If there was a game of January 2024’s PlayStation State of Play it was Death Stranding 2.
Not only did we get confirmation of its full title (yep, it’s really called Death Stranding 2: On the Beach), and a first look at characters played by Mad Max director George Miller and Elle Fanning, but we got an extended trailer that showed Hideo Kojima at his brilliant, bizarre best. There’s a glam rock Joker, creepy little hands, and the star of the show: a stop motion puppet that looks like Alan Wake.
As a reminder, here’s the trailer:
As Kojima surely knew it would, the internet is having its fun analysing the Death Stranding 2 trailer for hidden details. Here Kojima delivered. As one Twitter / X user pointed out, there are BTs in the smoke during the scene in which Fragile enjoys a cigarette.
There are BTs in the Smoke pic.twitter.com/XTwYGxg5uF
— Nightingale (@ZeitzZwei) January 31, 2024
Twitter user @killian_C_u noticed the riff Higgs plays on the guitar is the BBS theme (Kojima reposted this tweet, so we know it’s on the money).
OHMYGOD THE SONG HIGGS IS PLAYING ON THE GUITAR IS BBS THEME 👶👶🐋🐋🌈🌈🤔🤔😭😭😭😭😭 DEATH STRANDING 2 I NEED YOU pic.twitter.com/lV34EOwFI5
— Killian (@killian_C_u) February 1, 2024
And redditor Tappxor noticed some small print in the trailer that reveals the CGI moon kit used by Death Stranding 2 comes courtesy of NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS), which suggests there might be more to Death Stranding 2's moon than a mere texture in the sky.
But it’s Death Stranding 2’s bizarre stop-motion puppet that’s proven the biggest talking point since the trailer’s release. Kojima tweeted to say this unnamed puppet, played by German film director Fatih Akin, is intentionally slowed down to give it a stop-motion look. “It incorporates elements such as puppets, bunraku puppets, ventriloquist puppets, and stop motion.”
「DEATH STRANDING 2 ON THE BEACH」に登場する新キャラの生きた人形は、ストップモーション風に見せる為に、フレームレイトをわざと落としています。操り人形(パペット)、文楽人形、腹話術人形、ストップモーションなどの要素を取り入れています。 pic.twitter.com/47p3zoQLal
— 小島秀夫 (@Kojima_Hideo) February 1, 2024
The internet, though, reckons this puppet looks a lot like Alan Wake. Let’s have a look.
Alan Wake pic.twitter.com/ULaQWIpSbe
— Jan Ochoa (@_janjerome) January 31, 2024
Decided to give Alan Wake a little pal from Death Stranding 2! pic.twitter.com/ntcTvA99Qb
— 𝐑𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 (@RuleTimeSpace) January 31, 2024
It's nice of Kojima to include Alan Wake in Death Stranding 2 pic.twitter.com/QajDzdFwJE
— Emre (@zekesyeet) February 1, 2024
Yep, he sure looks like Alan Wake to me. But really, it’s just that Alan Wake looks a bit like Fatih Akin, whose likeness is used for the puppet.
I knew the little puppet looked familiar! Death Stranding 2: On The Beach puppet is Fatih Akin! pic.twitter.com/TrH39PNz4i
— Good Game Lobby (@GoodGameLobby) January 31, 2024
Fans are still rummaging through the Death Stranding 2 trailer, so expect more details to emerge in the coming weeks. Until then, here’s what we know: Death Stranding 2 looks wild, it’s coming out on PlayStation 5 at some point in 2025, and it’s got a stop-motion puppet.
Death Stranding 2 wasn't the only game Kojima had up his sleeve for State of Play. He announced a return to the action espionage genre with a game / movie project that, we reckon, could be one of the first PS6 games.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.