‘Death Stranding’ Gameplay Trailer: Kojima’s latest mindfuck drops this November 8!
Holy. Shit. I stand corrected. Death Stranding really is real, and dropping November 8.
Vice:
Death Stranding, the long-awaited upcoming video game from auteur developer Hideo Kojima, has finally been unveiled after months of cryptic teases. In a star-studded trailer released on PlayStation’s Twitch channel on Wednesday, Sony revealed the launch date (November 8) as well as some gameplay and story.
Based on the trailer, Death Stranding looks like it could involve different timelines, demons, rebels fighting over America, and something called “bridge babies” which could be a literal baby strapped to the chest of the main character. The game stars The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelsen, Léa Seydoux, as well as directors Guillermo Del Toro and Nicolas Winding Refn.
Like Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid series, Death Stranding appears to be a third-person action game. The player takes control of Sam, played by Reedus, as he journeys across what appears to be America, going by the trailer’s many cues, “to reconnect a fractured society.”
The trailer shows off Sam using various tools to traverse an apocalyptic landscape—including using a ladder to climb a mountain, and a rope to descend one—sneaking through tall grass to avoid spear-wielding bad guys, and fighting in what appear to be the trenches of World War I, based on the tanks Sam dodges and the uniforms of the soldiers.
Sam’s mission seems to come from the President of the United Cities Of America. “You can make America whole,” the president tells Sam from a sickbed in the oval office. “Bridget,” Sam replies. “You’re the president of jack shit.”
The world of Death Stranding seems to focus on America in the wake of some kind of collapse. Cities are scattered across the country, but the countryside is full of bandits and a supernatural force that appears to drag Sam into the past, or another timeline or dimension of some sort, in the trailer. This supernatural force, something called the “BTs,” take the form of tar-like spirits that bubble up from the ground.
A menacing character called Cliff, played by Mads Mikkelsen, haunts the trailer. He seems connected to the BTs somehow, appearing both in a seemingly human form and apparently as part of a skeletal crew of soldiers impervious to fire. The trailer ends with Cliff staring at the camera. “I’ll show you the real thing soon, I promise,” he says. “The whole wide world will be yours to explore. You’ll be able to go anywhere you want. Even the moon.”
Death Stranding will hit the Playstation 4 on November 8, 2019. There’s a good chance we’ll learn more at E3 in just a few weeks.