Death Stranding‘s most recent trailer finally gave us some plot details along with a release date, but there’s a lot you might have missed.
Here’s all the main points we took from Death Stranding‘s newest trailer.
First up, not from the trailer itself, but from Sony. The plot of the mysterious whale-and-baby-fuelled Death Stranding has been officially announced as follows:
“Begin your quest to save civilisation in a broken world rife with supernatural dangers.
“Arm yourself and take aim at a variety of objectives in your mission to reunite a broken nation, while balancing under the weight of your cargo as you travel. Protect your supplies from wild bandits, and stay safe from the terrifying Beached Things… or face failing those who depend on you.
“Death is not the end – There is no traditional ‘game over’ state in Death Stranding. Lose your life during combat and you’ll find yourself in an upside-down realm, searching for a way back to the living. Choose your combat methods carefully, as killing your foe is almost never the solution – and every death carries a consequence.
“Assist other players – Help other travellers without ever crossing paths via asynchronous online gameplay. Send supplies, share safe houses and walk in the footsteps of fellow couriers to reunite civilisation.”
Sounds seriously interesting right? And being the game debut of Kojima Productions and the first time Hideo Kojima has had free rein over a project, we can certainly expect to be in for a treat with this one.
Now, before we dig into the trailer, make sure you watch it in all its glory below, otherwise you’re going to be more confused than we all were at the first ever reveal of Death Stranding.
(It’s now emerged that the Japanese trailer contains more scenes, with one in particular looking like a boss battle).
Death Stranding allowed us to see more gameplay than ever before, and one thing that’s caught fans’ attention is Sam (Norman Reedus) and his gear.
During the lead-up to the livestream, images from the game were overlaid with black a screen that featured cut-out hands to allow players to see behind it.
One of these images was protagonist Sam riding a motorbike, which is giving us some serious Days Gone vibes (in a good way).
We also got to see Sam’s radial menu, which seems to allow him/us to place items in the world. Items shown included a rope to climb down a cliff and a ladder, which appears out of thin air and is pretty magical.
Sam also seems to be carrying a pack that emits a pulsing light, warning of when to crouch. From the way the image of the package ‘ghosts’ the screen after you’ve moved, it seems as though enemies can track the package, and they probably want to do bad things to you in order to get it.
This links back to one of last year’s trailers, in which Sam was a glorified postman, traversing the world to deliver a package.
In typical Kojima style, the stealth elements of the game appear to require slow movements and crouching, and when an enemy spots you there’s a VERY familiar sounding alert sound. Oh, Kojima, we do love you.
During the combat section of the gameplay, we see Sam attempt to run from yellow-dressed enemies with long electrified rods. When one of these rods hits Sam, he appears to lose an item from the package he’s carrying, though we’re not too sure what this means.
Sam then tackles the enemies using a series of hand-to-hand combat moves, before using a briefcase to give them a final bash. Surely a briefcase isn’t an actual weapon in the game, so it could suggest a Dead Rising attitude, where if you can pick it up, you can hit someone in the head with it.
Sam doesn’t actually win the battle though – the yellow-cladded figures race off as it starts to rain, with an audio clip suggesting that the game’s BTs – presumably the main antagonists – are only a threat in the rain.
Oh, and in Death Stranding rain isn’t called rain, it’s called ‘time-fall.’
BTs are Beach Things, the shadowy creepy-ass looking things we’ve been teased with over the years. In the new trailer, it seems as though Sam’s baby in a box, otherwise known as BB or Bridge Baby, is the way that they can be detected.
Going off text in the trailer, it looks like BTs are capable of sucking your character through time, though this is just speculation at this point.
Speaking of BBs, the babies look like they could be the most important part of the game. After seeing Sam chased by BTs, the trailer cuts to the female character called Mama, who’s reaching up to a shadowy figure and taking a baby from it.
I don’t have theories about this one, sorry.
The trailer then takes a distinctive turn, showing what’s apparently Sam’s first-person view of a war zone. Interestingly, the most high-tech thing we can see in this world is armoured tanks, which has led the internet to speculate that this is actually a scene from the past – maybe after a BT has transported Sam in time.
After showing off a little bit of gunplay from Sam, we then get to see Mads Mikkelsen as Cliff, singing to a Bridge Baby. (Yes, Kojima does know that Mikkelsen is going to bring in a lot of females, at least judging from his tweet below).
We also see Sam chatting to a very ill-looking old lady in what looks like a very important American building, with Sam referring to her as “the President of jack sh*t,” suggesting she might actually be the POTUS of this world.
The trailer goes on to show a more in-depth look at the game’s characters, before going back to Cliff talking to the BB. He tells he/she/it that they could go anywhere, even the moon, which is possibly a callback to the Kojima Productions video which showed Ludens landing on the moon with a whale in the background.
We also got to see Troy Baker’s character, the man in the golden mask who’s now known as Higgs.
So, what did you think about the Death Stranding trailer?
Death Stranding will release exclusively on PS4, November 8 2019.
Featured Image Credit: Kojima Productions