If you’ve been eagerly anticipating Death Stranding as much as we have, then you’ll have been well-served by the goodies served up by Gamescom this year. Hideo Kojima took the stage to much aplomb. Armed with a translator and a mission, Kojima introduced two characters — Guillermo del Toro’s Deadman and Margaret Qualley’s Mama — and also brought with him what was arguably the star of the whole show. That’s right, we received some Death Stranding Gamescom gameplay footage, and it was definitely very wild.
The Death Stranding presentation led with some extra context for del Toro and Qualley’s characters. We’ve already had footage of the Deadman, played by del Toro, but the Gamescom 2019 clip sheds a little more light on his motivations and his background. We’re talking Deadman being a sci-fi baby expert in this universe, which is a huge tonal change from the rather tragic Mama; she’s trapped in hiding because she gave birth to a baby who isn’t actually corporeal. If you thought that was surprising, then what we saw of the gameplay will blow your mind.
Gamescom attendees were treated to footage of Norman Reedus’ characters, Sam, doing a bunch of relatively inane things as he fights to complete a side quest in Death Stranding. From running, to falling down a hill, to interacting with Keighley’s cameo character (called The Ludens Fan), to the much-discussed urinating on some mushrooms: players can really do it all in the game, and according to Kojima, it’s all so you can connect with each other. It looks like the Yakuza 6 mechanic of trying to keep your baby from crying too much is something which BB Pod users have to contend with, which seems strangely at odds with the minimalistic, future-facing UI that hovers around the screen.
There’s definitely a lot going on in the latest Death Stranding Gamescom gameplay footage, whether or not you’re someone trying to predict all the cameos that Kojima’s friends are going to make, or whether you’re more concerned with the game’s interesting take on environmentalism. We’ve got much more Gamescom 2019 coverage on the way, so check out our news hub for what comes next.
