Death Stranding will be a statement that moves video games forward

Pod babies, a world where a light shower of rain will instantly age you into dust if you get wet and a bunch of famous faces lending their likeness to the project…Death Stranding may just be the most Hideo Kojima game ever made. Like, moe Kojima than a game which is nothing more than QTE sequences to advance an in-game ten hour cinematic voiced by Kurt Russel about how the one world government has steered human development towards a path that will allow us to reach beyond the stars…or something whatever you get the point.

I think with Hideo Kojima, he’s the Bob Dylan of the industry: Half the people listening to him have sweet stuff-all idea what he’s actually on about, while the other half look at you with derision in their eyes because you simply don’t get Kojima’s brilliance maaaaaaaan. Death Stranding is shaping up to be Kojima unleashed, a game which Sony has taken a gamble on because of the name brand value alone.

For the people working on and inside of Death Stranding? They reckon that it’ll be a paradigm shift inside of the industry when it comes out. “It’ll definitely be a statement,” Higgs voice actor Troy Baker said to Push Square.

If you know anything about Kojima, he doesn’t make ‘games’. He’s an amazing world builder. He’s trying to move the medium forward, not just trying to move copies. This will be a game that names sell, and it won’t be Norman Reedus and Mads Mikkelsen, and it sure as sh*t won’t be Troy Baker. The name that’s going to sell this game is going to be Kojima.

Baker’s not wrong. Kojima needs to be given credit for his ability to tell a story within his games, and while they’re often incredibly convoluted and mental breaks from reality, they’re never boring. The question here, is if Death Stranding can find the perfect balance between narrative and gameplay, as neither side of the product can live up to its own hype if one of them falters.

Last Updated: August 1, 2019