E3 2016: What Was That Death Stranding Trailer About?

Death Stranding, the new game from Hideo Kojima, looked freakin' rad, didn't it? But, er, what the f**k was going on? That's exactly what the Internet's been trying to decipher for the past 24 hours – and it hasn't come up with any solutions yet. There are theories out there, though, which are fun to chat about, we suppose.

First up, here's what we know about the game: it's a PlayStation 4 exclusive. It's an action game, but with a twist. Kojima dreamed up the concept when he created his new company. It's not connected to the P.T. demo – despite Norman Reedus starring as the main character. Guillermo del Toro is not involved. The Ludens logo is not connected to the project – but instead represents his company's ethos.

The trailer, then. Well, a "stranding" as far as we understand is when marine life gets washed up on a shore. This obviously happens for a number of reasons: sometimes an animal simply dies and is deposited on land by water, other times they get injured and are unable to get back to sea. There are bizarre instances of other animals responding to distress calls, only to put themselves in danger.

Either way, the name suggests that this game has something to do with the main character being stranded in some kind of otherworld – perhaps where people go to die. The oil motif that runs through the trailer all connects with the marine life metaphor, but what's the big deal with the umbilical cords? If you pay close attention, everything is connected to one – even the text.

To be honest, we haven't got a clue what it symbolises, but one interesting anecdote is that Reedus is wearing dog-tags, which contain a couple of equations relating to physics and relativity. This stuff goes over our head, but one relates to Black Holes apparently. Some are suggesting that the Death Stranding may be inside one of the lapsed stars, or something like that.

There's clearly significance to every second of the trailer, but as with all things Kojima, we're probably not going to be able to make much sense of this until more of the game's shown. The auteur's said that this is probably going to be in development for a while, so it's going to be some time until we learn more. Hideo's surely going to keep us guessing, though, eh?