Hideo Kojima’s highly-anticipated latest title, Death Stranding, releases on November 8th, 2019 as a PS4 exclusive. Featuring Norman Reedus who makes his return as a bike-riding badass, an epic soundtrack for climbing futuristic extendable ladders, and a Fallout-meets-MGV moodiness, Death Stranding is going to be one hell of an experience.
In a stunning nine-minute trailer of cinematic goodness, there are snippets of juicy information about Kojima’s new weird and wonderful game. From Reedus extending a magic ladder to traverse cliffs, to navigating the muddy death-pits of the Somme alongside a caterpillar tank. Mads Mikkelsen emerging from the murky waters as a Spec Op agent, to the spooky rain riddled with spectral demons. Death Stranding looks utterly bizarre.
Death Stranding’s trailer is epic and an unusually long length. However, over the course of those tantalizing nine minutes little is shown about the actual storyline. We get glimpses of a sleek UI, both melee and rifle combat, and a snippet of sneaking past ghosts in the woods, but what is the game actually about?
Speculation is rife. Thankfully, Kojima posted some small details about the storyline on Twitter. He says the main aim of Death Stranding involves building bridges across isolated cities in America, divided by enormous walls and separated by ghost-ridden wastelands. Perhaps a politically charged jab at the current state of world politics, Kojima says: “Through your experience playing the game, I hope you’ll come to understand the true importance of forging connections with others.”
https://t.co/z7WMowWerK pic.twitter.com/DbWzSfMsEN
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) May 29, 2019
Users across Reddit and YouTube have been discussing the trailer and coming up with more details. One user, DoktorSoviet, came up with a theory I love. He suggests that the “Death Stranding” is an apocalyptic event which either destroyed the afterlife or prevented humans from ever going there. The angry ghosts stuck on earth are causing havoc and have lead people to wall themselves into their cities.
There are also glances of several different epochs of history, including the First World War, the Second World War, and a jungle ablaze which is reminiscent of imagery surrounding the Vietnam War. Death Stranding looks to straddle historical time periods, involving the player in a storyline which crosses hundreds of years. The so-called BT’s, those creepy demon-ghosts in the woods, appear to pull Reedus down through the black goo into an alternate timeline.
Norman Reedus traversing a WW1 Battlefield battling against terrifying skeletons and Mads Mikkelsen as an arch-nemesis? An online gameplay mode to unify the United Cites of America with real-life players? Kojima’s latest apt rendering of the American military-industrial complex? You’d be crazy to think Death Stranding is going to be anything other than mind-boggling.
