Everything We Know About Death Stranding

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Hideo Kojima is leading his first new project since leaving Konami and his next big opus is called Death Stranding. Already it has fans bewildered and trying to make sense of things.

Everyone is trying to make sense of things. Maybe even Kojima-san? Still there are some facts or salt-encrusted rumours and whispers that have been building for a while now. It's time to corral them into a new Everything We Know About.

What's The Setting?

No. Freaking. Clue.

That's a good start isn't it? From what has been painfully teased so far it would seem something dramatic has occurred to mankind with the only thing to work with being a reveal trailer from E3 2016 showing off a naked Norman Reedus holding a baby.

Reedus will take the role of the main character in Death Stranding but it's unclear what the purpose of it all is. There's a beach, there's a naked guy, there are dead whales, there's a baby, then there's not a baby. Cue Internet meltdown.

Who's In It?

Norman Reedus is most definitely in Death Stranding. In fact his short performance thus far in the reveal trailer has already become a major Internet meme. His is now immortal.

An interesting rumour has it that actor Mads Mikkelsen may also be part of the game, though this is very much a super-duper rumour at this time. Fans believe that a teasing shot of an actor rigged up for motion caption by Kojima Productions could be Mikkelsen.

How do they come to this conclusion? Apparently the actor was wearing something suspiciously similar in a separate photo posted shortly after by a fan on Instagram. This fan also claims to have met him in Sheffield where Mikkelsen was working on a videogame role... for a Japanese studio. Hideo Kojima considers Mikkelsen one of his favourite actors.

How Does It Play?

This is the second biggest mystery of Death Stranding right now, but Kojima-san has just revealed a little more about the type of game it will be.

In a pre-Tokyo Game Show stream Hideo Kojima let slip just a little more information. It will be an open world environment with a "degree of freedom" for players. This is arguably similar to what Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is.

There will be online elements to Death Stranding with player interactions a significant component, but Kojima-san wants them more meaningful than just 'clubs'.

It is billed as an 'action game' but, again, Kojima-san said this was also true of the original Metal Gear before the emergence of the 'stealth game'.

Interestingly he explained the game's main themes through a short story by Kōbō Abe, which talks of man's invention of the stick to keep 'bad things' away, and the second being rope to secure important things. Kojima-san says action games today are all about the stick way of doing things, whereas Death Stranding will explore the rope.

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Which Platforms?

Sony is backing Hideo Kojima and his newly emancipated Kojima Productions, so there's a fair chance it will be staying best buds with PlayStation 4, and almost certainly the PlayStation 4 Pro.

A Windows version was mentioned very briefly but has since had all reference removed.

Stay Tuned

More about Death Stranding is expect to come from the Tokyo Game Show PlayStation press conference in Japan on Sunday, September 18th 2016.

When Does It Release?

Death Stranding is likely to launch in 2018 following recent remarks from Hideo Kojima.

He said it would arrive before the next Olympics which is to be hosted in Tokyo 2020, and it would also be out the year before the anime movie Akira was set; 2019.

Death Stranding
From legendary game creator Hideo Kojima comes a genre-defying experience. Sam Bridges must brave a world utterly tra...
Release Dates
14 Jul 2020-PC
8 Nov 2019-PS4
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