Death Stranding: New Trailer and New Hero

Decima game engine shines in the latest trailer to Hideo Kojima’s new game. The new trailer finally shows some gameplay and reveals the open world mechanics.

Death Stranding was more of an enigma during the previous E3 presentations, hosted by Sony. It wasn’t really clear what you’re doing there, what the actual gameplay was like. This trailer answers some questions and, well, leaves even more questions unanswered.

First of all, we finally had a chance to look at the big open world of Death Stranding, created with the help of DECIMA engine, used in Horizon Zero Dawn. It’s a huge place, with quite varied landscapes. There are rivers, mountains, deserts, ruins, some kind of settlements.

Secondly, we see that the protagonist Sam Bridges, played by Norman Ridus, actually acts as a delivery man. He walks around this barren place and carries different stuff with him, including packs which look suspiciously like dead bodies. Anyway, it looks like a very meditative kind of gameplay.

There were some stealth pieces shown as well. So the hero has to escape this weird invisible thing with hands for legs, or no legs, just hands. It’s complicated.  Also, there’s a new character played by the amazing French actress Lea Seydoux. She’s some kind of ally of our protagonist, but her role is not really clear. 

All it all, it looks more grounded and more real. Last year Death Stranding looked more like a dream-like sequence, not a video game. This time it feels like Kojima has finally figured out what we’re going to do in this unusual and moody world.