As you might already have figured out by now, Death Stranding is not like other video games. Not only do developers claim falls under a completely new genre but some of its core mechanics leave us in awe. As far as we know, Death Stranding has no Game Over and the concept behind it is genius.
In a recent interview with Japanese magazine Famitsu, Hideo Kojima, the mind behind Death Stranding has talked about what happens when you “die” in the game. According to him, there is no Game Over screens in Death Stranding but instead, you get real changes to the world around you. We’ve seen games completely ignore the fact that the story has to have an organic flow, one that character deaths can ruin.
In Death Stranding, Game Over is actually a mini-game of sorts, in which you find yourself in the “ocean space”, an area we see in past trailers. There, you’ll have to search for your body and equipment in order to get back to the real world. During that time, changes will occur in the world and the timeline will resume as if nothing happened. Check out the following trailer at 5:40 to further understand the “ocean space”.
To support the concept behind the absence of game over screens in Death Stranding, Kojima offered some insight on Void Outs. We practically know those occurrences as craters in its world. They will appear every time Sam gets eaten by the monster-demons. The crater will cause all buildings and infrastructure in that space to disappear. That crater will only be visible in your world but as the timeline continues, you’ll see the rain bring the terrain back and other players build on top of it.
At this point, we know what happens when you die due to the supernatural forces around you. What will happen when human enemies attack you and eventually kill you? We can expect Sam to be teleported to “ocean space” too but void outs not happen. Are there consequences for that too? Perhaps losing your cargo deliverance quest or have enemies move faster to your next strand? That seems like a possible explanation.
In relation to player connection in Death Stranding, we know that users will be able to leave messages for you and others to find. However, there’s a catch. If a certain “message” doesn’t get enough “likes” it will disappear. This solves issues like players trolling others with random messages but it’s still early to know what the game will look like a month after launch.
Stay tuned for SegmentNext’s own Death Stranding review when the embargo lifts on November 1st. Until then, we’ll be covering all the latest news on the title. Note that the game releases on November 8th by Kojima Productions, exclusively on Playstation 4.
