After its initial announcement and two very elaborate but ultimately obtuse trailers, we finally got a lengthy look at Kojima Productions’ chilling new action game Death Stranding.
The trailer takes us to an otherworldly environment with an enormous creature that leaves handprints as it moves, infecting others with some bizarre type of rot. Slender figures circled a trio of explorers--likely members of the currently unknown entity BRIDGES, which have been referenced in prior materials.
A man is dragged away after being encircled with a tar-like substance that we’ve seen before in prior Death Stranding trailers, and then he’s shot to presumably be put out of his misery.
One of the men in a jumpsuit, possibly named Bridges (or a part of the group), was then seen carrying an infant in an artificial womb as a bizarre sensor clips at the air, seemingly the “titan”-like figures around him. He’s dragged into the air by an invisible force and pulled upwards, as he slowly stabs himself to death apparently to evade an even worse fate.
Norman Reedus’s character, likely named Porter, claims the artificial womb and picks it up before looking up to a bizarre, colossal figure before being plunged into a body of water.
The contemplative trailer is certainly something to take in, especially now that we’ve got a better idea of what kind of threats we’re dealing with in the world of Death Stranding. The Lovecraftian horrors that appear to be roaming whichever world players will be exploring in-game are positively terrifying, as is the sight of an infant seen down Norman Reedus’ throat.
Black space slugs, artificial wombs, and an eerily calm Norman Reedus make this look at Death Stranding arguably one of the craziest we’ve seen yet. The trailer caps off with the same five figures we saw in the initial trailer, floating ominously in the air.
“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 trailer concludes. Unfortunately, we still don’t have any semblance of a release date just yet. It would be surprising if somehow it makes a 2018 window.
