Weekly Penguin

Weekly Penguin 686

Here's something special again – the Penned Guin take on... Death Stranding! This was my Kickstarter commission for the campaign aiming to produce the latest Penned Guin comic strip compilation, Coincidencewhich we featured last week.

Most of you are likely wondering; why Death Stranding? I mean, I haven't hyped it up on social media or in our previous bout of GOTYs.

The reason why I haven't gushed over Death Stranding isn't because I don't love it. It's because I love it immensely – but the reasons why I do are very personal and specific, to the point I for the longest time couldn't tell if my love for it was rational. Or to put it simply, if I objectively liked it for being good, or because of what it represents.

I've already mentioned this, but in late 2018 my mother passed away. It hit me hard, amplified due to me working – in addition to TAGAP and my day-job – as her live-in carer during her last years.For the longest time, I don't think I really processed it. I mean, working on video games the way I do – doing almost everything myself – is so consuming that it occupies every synapse of your brain. When you have to – say – bring a character to life from aconcept to code, art and sound effects – there is no room left for anything else in your thoughts, especially something as big as processing death.

Fast forward to Death Stranding. As a fan of Hideo Kojima I knew it would be an interesting and different ride – but what I didn't expect was it to be so literal in its title. The game IS about death in all its forms – from dealing with it both physically and metaphysically. And it holds no punches either, some of the stories are pretty darned harrowing, like that of Mama.

The point I'm trying to make is that it really made me face the concept of death from every angle I could think of and inventing new ones along the way. Combine that with the general message of the game being that death is natural and removing it from the equation is what tore the game's universe asunder in the first place, I found it oddly comforting.

So yes, Death Stranding helped me deal with the death of a loved one. I don't know if that sounds pathetic, unbelievably nerdy or both. That's how things are – and for that, huge thank you to Hideo Kojima and the whole team behind the game.

Like I said, to this day I don't know if my love for the experience was because of the game itself or what it represents. It is, however, a unique beast I wholeheartedly recommend.

And, of course, a huge special thank you to Alan Henderson for creating this grand penguin take on this special game!

Death Waddling wallpaper version

Also available as Wallpaper

Added: 2020-10-13