11 Things We Learned From Tokyo Game Show 2016

3. Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding Gets Gameplay Details

If you'd like a hand understanding just WTF was going on in Death Stranding's E3 trailer, check this out. All caught up? Clear as mud, right?

Well, at least now we've heard from Hideo Kojima, giving us at least some notion of what to expect. Where formerly, he and his team were yet to nail down a game engine, speaking at the Sony press conference it was revealed that Death Stranding, "is an action game with an open world, giving the player a degree of freedom, but also has the story elements you’d expect from a Kojima game." Apparently there's also "an online element" but it's not an overriding part of gameplay.

Back at E3, Kojima did made a point about the notion of 'ropes and sticks'; the former we use to bind things together (like the umbilical cord in the trailer) and the latter were used to push things and people away, or to defend yourself. This was again referred to, as Kotaku clarifies:

"Most games, basically, have people going at each other like aggressors. [Kojima] pointed out that action games developed as players facing off against a computer, which was followed by players battling online, then playing together in co-op against the computer, but still battling. Death Stranding will have action and combative elements, Kojima promised, but he wants the game to create links - strands, if you will - between players, instead of just having them try to knock each other down."

Very interesting stuff - especially at this early, speculative stage - but either way it's great to see Kojima finally very much away from Metal Gear, free to create an entirely new world, set of concepts and game mechanics.