Finally, we know what Death Stranding will play like - or at least some of it. Sony's E3 2018 presentation revealed the first gameplay video for Kojima Productions' enigmatic project, and it did not disappoint in terms of weirdness. How do you play Death Stranding? By lugging stuff across rivers and up mountainsides. Yep, Norman Reedus is out there making deliveries.
The trailer mostly focused on Sam, the main character played by Norman Reedus who we've met several times in the past. At various points we saw Sam hauling miscellaneous boxes, leading a convoy of wheeled delivery robots, climbing cliffs and even carrying what appeared to be a shrouded corpse through a huge, picturesque open world. No combat, just traversal… and removing an injured toenail. Ugh.
Later in the trailer we saw a distinctly non-MGS kind of stealth gameplay, with Sam crouching low and using that odd shoulder-mounted contraption from the last trailer to keep track of semi-invisible predators. Unfortunately, he didn't quite evade their notice, and the scene concluded with a bunch of the creepy wraiths dragging him down into a deep black puddle. Bummer.
On top of revealing our first look at Death Stranding gameplay, the trailer also introduced two new characters played by Lea Seydoux (The Grand Budapest Hotel, Spectre) and Lindsay Wagner (The Bionic Woman). Seydoux appeared as a seasoned survivalist in an oddly spiky bodysuit, advising Sam on how to evade the creepy invisible monsters. Then Wagner appeared at the end of the trailer as someone who seems to know Sam, though he doesn't know her. Also, she was wearing an elegant dress instead of a survival suit and thus may be a hallucination? Also also, Wagner's character appeared to be a good deal younger than Wagner herself (who is 68), but who knows what that really means with all this time manipulation going on.
Even though Death Stranding's gameplay isn't a total mystery any more, we definitely left the presentation with more questions than answers - so I'll count that as a win in terms of the good ol' Kojima weirdness equation.
Looking for more PlayStation goodness? Check out our list of the most exciting upcoming PS4 games.
