Hideo Kojima took the stage at Gamescom 2019 and talked about Death Stranding. We got to see a lot of cool stuff including new characters and game mechanics that we did not know about before. Kojima talked about the different challenges of making Death Stranding an open-world game.
He mentioned that things are a bit easier when it comes to making a linear game. In an open-world game, the player has a lot of freedom and you never know what the player is going to do. Here is what he had to say regarding the matter:
Well, after experiencing an action game in an open world, you can not just go back to other things. That’s what I thought. Because of the interactivity. Of course, there are other ways to make a game. A linear game for example. However, I can not go back after having had the experience of having a large-scale world in a game.
Creating an open-world is a challenge on its own and Kojima Productions does not have ready to use assets from older games like Ubisoft does with Assassin’s Creed or Far Cry.
Everything needs to be made from scratch in this case and that takes a lot of work, money and resources. So, it is safe to say that there were come challenges making Death Stranding an open-world game. Kojima went on to mention the following about the game:
The problem, however, is the technology. Of course it is technically difficult to create an open world. The player has the greatest possible freedom in an open world. Therefore, you are never really sure what the player will do. In this context, storytelling in an open-world game is the biggest challenge. As there is more and more freedom, it means that the story sometimes gets in the way of a distraction.
Kojima went on to compare Death Stranding with Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. He mentioned that in MGSV the story hides in the background once the player has access to the open-world. Things are going to be different in Death Stranding. He mentioned that while Death Stranding is an open-world game, story is going to be a vital part of the game.
Let us know what you think about Death Stranding and whether or not you are interested in playing the game when it comes out on November 8th.
