Death Stranding: an explainer for Hideo Kojima’s inscrutable new PS4 game – The Verge

Everything you need to know about the year’s most anticipated game Hideo Kojima’s long-anticipated game, Death Stranding, is out the PlayStation 4 on November 8th. The star-studded action game utilizes actors such as Norman Reedus, Guillermo del Toro, Mads Mikkelsen, and Léa Seydoux to tell a long and winding story about the state of mankind and human connection in a post-apocalyptic future. The buzz around the game, as well as understanding what it’s actually all about, takes a little bit of unpacking for those who haven’t been following along. How do you explain what is definitely the most bizarre game of the year? First, the basics. Who is Hideo Kojima? Death Stranding is unmistakably A Hideo Kojima Game, so let’s first talk about the man himself. Kojima is one of gaming’s auteurs, the man who birthed the Metal Gear and all of the hijinks that ensue in the Metal Gear Solid series. He was a longtime employee of Konami — arguably the best-known man of the company — until a very messy split in 2015. This breakup is important because it is undeniably the seed from which Death Stranding sprouted. Image: Kojima Productions In 2014, Kojima was officially collaborating with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro to create a new game for another of Konami’s wildly popular series, Silent Hill. Called Silent Hills (I know), it was set to star Norman Reedus and was announced by way of an interactive demo dubbed “P.T.” The “Playable Teaser” was a standalone experience that only unmasked itself as a Silent Hill promo when the player completes it and is revealed to have been Norman Reedus’ character the whole time. P.T. was an immediate success, even snagging a spot on The Verge’s sister site Polygon’s Top 10 games of the year. Anticipation for Silent Hills was high. Then Konami canceled it. Kojima and Konami’s relationship was rocky long before the official cancelation. It was preceded by rumors that Kojima would leave the company after the September 2015 launch of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Despite what would end up being credible rumors about Kojima’s impending departure, Konami continued to insist that all was well and that the developer was simply on vacation. Konami also made the baffling choice to yank P.T. from the PlayStation Store, which has, in turn, bestowed it with a sort of legendary status — the kind that allows people to sell PlayStation 4s with P.T. installed for exorbitant amounts. Kojima was not allowed to accept an award for Metal Gear Solid V. Finally, solidifying the breakup, he spun up his own studio outside of Konami and announced his new title — Death Stranding — the following year. Both del Toro and Reedus returned to work with him. What’s a “Death Stranding”? The Death Stranding is the event that kicked off the game’s apocalyptic world as it exists today. The human population was decimated. The gate between life and death became a little loose. Ghostly BTs now roam the world, threatening
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