Kojima Productions finally unveiled the extended trailer for their upcoming dark sci-fi action game, Dead Stranding, at the 2017 Game Awards.
The cinematic trailer features an eight-minute video that introduced us to the game’s dark and enigmatic world. It also gave us a sneak peek of its esoteric elements, dark substances, invisible monsters, and alien-like apparitions. But if there is one thing that makes everything about the trailer weirder is the preview of “the baby” inside the body Norman Reedus’ character, Sam. It is the same baby seen in the previous teaser trailer, and we’re starting to get the idea that the baby is indeed a vital part of the game’s plot.
The whole trailer left many speculating and creating theories about the game’s story. So in an interview with IGN, Kojima gave an explanation of Death Stranding gameplay and lore. According to him, for years, players have been used with the mechanic that once your character dies, its game over, which isn’t what he wants for his game.
“One of the themes of this game is life and death,” Kojima said. “So I want people to realize that when they die in the game, that isn’t the end.”
When the player dies in Death Stranding, he will be transported to the game’s purgatory, instead of getting a “game over.” This is the barren-land where Sam has woken up during the first minutes of the extended trailer. As Kojima has said, “death will never pull you out of the game.”
When it comes to the baby, Kojima confirmed that he is more than just a plot device. The baby actually relates to the game’s mechanics as well as the story. And to top it all up, it isn’t just the baby that plays a vital role in the story but also the mechanical arm we saw connected to Sam’s arm. It also has a name, and we can’t wait to know it.
Furthermore, Hideo Kojima also said that he knows about the fan theories and he loves them. He’s also excited about showing the gameplay to everyone. Kojima hasn’t given an exact date on when Death Stranding will be released or whether he’s planning to release it for Microsoft Windows gaming PCs. One thing’s for sure though; the game will be in the markets before 2018 ends.
Sources: https://www.ign.com/articles/2017/12/11/kojima-explains-death-stranding-gameplay-and-lore
