Summary
- Mad Max conveys isolation through setting and emphasizes traversal customization.
- Red Dead Redemption 2 focuses on meditative gameplay styles.
- Days Gone shares a road-trip vibe with Death Stranding in its traversal challenges.
With Death Stranding 2: On The Beach finally on the horizon, many gamers are looking for something similar to help get them through the wait. However, unlike most games, finding something similar to Death Stranding is really quite difficult considering its unique gameplay style, tone, narrative, and overall setting.
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While there is nothing else quite like Death Stranding, it is fascinating in itself to look over the gaming medium and see where other titles do have points of connection, while also carving their own unique identity that keeps them all distinct. Nonetheless, there are video games that came both before and after with points of connection that can be felt from various aspects, which should help whet the appetites of those desperate to enjoy some further travel-focused apocalyptic adventure stories who have already played the original Death Stranding to...death.
1 Mad Max
On The Beach Ad Infinitum
Mad Max
- Released
- September 1, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Avalanche Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Warner Bros. Games
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure, Open-World
- OpenCritic Rating
- Fair
Mad Max certainly gets across the inhospitable isolation of its setting. While Max himself travels with just two companions, Chumbucket and the Dinki Di (a dog), even the communities that he comes across are very cut off from one another by the endless sands and the roaming hostiles that inhabit them.
Another similar importance between the two is the focus on traversal itself, here taking the form of the Magnum Opus, Max's car and the various customization options available to tailor traversal to the players' preferences.
2 Red Dead Redemption 2
The Road Less Traveled
Red Dead Redemption 2
- Released
- October 26, 2018
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Rockstar Games
- Publisher(s)
- Rockstar Games
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
The main point of comparison between Red Dead Redemption 2 and Death Stranding really comes through a choice of play style, though it is one that comes naturally to many players of both games. The style in question is meditative playing.
It is very easy to forget about the main storyline for dozens of hours while playing RDR2, even ignoring side quests as well, and simply lose oneself in the world. Likewise, in Death Stranding, some of the best moments come during the elongated deliveries where nothing major happens, and the game just allows the player to slowly plod their way across the scenery, soaking up the atmosphere.
3 Days Gone
Fuel Gauges & Weight Distributions
Days Gone
- Released
- April 26, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Bend Studio
- Publisher(s)
- Sony
- Genre(s)
- Open-World, Action, Adventure
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4
- OpenCritic Rating
- Fair
While Days Gone takes place in a much more archetypal zombie-based apocalypse setting than Death Stranding, and the only narrative similarity is that the main character spends a significant amount of time traveling between communities and sometimes delivering things, there is something in the road-trip vibe of the two games that connects them.
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Maintaining and customizing the motorbike in Days Gone while also avoiding the zombie hordes like the plague until the player has built significant confidence and planning skills also bears a similarity to the delivery management and horror of the BT's in Death Stranding.
4 Subnautica
3D Printing To Success
Subnautica
- Released
- January 23, 2018
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Unknown Worlds Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
- Gearbox Publishing
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
The acquisition of technological tools and forging way-stations to make journeying further and deeper into the wilder territories of the ocean is the essential similarity between Subnautica and Death Stranding. Minus the ocean.
To have any chance of uncovering what lies in the depths of Subnautica's water world, the player must adventure out a little more each time and strategize where and how to use the resources they collect to journey yet deeper. Not only is this a similar loop to Death Stranding's chiral network, but the two share a similar sci-fi 3D print aesthetic.
5 Outer Wilds
Should We Have Connected?
Outer Wilds
- Released
- May 28, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Mobius Digital
- Publisher(s)
- Annapurna Interactive
- Genre(s)
- Adventure
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
Similar to the outset of any player's Death Stranding adventure (and frankly the end in most cases), Outer Wilds presents the player with a world full of questions and a burning desire for answers. Likewise, in both, the road toward said answers is a slow burn as the player is drip-fed, through their own analysis and discoveries, further information about the world they are in and the unfolding situation.
Both also do a marvelous job at bringing in aspects of unusual horror to their adventures, evidenced by the sudden heart-stopping stillness a player will feel when faced with rain in Death Stranding or the uneasy mist-laden planet Dark Bramble in Outer Wilds.
6 Pacific Drive
A Hostile Road Trip
Pacific Drive
- Released
- February 22, 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Ironwood Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Kepler Interactive
- Genre(s)
- Survival
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
In a way, Pacific Drive is like a maximalist version of a Death Stranding hike. It's all about getting from one point on the map to another, and how this is achieved is entirely up to the player. There are plenty of threats along the way, tons of ways to tinker about with the tools available to (hopefully) make the journey easier, and endless ways the player can slip up — with a cavalcade of unseen consequences can follow.
7 Dragons Dogma 2
The Adventure Lies In Discovery
Dragon's Dogma 2
- Released
- March 22, 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Capcom
- Publisher(s)
- Capcom
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
While there are plenty of differences between the fantasy world of Dragons Dogma 2 and Death Stranding's Sci-Fi apocalypse, one core similarity is that both heavily rely upon the adventurous spirit of the player to make the most of it.
Compared to how much lies within these games, only a fraction of their stories are told plainly to the player, and the joy in them is experimenting with different paths and options available and seeing how each player can struggle through and surmount the challenges before them.
8 Shadow Of The Colossus
Beautiful, Vast, And Void
Shadow of the Colossus
- Released
- February 6, 2018
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Bluepoint Games, JapanStudio, Team Ico
- Publisher(s)
- Sony
- Genre(s)
- Adventure
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 4
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
It is quite possible that Shadow of the Colossus was an underlying inspiration for the vision of Death Stranding. A vast gorgeous world, a focus on overcoming the landscape itself, and stamina management.
Also, while differing in their physicality and attributes, both feature threatening and truly alien forces wandering the land (in which the player is arguably an invasive species). Furthermore, both are games the likes of which have never been seen before and changed the landscape of gaming that followed.
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