Death Stranding is Kojima Production’s first ambitious title since Kojima left Konami in 2015. Ever since the first reveal trailer in 2016, people have been wondering what the game is about and how this technology and these supernatural creatures fit in gameplay-wise. Will there be more to do than just simply walk around? Well on May 30th Kojima Productions released a trailer at the end of an hour-long stream which reveals several things about the game.
Before looking at the trailer, Hideo Kojima had this to say about the game while showing a picture of the protagonist covered in black goo.
At the beginning of the trailer, a character is seen talking to the viewers in the perspective of one of the babies. He then sings a lullaby and the scene then switches to the main character, Sam Bridges, riding on a motorcycle in the open world.
Sam is then seen talking to the President of the United States in what appears to be the White House. This then reveals that the game will take place within the remnants of the United States due to the events of the mysterious Death Stranding. The President tells Sam that he can help the world “reconnect” and make America whole. Basically, she says that if America doesn’t come together, then then humanity will not survive. “Alone we have no future,” she says.
Sam then descends down a large elevator labelled as BRIDGES, meaning that the term coming together will be the main theme in the game as you are tasked to build bridges between the people in the world through your deliveries and travels.
Sam then suits up and heads out into the world to make deliveries of some sort. We see him go through destroyed cities and climbing up a snowy mountain that was seen previously in the distance. You will be able to customize the way Sam looks, and it’s likely that different clothes have different effects depending on what environment Sam is in, meaning that he will either have to dress lightly or heavily depending on the weather condition. While it’s not confirmed, it definitely seems like some survival element will be tied to what Sam wears.
Gameplay mechanics are then shown to include use of several devices to travel throughout the environment such as an extendable ladder for climbing up or using a climbing anchor to rappel downwards.
We then get introduced to group of extremists who go around and cause voidouts and craters wherever they go. They are the terrorists of the apocalyptic world who use the powers of the Death Stranding against the remnants of America.
Afterwards we see a glimpse of a new enemy type who come in packs wearing a similar armor to Sam’s, possibly meaning that they’re using the same technology. They seem to be able to track down Sam remotely and will immediately come into the area to find him. Sam with his Baby activated and seemingly vulnerable attempts to run away from the assailants who are trying to capture Sam or at least take the contents from his backpack using their electric weapons. Getting hit in the backpack causes Sam to drop a resource, but he immediately picks it up again.
From this we can see that protection of the contents of your backpack will be crucial to Sam and his baby’s survival. This even goes to the fact that Sam has to physically pick up any dropped contents while running. Additionally, if he doesn’t immediately put his packs away, he can use them as weapons against his attackers.
Sam is then seen with his baby concealed and fends off his attackers through melee attacks. Now based off this scene, maybe you have to have your baby hidden while fighting, or maybe it will take damage while the pod is activated. It seems to be a running theme that the baby should be protected as it is extremely important to Sam’s survival.
The attackers then run away once it starts raining and the characters explain that “even they know better than to mess with BTs, which are apparently causing the Death Stranding in America. The dialogue then continues to reveal that Sam can’t see the BTs and can only sense them. This is apparently where the Bridge Babies come in. Apparently, they have the ability to connect to what’s referred to as, “the other side” meaning that they have connections to the BT’s and Human worlds. Additionally, Bridge Babies will be mainly used to fully see and deal with the BT’s in general.
Sam is then seen getting caught by the goo the BT’s are formed from, but it looks like your suit can sustain being sucked into the black substance.
The trailer then shows Sam going through an area, revealing a recreation of a World War II battle but something’s a bit off. Whether this is another dimension or a vision of the past is fairly unknown. There’s also some talks about this being the home to the BT’s as a character named “Cliff” seems to be in charge of commanding it’s soldiers. It’s also cool, to note that you’re witnessing the scene in first-person, so maybe you can play the whole game like this as well. Additionally, you’ll be fighting creatures from this dimension using some good old-fashioned shooting.
We then see several new characters that Sam will be meeting throughout his venture through the United States. Then there’s an abrupt cut to one of the Bridge Babies but turned into a doll. Now the doll could mean that there’s a force that’s able to corrupt the Bridge Babies, turning them into tools of the BT or even that extremis group mentioned earlier.
More importantly afterwards Sam is seen on the original Death Stranding beach where the teasers all started. It’s also revealed that he’s on this mission to finish what “Emily” started. It would seem that she’s a very important character to Sam as he is basically doing it for her.
The trailer “ends showing credits” and cuts to the character “Cliff” appearing out of the black goo with an army of undead corrupted soldiers. He says that he understands the truth of the Death Stranding, saying that it’s hard to make connections when you can’t shake hands, fortunately I have a good connection to the other side.”
It would seem that whatever happened to him, it’s because of the “Death Stranding” and because of it he seems to have control over an army of the B.T. in their fullest non-ghostly forms. Also what he says is intriguing, how does Cliff connect to the BTs without the special connection, the Bridge Babies. If Bridge Babies are the connection that Sam uses, what do the corrupted Doll Babies do? What do those babies connect to in this case?
The trailer then reveals the release date for the game, November 8, 2019.
Cliff, looking different from what we’ve previously seen then says to the Bridge Baby, “the whole wide world will be yours to explore and you may be able to go wherever you want, even the moon.” Now this could mean that either the whole in-game world of America is so massive that we will be able to visit the moon. Now whether or not this means the Moon plays a big importance to the game as a whole remains to be unknown. More importantly, Cliff is seen to be possibly three different people, he’s a survivor at the beginning of the trailer covered in blood, a “commander” in the middle, and “scientist” in the end. Obviously his goals are directly related to the use of these Bridge Babies, corrupted or not. So whatever and however we deal with Mads Mikkelsen’s character, it will heavily involve your Bridge Baby.
Includes several titles.
Which was showcased at E3 2003.