When speaking on how to appease critics of the first Death Stranding experience, Hideo Kojima joked he could have made the sequel in the form of a new Call of Duty-style shooter. Ultimately, however, he simply didn’t care to.
With Death Stranding being labelled the first ‘strand-type game’, many early adopters were left puzzled by its unusual structure. While it had shooting mechanics, it wasn’t a third-person shooter. While it let you sneak through enemy encampments, it wasn’t strictly a stealth game either.
Rather, Kojima’s 2019 hit was something else entirely. Some, like myself, adored it for daring to be different and offering a new type of gameplay loop. Others weren’t quite ready to embrace the weirdness of it all.
A bulk of early criticism wanted it to be something it wasn’t, and the iconic Japanese game designer was acutely aware of this feedback.
Death Stranding 2 could’ve been much more of a shooter, but Kojima doesn’t need to please anyone in that regard.
Hideo Kojima has heard the feedback before
“I had people who loved Death Stranding 1 and people who didn’t like it,” Kojima said in a group interview Dexerto attended as part of the World Stranding Tour in Sydney.
“With Metal Gear Solid 1, it was called a stealth game. Half loved it, but half said we need more guns. This time, it was a whole new game, a delivery game. A lot of people said it was a walking simulator. That’s fine, it’s a new thing, there are pros and cons.”
When it comes to making a sequel, he explained how he was left with a pivotal choice. Taking the path of least resistance could have seen the follow-up morph into something a little more recognizable in order to appease the masses. Say, a Call of Duty style experience, as Kojima put it.
“I could make a Call of Duty shooter game with Sam,” he said. “A lot of people might like that, I don’t know. But it’s not for me. I don’t need to do that.”
As we clearly see today, Death Stranding 2 isn’t some huge departure from what made the first experience connect with millions. It’s very much a sequel as opposed to a spinoff that saw Sam the Man morphing into a militaristic expert.
Sticking to his guns, no pun intended, Kojima found the challenge in trying to “top” the experience of Death Stranding 1. As fans now know what to expect, how can you surpass expectations?
Well, fans will just have to wait and see. We’re currently playing through Death Stranding 2 to find out the answer. Our full review will be live on Monday, June 23.
