COLOGNE, Aug 21 — Nearly a quarter of Gamescom’s two-hour, inaugural Opening Night Live in Cologne was dedicated to Death Stranding, the curious, often oblique, well-anticipated PlayStation 4 game due out in November 2019.
High concept met slapstick and lowbrow humour in a half-hour slot devoted to Death Stranding at yesterday’s Gamescom 2019 Opening Night Live, with show presenter Geoff Keighley a notable fan of the November 8 release.
“Beached Things,” “Bridge Babies,” AI scientists, invisible infants that live on The Other Side, the ability to urinate in rainy highlands while carrying and caring for a hermetically sealed foetus — the baffling topography of sci-fi adventure Death Stranding was on display in three separate videos.
Fortunately, game director Hideo Kojima was on hand to explain something of his vision for Death Stranding, in which players take control of a deliveryman named Sam.
The game is about connections, whether they be between outposts of the United Cities of America, between the real world and a strange realm or world of the dead, or between the characters Sam meets along his way.
Previously best known for steering the Metal Gear Solid series before leaving franchise publisher Konami in 2015, Kojima talked Gamescom’s in-person and online audiences through videos introducing new character Mama (played by Margaret Qualley of The Leftovers) and Sam’s scientist colleague Deadman (played by Pan’s Labrynth and Pacific Rim director Guillermo del Toro).
As well as the conceptual nuances of his game’s dual worlds, Kojima also introduced a gameplay segment which featured Keighley himself.
The presenter’s likeness had been used to create a character called Ludens Fan, who appears to be tangentially involved in Sam’s overarching mission.
The character of Sam is played by TV and film actor Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead), while development studio Kojima Productions has also secured the services of Mads Mikkelsen (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Hannibal), Lea Seydoux (Spectre), Lindsay Wagner (The Bionic Woman), and Nicolas Winding Refn (director, Drive, Mikkelsen’s Pusher movies).
Death Stranding was one of four tentpole PlayStation 4 games presented together at the 2018 Electronic Entertainment Expo. Marvel’s Spider-Man was released to critical and commercial acclaim in September of that year, with The Last of Us Part II and Ghost of Tsushima anticipated (though not yet officially confirmed) for 2020.
A successor to the PlayStation 4 console is expected to launch at some point after April 2020. ― AFP-Relaxnews
