E3 2018: 8 Ups & 5 Downs From Sony's Conference

3. Death Stranding Gameplay Is Eyeball-Melting...And Totally Confusing

Perhaps the most hotly anticipated gameplay reveal from Sony's show was that of Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding. Though the 8-minute sizzle reel indeed showed off the eye-popping beauty of Horizon Zero Dawn's Decima engine, concrete plot and gameplay details were still incredibly thin on the ground.

Most of the gameplay sequences showed Norman Reedus' protagonist Sam walking through a series of beautiful yet desolate locales, with a closing hint that - shocker! - stealth will be a major component of the game. The final moments show Sam using a baby-powered device (!) to detect malevolent supernatural entities in the vicinity, which ultimately capture and overcome him.

Kojima has suggested that death isn't a game over in Death Stranding, though, and the curious lack of emphasis on combat and gunplay is especially interesting.

That's not to forget that the trailer also revealed that Spectre's Lea Seydoux will seemingly play the currently unnamed female lead, and Emmy-winning character actress Lindsay Wagner (The Bionic Woman), who despite being in her late sixties in real life, appears here as a much younger version of herself. Could she be Sam's wife, or even his mother?

In typical Kojima fashion, the trailer raised more questions than it answered, and though some might express frustration with the lack of information about the plot, gameplay mechanics or even a release window, the game's sure shaping up to be another ambitious brain-scrambler from a master of the medium.