200 to 500 miles from end to end. Prior to the game’s release, some theorized Death Stranding would be set in Iceland. The environment of Death Stranding certainly seemed to support the theory, with its prevalence of cliffs, black sand, moss, and lava rock formations. There are very few trees to be seen, and no conventional wildlife roams the land, making the game look very different from America’s geography — all of which is by design.

[Warning: This article contains spoilers for Death Stranding.]

While the landscape of Death Stranding looks nothing like the America we know today, the changes are mostly explained by Death Stranding’s Timefall phenomenon, apart from the smaller scope of the map. After the titular incident called the Death Stranding took place, the barrier between the world of the living and the dead weakened. Timefall was one of the accompanying symptoms, a form of rain that causes whatever it falls on to age rapidly. In gameplay terms, Timefall can erode the integrity of Sam’s containers, which imperils the cargo within them. The Timefall could also be the reason for the absence of animals in Death Stranding’s America as well as the changes to the landscape. Porters wear protective gear to avoid Timefall aging them prematurely, a process that shapes the backstory of the character of Fragile