We finally know what Hideo Kojima's new game is called (
Death Stranding), that it will star a space prisoner (?) played by Norman Reedus, and that it's very close to entering full production. And now thanks to a new interview with
Wired, we actually know a little bit of what it's about.
According to Kojima, most modern action games have players fighting with the equivalent of sticks - swords, guns, and other objects that keep bad things away. The stick was mankind's first ever tool, so it makes sense to start there. But Kojima Productions will try to "tie people together" by moving on to humanity's second tool: ropes.
"What people are playing today in open-world action games, or linear action games, it will compare naturally to them," Kojima said. "It will feel familiar. But after an hour or two of playing, you will start to feel something different, something new that you haven’t played. The story is about connections, what you call 'strands' in psychology - how people are connected."
You may have noticed that all the dead sea creatures in that trailer had weird umbilical cord things too, not just Reedus and the baby, so expect to see more connections along those lines. Kojima's being cagey about what kind of multiplayer the game will include, saying only that it's a "new system", but you'll definitely interact with other players somehow. Probably not by lassoing them like a naked, oiled-up cowboy, but at this point there's honestly no telling.
Along with the obvious implications about being left alone on a weird alien beach, that's the "Standing" part covered. So what about "Death"? "In arcade games, you have this notion of dying, putting another quarter in, and coming back," Kojima explained. "That hasn’t changed in the 35 years that I’ve been making games. In this game, life and death will be part of that, but I want to give a different twist to that notion."
Kojima has played around with the notion of perma-death in the past, but it sounds like that's not quite what he's talking about here. Maybe when you die you come back as a tiny little baby and have to find a full grown Norman Reedus to care for you? For now, we'll have to keep
poring over that trailer for more answers.
Metal Gear Solid started off great but crawled further and further up its own arse with each iteration. Death Standing better not be dependent on plot because MGS ended up having the most convoluted and downright stupid plots I've ever seen in a computer game. And the cutscenes, christ, the cutscenes...
