Kojima’s ‘Death Stranding’ is an open-world action game; more details here!
Hideo Kojima took to TGS to elaborate about his next title, his first title, with the new Kojima Productions, not to be confused with the old Kojima Productions. The game? Death Stranding. The premise-plot-mechanics?
Back in 2014, Konami unveiled Silent Hills, a very-promising survival horror collaboration between Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima, director Guillermo del Toro, and The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus. Unfortunately,Kojima and Konami had a falling out shortly afterwards, and Silent Hills was canceled.
Thankfully, the men behind Silent Hills seem to be intent on working together, and at this year’s E3 Kojima announced Death Stranding, a new game starring Reedus. The first teaser for Death Stranding was heavy on creepy imagery, melting babies, and Norman Reedus’ butt, but it was light on gameplay details. What kind of game would Death Stranding be? Was it just Silent Hillsunder a different title, or something else?
Well, this morning at the Tokyo Game Show, Kojima finally let a few vague details slip. First up, we have an explanation for the game’s odd title – “stranding” is a term for when whales or dolphins beach themselves en masse. If the sea critters are still alive when they beach, it’s “live stranding,” if they die, it’s “death stranding,” so Death Stranding is about something from another world stranding itself in ours. Okay, so it still doesn’t make a huge amount of sense, but it’s something.
In addition to title clarification, Kojima explained, in basic terms, what kind of game Death Stranding will be.
“The genre is action, and it’s an open world with a degree of freedom, and you can enjoy the story at the same time. There are also online elements.”
Speaking of those online elements, it sounds like they’re going to be one of the game’s most unique features…
“In the past players were connected to one another online. Later there emerged the concept of co-op, but even though players were connected, connection was still based on [aggression]. In Death Stranding I want to propose the next step, where players are connected by strands, where they’re connected by different elements than just [aggression].”
Kojima didn’t show any new Death Stranding footage, but he did reveal a couple new simple cartoons, illustrating the game’s action elements and online connectivity. Hmmm, that certainly looks like Guillermo del Toro on the left in that second pictures, doesn’t it?
It still isn’t entirely clear what Death Stranding is going to be, but it certainly doesn’t sound like the game is lacking in ambition. Bring it on, Kojima.