This post has minor spoilers for Death Stranding 2.

The screenshot above looks pretty generic. Death Stranding 2 is a very beautiful game and its vistas are what make it. But not all of them are particularly breathtaking, and I'll happily admit the above image is one of them.

To me, though, it's very special. Because the spot in this image is the very last road I needed to build to complete the entire Australian highway. It's probably the greatest achievement I've ever accomplished in a game. And it's completely unremarked upon.

Completing the road network doesn't earn you a new tool, or a playstation trophy. Hell, unlike opening all the monorails, it doesn't even warrant a Social Strand Service post. I didn't know this, before I set out on the endeavour to complete the network. But it didn't matter if there was a reward - it was the right thing to do.

Death Stranding 2 is a game all about the right thing to do. It applies on the macro level, of course; pummelling Higgs is the right thing to do. But every order you take, every action in the world, every ladder and anchor you place, is the right thing to do.

Kojima called Death Stranding the first game in a new genre, the 'strand-type' game and while that might be grandiose, I don't think he's strictly wrong. No other genre is as focused on encouraging collaboration both inside and outside the fourth wall, and it is undeniably successful. The whole game is a joy of discovering a bit of cargo is positioned awkwardly on a high ledge, then spotting a ladder from xXCriminalNukeXx right next to it. Of course you're gonna hit the like button.

And the roads are the zenith of that idea. Restoring a road between two destinations is a huge, expensive, multi-step effort. It requires everyone involved to be completely invested in the game, to be making side-quest deliveries to get access to more resources, to expand the network. But the reward it offers is unlike anything else - that challenging, rough terrain that you've battled over to get to the paver is instantly nullified by a flat, powered road.

Finishing a road connection is instantly rewarding, yes, but the game makes concerted efforts to reward it long-term, too. You'll fairly regularly be asked to retrace your steps, to make a delivery to a prior bunker. Without roads this is challenging - albeit less challenging than the first time through since the network will have other player's structures populated in - but with a road, it feels like you're being congratulated. "You have made this world better for everyone who inhabits it. Take a victory lap."

I attached to the roads in the first game, and was rewarded for it in a similar fashion - at the climax of DS, the chiral network goes down, trashing all the structures you and others have built. It's supposed to be one final test of what you've learned. But if you built the roads, they remain and the journey back to the start is trivial, that victory lap.

So I did the same in the second game, and it returned the favour multiple times. But none of these events are a traditional reward - it's purely generated from your own knowledge of how much it would have sucked to backtrack without it. It encourages you to do the right thing.

So I built out all the roads, continuing after the game ended, when there was no chance of any backtracking missions. Because building this infrastructure, for the people you meet, the porters you have played alongside, and those who will come after you, is the right thing to do.

You're probably thinking that's a bit pretentious. It's just a video game, after all, and most of the characters in Death Stranding are just holograms. But all of that artifice somehow falls away, because you're making this world better, and doesn't that feel good? Doesn't doing the right thing feel good?

Of course it does. That's kind of the basis of most leftist thinking, after all. The right thing to do may not be the most optimal choice for you, personally - certainly building every road was not optimal, the optimal choice would be building roads just over the most tricky areas - but it feels good to do it! It feels good to help others out!

There's only two strand-type games in existence, but another 2025 game actually comes... strangely close. It's a purely single-player experience and it's called Promise Mascot Agency, from the developers of Paradise Killer.

The high-level concept is batshit. You're a disgraced yakuza (voiced by the same VA who portrays Kiryu!) who must transform a mismanaged love hotel into a successful 'mascot agency,' that rent out giant mascots to events. Except the mascots are sentient, not costumes. And also it's secretly a game about leaving a run-down, corrupt and forgotten town much better than you found it.

Every side quest is about restoring the town in some way. Whether it's cleaning up shrines, smashing through trash bags, or laying vengeful spirits to rest, everything you do makes this town better. It's full of characters who you come to know and understand as you do jobs for them. They lead full lives in this little town, and want it to get better. And it rubs off! You, the player, want to make this town better! You make these connections, offering out the rope to help others climb. It's magical.

Kaizen Gameworks' previous title was the venerable PARADISE KILLER, a murder mystery that you actually have to solve. The case you're solving is the murder of the leaders of a cult, and you're also a member of that cult. Which you'd think wouldn't give much room for maneuveur on making that world better, especially since to craft Paradise, the island it takes place on, thousands of human proles must be sacrificed.

But even within that restrictive frame, you can make the world a tiny bit better. Fix up vending machines. Venerate wrongly accused subjects. Repair a marriage. Make out with a goat woman. Admittedly, that last one is just good for me.

And I think that speaks to how Kaizen just get it. The world we live in is dark, darker by the day, but we as people need to fight to make it better, in even the smallest of ways. And Promise Mascot Agency and Paradise Killer understand that.

As Death Stranding 2 goes on, you meet Tomorrow, a Mysterious Kojima Woman who has the power to accelerate aging of things she touches. When you first meet her, Fragile hands her an apple, and it rots and crumbles in her hand. As you journey across Australia she is taught many things about the world by Rainy, another of your allies - another Mysterious Kojima Woman who, whenever she steps outside, summons timefall rain, which does much the same thing as Tomorrow's aging touch.

Every so often, when you re-enter your base, Tomorrow will be there, with an apple. Each time, it's less aged. She's learning to ripen them. By the end of the game, she can ripen them perfectly, giving Sam a little snack. As you play you discover that Rainy's ability has a wonderful side-effect - wherever she emerges, wherever the DHV Magellan surfaces from the tar, her rain falls, and new plants grow.

The crew are breathing life back into paradise, and we can do it too. With small actions, we can make the world better. So let's do it.