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Despite the initial unveiling, the trailers and the steady stream of rumors, few know what Death Stranding actually is. More details are expected at Sony's E3 2018 press conference, but until then, there are a few confirmed cast members, gameplay themes and cryptic teases that we can base our expectations upon.
Get comfortable with confusion
Death Stranding is the first game from Kojima Productions, a studio founded by legendary game developer Hideo Kojima. After a rocky departure from Konami, where he built up the Metal Gear franchise, among other projects, Kojima started his independent studio and revealed the first title would be exclusive to Sony's Playstation 4. The reveal trailer premiered during Sony's 2016 E3 conference, and sets the stage for the weirdness we're delving into.
Still confused? Don't worry. Ever since its initial announcement, Death Stranding has been shrouded in mystery. Kojima is famous for his unconventional promotional methods (at one point pretending to be part of a non-Metal Gear studio making a non-Metal Gear game) and for building strangeness into his games (see any Metal Gear ever), and Death Stranding is no exception.
Familiar (digital) faces
Norman Reedus is the most obvious face of Death Stranding. He's prominently featured in two of the trailers and is credited as Sam, the only named character. Reedus and Kojima previously worked together on the canceled Silent Hills project. If you're lucky enough to know someone with that project's demo, P.T., still installed on their PS4, drop everything and play it.
Digital Reedus has seen some things.
Kojima Productions
Reedus elaborated on his experiences with Kojima and teased the weirdness to come in an interview last year with CNET:
"It's mind blowing. He's a genius. He came out to San Diego for Comic-Con, and he had some stuff on an iPad that he wanted to show me. I sat in a little restaurant at a booth watching this iPad and the things he'd created, and I was just blown away. I was like, 'Whatever you want to do, let's do it. I don't even know what you're talking about.' It's unreal. People will do whatever he wants because he's a visionary."
But Reedus isn't alone. Actor Mads Mikkelson appeared in the second trailer as what appears to be an antagonist to Reedus' Sam. That same trailer also featured none other than Oscar-award-winning director Guillermo del Toro as some sort of suit-wearing baby-holder. Little else is known about their roles, but like Reedus, del Toro's partnership with Kojima stretches back to Silent Hills.
Something tells us Mikkelsen will probably be a villain...
Kojima Productions
Troy Baker and actress Emily O'Brien are also reportedly involved, according to a since-deleted Instagram post from O'Brien. Even if you don't know his name, you'll recognize Baker as the voice of Joel in The Last of Us, Booker Dewitt in Bioshock: Infinite and Pagan Min in Far Cry 4, among others.
Playing the game
Right now, next to nothing is known about Death Stranding's gameplay. Kojima helped create the stealth-action genre with Metal Gear, so his area of expertise is well defined. But he's strayed into horror with P.T. and tried bizarre concepts with Boktai (a game that required you to take your Gameboy into the actual sun), so there's no guarantee Death Stranding will be MGS in a new universe.
So long, tactical espionage action.
Konami
One interesting thing Kojima has persistently hinted at are "ropes" and "sticks." Citing a Japanese play titled "The Man Who Turned Into a Stick," Kojima has said that he has focused on the idea that humans first invented ropes and sticks. Sticks are for protection, to create space between a person and harm, while ropes tie people to things they treasure.
"Most of your tools in action games are sticks. You punch or you shoot or you kick," Kojima told IGN upon the game's reveal. "The communication is always through these 'sticks.' In [Death Stranding], I want people to be connected not through sticks, but through what would be the equivalent of ropes."
In a later interview, Kojima hinted at Death Stranding's death mechanics. Players will be placed in an interactive purgatory, where they can gather items before being brought back into the game world.
"Death will never pull you out of the game," Kojima said, meaning that in Death Stranding, death... will never leave you stranded.
And while Kojima has confirmed that multiplayer will be a "big part of the game", the shape it will take is a total mystery. Given the popularity of the Dark Souls series and its imitators, it's easy to see a similar blend of uncontrolled cooperative-competitive mode taking hold in Death Stranding. Less so the standard competitive multiplayer suite seen in Metal Gear Solid 5, 4 and 3.
And what's up with those babies?
After gameplay, the world of Death Stranding is the other element we know the least about. Let's run through just some some of the disparate elements that have been a part of its trailers so far…
- Tube babies
- Invisible monsters
- WWII weaponry
- Spooky skeletons
- Scientific research teams
- Whales
- Dead whales
- Upside-down whales
- Giant humanoid creatures
- Dystopian imagery
- Male childbirth?
- Pollution, especially oil
- Chattering backpack robots
You only have to go as far as the Death Stranding subreddit to see the rampant speculation about what any of those elements actually mean for the game's story and world. We know those aforementioned babies have a particularly important role in the story and gameplay -- Kojima has already said as much.
Yep, that happened.
Kojima Productions
But knowing that only raises further questions: Are the babies a rare resource? Vessels for some sort of alien power? Is there something unique about them that has implications for the cast or the world as a whole? ¯_(ツ)_/¯
And most importantly... where is all of this going? What does it all mean? Will E3 2018 bring us the first actual gameplay of Death Stranding instead of bizarrely entrancing trailers? We'll update this page as more information emerges, so keep checking back.
Shhhh...be patient for E3.
Kojima Productions
You can also check out GameSpot's coverage of Death Stranding and Giant Bomb's coverage of Death Stranding.
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