“Death Stranding.” It’s Finally Here.

3 years ago I was at my college orientation, staying overnight in a dorm. I remember scrolling through the E3 news, and much to my (and the entire world’s) suprise saw that Hideo Kojima announced a new game, “Death Stranding”. Mere months after being essentially fired from Konami and ripped from his masterpiece of a creation that is the “Metal Gear” franchise.
I wasn’t just excited because my favorite game creator of all time, the man who created the games that would shape my interests in philosophy and politics in various entires with the “Metal Gear Solid” games, but I was excited for him. With only the pedigree of his name as his bond, which is certainly quite a lot, Sony agreed to help fund Kojima-san’s new independent studio, Kojima Productions. Shortly thereafter we were greeted by the ever-mysterious “Death Stranding” Announcement Trailer at E3 2016.
No one knew what the hell that was. But that was fine. Hideo Kojima is like the Stanley Kubrick of gaming, sometimes not making any sense at first but it is undoubtedly the unraveling of the mystery that counts the most with any Kojima experience. Kojima-san’s works will always be filled with a unique mix of silliness, magical-realism, and addictive gameplay mechanics. For those of you who have played even a few minutes of a “Metal Gear” title, you know this all too well. It was this unique style that initially caught my attention when playing as Solid Snake in “Super Smash Bros. Brawl” for the first time at a friends house back in the early Nintendo Wii days. Shortly thereafter, I purchased “Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty” for the PlayStation 2, and it’s safe to say that this game changed my life.

Sure as a 9-year old boy, I loved games. They were arguably my favorite form of entertainment. But when I played “Metal Gear Solid 2,” something just hit different. The stealth gameplay made me hyper-aware of my every movement so as to complete my mission without being spotted by the enemy. I would study the movements of every guard and memorize every room, even going so far as to create maps of the in-game areas using scrap pieces of paper. Smooth and addictive stealth-action gameplay wasn’t the only thing that I loved about this title however. The characters and the complex narrative had me hooked from the first line. Which I still remember to this day. After clicking through the menu screens, I was greeted by a black screen, and the iconic raspiness of Solid Snake…
“The Hudson River, two years ago. We had classified intelligence that a new type of Metal Gear was scheduled for transport… The whole thing stank… But our noses had been out in the cold for too long.”
The serendipitous discovery of a newfound favorite game series is something I will never forget. But Kojima-san, true to form, would hide his own philosphy in the game. A philosophy that all of our passions define us, and they’re worth passing on. The game’s closing cinematic is seemingly Kojima-san’s thesis and it has 2 parts: the first shows Raiden talking with his girlfriend about how our loves and passions make us who we are and that there’s no greater joy than sharing it with someone you love, then beautifully proposes to her; then Snake riffs on how there’s more to life than just living and dying, it’s about holding on to and passing on what you believe in.
“Life isn’t just about passing on your genes. We can leave behind much more than just DNA. Through speech, music, literature, and movies… What we’ve seen, heard, felt… Anger, joy, and sorrow. These are the things I will pass on. That’s what I live for.”
As a kid who was starting to become more aware of the world around him at this age, this idea opened up so much for me. I discovered this philosophy which values passions and loves within something I am, yes, passionate about and do love. How meta. How Kojima.
The narrative of the entire “Metal Gear” series took years for me to decipher, but that was part of the fun. The mystery kept me coming back to every game in the series year-after-year.

Hideo Kojima’s “Death Stranding” will be released to the world tomorrow. I still really don’t know what to make of any of it, but I am beyond excited to jump into the world and become engrossed in the experience just like I did when I first played “Metal Gear Solid 2.” Kojima-san’s existing body of work already means the world to me, and the fact that he is back at it again, as innovative and as bold as he was in the beginning, does put a smile on my face.
