Drew Prosser
"Once, there was an explosion, a bang which gave birth to time and space. Once there was an explosion, a bang which sent a planet spinning in that space. Once there was an explosion, a bang which gave rise to life as we know it...and then came the next explosion...an explosion that will be our last."
The famous first words of Hideo Kojima’s new brainchild (Norman Fetus) Death Stranding. Known for Innovation, the Metal Gear series, Zone of the Enders and various other I.Ps with his previous helm at Kojima Productions under (fuck) Konami. This will be the first Intellectual property (I.P) of his new Tokyo based company, Studio Kojima Productions. Funded by PlayStation and gifted the “Decima” engine from Guerilla games (responsible for Horizon Zero Dawn) after being fired from his previous studio in the most unprecedented way seen by the industry. Kojima stated it “enables us to go to the Mars, but even to the Jupiter”.
Now Let’s assume you’ve seen all three trailers before reading this. If not it's recommended you do before continuing (see bottom of article for link to trailers)...utterly perplexing and convoluted to say the least, right? That seems to be the common consensus amongst many. The title itself could be defined literally, contextually speaking. As mentioned previously, Kojima is well renowned for his innovative ideas. When you die in this game it will be unlike anything you’ve seen before. Yet vaguely reminiscent of “Vanilla WoW”, as said by the man himself, “Games started over 40 years ago with arcades. When the player dies, it’s game over. You continue, and time goes back to before you die. You can die as many times as you want but, you always go back to a little bit before you die. That was a mechanic made specifically for putting in coins, and it hasn’t changed since then.” Upon further interviews it’s been disclosed that you’ll enter an inherently “limbo” like state underwater that you’ll swim through until you recover your body and you’re “reborn” in a sense.
Elements of Egyptian symbolism, Lovecraftian horror and various theoretical astrological principles (I.e Schwarzschild radius, String Theory) appear to be quite prevalent in the story as well. To put it simply, String Theory encompasses the idea that every universe and/or multiverse is connected in one way or another. One of many ways to explain the prominence of the “strands” connecting everything, as seen in the trailers and photo above. Kojima is a very “smart and stable genius” who never shows his full hand until the very end. Even then, this game will be a topic of debate for years to come. Hopefully I’ll encounter some of you in the supposed social media network “bridges” that will be implanted into the game when the time comes... “Aww Yeah...”
Here is the link to a compilation video of all three trailers out for Death Stranding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx4Fq-pKAzM
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