Death Stranding Norman Reedus Crying

Death Stranding: What We Know So Far

For some, just knowing Hideo Kojima is involved is enough. For the rest of us, here is what we know about Death Stranding so far…

Hideo Kojima has left Konami. If you didn’t know that already, then I’m truly sorry to have to break the news to you. I’ll give you a minute to compose yourself.

The good news is, Hideo has broken away and will be using the creatively named Kojima Productions to create some more video game magic. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a win.

The first project under Kojima Productions is Death Stranding. The reveal trailer was released at E3 2016:

The reveal trailer is awesome, even if it has left everyone scratching their collective heads just trying to make sense of it all. Ever since the trailer aired, a steady drip of facts and rumours have muddied the water further.

Let’s try to make sense of it all, shall we?

The Characters
The star of the show is most certainly Norman Reedus. And he is butt-naked for at least a few seconds if you’re into that sort of thing.

Aside from that, we have little else to work with other than rumours. Mads Mikkelsen has been tipped for a role, following fan suggestions that an actor rigged up for motion caption on set shares a resemblance, while Mikkelsen himself was pictured wearing a similar get-up on a fans Instagram shortly afterward.

Kojima recently paid a visit to a parasitological museum as part of his research for the game too, so we can expect a few creepy-crawlies to keep us company on our adventure.

Oh, there is also a baby. Well, sort of.

The Setting
We don’t have a lot to work with in all honesty. The reveal trailer looked like it showed a beach of sorts. Is this on the Earth? Is it on another planet? Is it in the after-life? Is it a deserted island? Or is it set on Miami Beach after one too many cocktails? Time will tell.

The Game Type
Will Death Stranding be a third-person game? Or a first-person VR experience? Again, there are no confirmed details, however, Hideo Kojima revealed a few more details in a pre-Tokyo Game Show stream.

Death Stranding will be set in an open world environment providing a degree of freedom for players. If this means we can expect a playground similar to Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain then I’m sure there will be few complaints from the gaming community.  We can also expect some online elements, but these are yet to be confirmed.

Kojima, ever the cryptic, has talked about man’s invention of the stick and the rope. Man invented the stick to keep “bad things” away and used rope to secure important items. Kojima feels that action games are all about the stick, whereas Death Stranding will explore the rope. Whatever that means.

Hideo has also stated that “I want the story and the world and the gameplay, as well as the characters in the game and the player — the life and death elements — all to be tied together. That’s the strong theme that is in this stranding concept.”

However the game develops, you can bet your bottom dollar that it will be something special.

The Platform
A Windows version of Death Stranding was mooted before the E3 reveal, but all has gone quiet on that front. For the time being, Death Stranding appears to be a certainty for the Playstation 4, and could very well be a flagship release with the PlayStation 4 Pro.

The Release Date
14th May 2018. Okay, I made that up.

Saying that, Death Stranding is likely to launch in 2018. Hideo has recently stated that it would arrive before the next Olympics, to be hosted by Tokyo in 2020, and that it would also be out the year before the anime Akira movie was set; 2019.

I don’t own a PS4, but if Death Stranding is as incredible as the limited information suggestions, I may just be tempted to let my PC get a little bit dusty.