How Death Stranding Should Have Ended

1. Ditch The Running Sequence & Reshuffle Those Final Scenes

If I was restructuring the entire game I'd dive head-first into all the stuff with Amelie not even being real, as it's told to the player through one of Deadman's phone calls.

The information alone reshapes the entire game, and though full cutscenes attempt to legitimise everything, this massive last-minute swerve feels designed to confuse, and the final explanation is staggered in a ridiculous fashion, too.

Going on for a good hour or so - and coming after the heartfelt scene where Sam realises hugging Amelie is the only way for her to realise the value of human connection - you're then left to run around on her beach for what feels like an eternity.

During this time you'll be fed a handful of "interactive cutscene" segments where Sam slows to a saunter, sits down, watches Amelie warp around him, and you're forced to pilot the camera, trying to understand what's being said. Besides the painfully terrible reveal of "Amelie" spelling out "soul that's a lie" because "Ame" is French for soul, this is just about the worst way you could have codified one of the most necessary pieces of information in the game.

Shuffle this around. Have Amelie tell Sam everything BEFORE pointing the gun at him, and have him still save her in return, if you'd earned that animation. Have all the information that results in Amelie's ethereal state and Sam being her foster son/brother, lead to her being saved because of it.

Because the point is: Sam still cares. Humans still care. In the face of world-ending circumstances, Hideo Kojima is flying the flags for real physical connection and empathy.

Bafflingly, all the scenes with Cliff being shot, Sam being BB, Die-Hardman breaking down and BB getting resurrected come AFTER all this too.

Sam and Amelie's scene should've been the final thing in the whole game; Death Stranding's version of Metal Gear Solid 4's "This is good, isn't it?" Big Boss scene, and a hug between mortal and immortal to save the world.

This would've been a MUCH better, resonant and memorable ending, versus the endless fades to black, restarts and stilted continuations that made up the one we got.