“Once there was an explosion, a bang that gave rise to life as we know it. Then came the next explosion. An explosion that will be our last.” So says Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead) in a nearly eight-minute long trailer for Hideo Kojima’s mysterious Death Stranding which premiered at Thursday night’s Game Awards 2017. The whole trailer is unnerving and — to quote another voice actor in the game, Mads Mikkelsen, when speaking about Death Stranding — “I only understood some of it.”
The new trailer is even creepier that the previous ones, making up a bit for that cancelled Silent Hills game Reedus, Kojima, and Guillermo del Toro were collaborating on before they made Death Stranding together. The new trailer lacks the nudity of Norman Reedus from the first trailer (booooo, bring back naked Reedus) and the frightened Guillermo del Toro and menacing Mads Mikkelson of the second trailer, but other elements are still there: the black goo, the partially invisible monsters, the baby incubators, the creeping terror, et cetera.
And like the first two trailers, this one may also be peppered with Easter eggs. Hideo Kojima took to Twitter to both release new key art…
We have revealed the new trailer of DEATH STRANDING at #TheGameAwards. Here’s the new key visuals made for today. pic.twitter.com/oG01EJk2G7
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) December 8, 2017
…and to tease “clues” hidden in the new trailer:
So how did you like the new DEATH STRANDING trailer? If you rewatch the last 2 trailers, you may be able to find some clue.
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) December 8, 2017
A lot of people think Metal Gear character Psycho Mantis is hidden in the trailer:
#DeathStranding Psycho Mantis? pic.twitter.com/hCkvDqmGrw
— HomieCloud (@HomieCloud) December 8, 2017
Death Stranding – The Return Of Psycho Mantis. #rbtv #TheGameAwards2017 pic.twitter.com/YCt6qhFGTI
— Miri Moe 🍉 (@lassmirinda) December 8, 2017
Guys, I found Psycho Mantis pic.twitter.com/9Ll6ubmKqX
— MaCynjenZ (@Cynnjen) December 8, 2017
This one is unlikely. Even though Kojima used to make Metal Gear games, Konami still owns the rights to Psycho Mantis and they’re, um, not on the best terms with Kojima, del Toro, and Reedus right now.
Meanwhile, other people reacted to the tease about finding clues exactly how we expected them to:
https://twitter.com/Leticinios/status/938984788861493250