Death Stranding is a bit of an enigma. A few trailers have been released over the years regarding the PlayStation 4 exclusive, but they lack context and border on the surreal. Guerrilla Games are among the first to play Death Stranding, so they may have the best idea out of everyone regarding what the game actually is.
Back on January 15, Guerrilla Games co-founder and managing editor Hermen Hulst tweeted out pictures from a recent visit to Kojima Productions, where he played a gameplay demo of Death Stranding. It was back in 2016 that Guerrilla Games gave Kojima Productions the Decima engine for the game.
Three years ago we gave @KojiPro2015_EN a copy of our @DecimaEngine in this box. Today @HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN came back to @Guerrilla to show us the incredible things he’s making with it in #DeathStranding. So impressed! pic.twitter.com/8dLpdIh1bI
— Hermen Hulst (@hermenhulst) January 15, 2019
Aki Sato, who is the head of marketing and communications at Kojima Productions, confirmed that the Guerrilla Games team were able to check out the first two hours of gameplay, with director Hideo Kojima demonstrating. He also noted that the game has not been fully completed.
Showed the first 2 hours of gameplay to our Guerrilla brothers. Yes, Hideo was demonstrating it! (The game is not fully completed…yet)
The picture show’s the friendship between us! Keeps our mutual secrets here! pic.twitter.com/UejLW2oAeb— 齊藤昭義(Aki Saito) (@akisaitokojipro) January 16, 2019
Kojima showed the initial trailer for the game at E3 2016. Since then, teaser trailers have been released showcasing characters played by Walking Dead star Norman Reedus as well as Mads Mikkelsen.
Death Stranding does have not a release date, though recent posts seem to indicate the game is coming along well. A recent tweet by voice actor Troy Baker seems to show that the game is at least in the voice acting stage, with the tweet showing a character he voiced in 2009 (Snow from Final Fantasy 13) and The Man in the Golden Mask, a character from Death Stranding:
#2009vs2019 …? pic.twitter.com/QVP3yRHqla
— Troy Baker (@TroyBakerVA) January 16, 2019
Kojima also confirmed recently that voice acting for the Japanese release is underway, with Kenjiro Tsuda and Nana Mizuki voicing Reedus’ and Lea Seydoux’s roles.
However, in a recent Q&A, comedian Conan O’Brien noted that footage he shot visiting Kojima Productions in Japan couldn’t be shown yet, as “it’s too far from when the game is coming out.” In other words, there’s still mixed messages on when we’ll be able to see whatever Death Stranding actually is.
