Death Stranding PS4 PlayStation 4 1

Hideo Kojima has been paying attention. Speaking as part of a BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat documentary, the auteur explained that "we may be connected through the Internet more than ever, but what's happening is that people are attacking each other because we're so connected". He’s not wrong: social media – once a bold and wonderful concept – has become suffocating; many of us now long to escape it rather than engage with it.

The world is more divided than it’s ever been, and the current political landscape plays a huge part in that: "President Trump right now is building a wall," he explained. "Then you have Brexit, where the UK is trying to leave, there are lots of walls and people thinking only about themselves in the world." The metaphor in Death Stranding, of course, is to create bridges – structures which connect us rather than divide us. It’s not exactly deep, but it does resonate.

For the Metal Gear maker, the PlayStation 4 console exclusive is about bringing people together. "When [gamers] are alone and playing video games in their living room they don't feel like they fit into society or their community," he said. "So when those people play this game they realise people like them exist all over the world. Knowing that, even though I'm lonely, there are other people like me makes them feel at ease – that's what I would like for them to feel when playing the game."

[source bbc.co.uk, via gamesradar.com]