Kojima Production’s Death Stranding has been confusing viewers since its debut at E3 2016 and the previous 3 trailers gave us no reason to suspect that the first glimpse of gameplay would be any differed. Coming in at just over 8 minutes in length, this latest look at the game confirms that Norman Reedus’ character is named ‘Sam Porter Bridges’ and that he makes deliveries. Throughout the nearly ten minute presentation we see Sam carry a number of boxes on his back, utilize motorized robots and other delivery related equipment. HOLY SHIT WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT DEATH STRANDING WAS JUST A ‘STACK STUFF ON YOURSELF SIMULATOR’..
Of course, this is Kojima and things aren’t that simple: What we do now know thanks to this trailer:
1) Parts of Sam’s name have appeared on the two different suits that he has worn in trailers 3 & 4. With ‘Bridges’ and ‘Porter’ respectively.
2) As revealed at the end of the trailer – eating one of the slug shaped creatures will ‘keep the Time Fall away’.
3) The time reversing rain that we’ve seen in trailer’s 2 and 3 is known as Time Fall and causes rapid aging.
4) Kojima has talked about how death will not be the end of the game in Death Stranding. Instead, Sam awakens in an alternate death dimension. This is referenced directly by a voice over Sam’s radio in Trailer 4.
5) The invisible ‘things’ that killed the work crew in trailer 3 can be sensed by Sam but not seen, while his new female companion can see them it seems.
6) If Sam is eaten by one of the invisible creatures he will come back back to live but a giant crator will be created, just like we saw in trailer 3.
Now fans get to start piecing together … wait these pieces don’t seem to fit together at all. *sigh* well, we might be back at square one with this. Are the invisible creators (called ‘ludens’ by fans) the souls of former people? Is Sam’s name actually a combination of his job ‘porter’ as in “a person employed to carry luggage and other loads, especially in a railroad station, airport, or hotel.” and ‘bridges’, a company? Why do the little worm things keep the Time Fall away? Do they spawn clones of the carriers?
AAAAAHHH my mind is broken for now. Death Stranding still has no solid release date but it is coming eventually for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro.