So, how is the gameplay? Oh yeah, nobody knows, who cares about gameplay in a game nowadays anyways, and how is the plot? Oh yeah, nobody knows either, probably won't make any sense as usual but is Kojima, it must be good :P

This trailer told us a lot about the game, while telling us very little at the same time. It's littered with clues and an amazing attention to detail. Kojima even went on Twitter and told people to start looking and even play it aside the other trailers and see what they can find. So far the fanbase has found some interesting things.  The attention to detail is incredible and nothing less is expected from Kojima.



The numbers on his chest is potentially a reference to the following: "Psalm 137 - Verse 09 is 14 words long and reads as follows "Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks."" This is very interesting because it fits the theme of what we've seen in the game in the sense of protecting the baby.




In the trailer a guy hovers down gracefully onto the jeep and points forward as lighting flashes in the background. He then vanishes in the air after. Kojima said to look at the other trailers for clues. Mads Mikkelsen does the exact same poses as this guy in the 2nd Death Stranding trailer. It is highly likely that this character is Mads Mikkelsen's character and it lines up with a lot of speculation of what role he'll play in the game. If it is indeed him it confirms the rumors of him having psychic abilities from his debut trailer. When he raised the dead his compass spun out of control displaying an influx of electro-magnetic energy. In this trailer we see that he can over cause a flash of lightening synced with him pointing. Personally I'm definitely on board with this guy being Mads.



Sam (Norman Reedus) carries a Dreamcatcher throughout the trailer. A common theory is that Deathstranding will have two worlds. The real world and a realm where the dead persists. This trailer we see them in the land of the dead. It's possible that they go to that dimension to pull people back to the world of the living. This would explain why a medium such as Mads would be there and why Sam may have taken a Dreamcatcher for protection. It's possible a technique similar to Astral Projection could be used to get to that dimension. Invisible enemies are real world enemies. Of course that is just a theory but here's where it gets interesting. The title "Death Stranding" is a take on the term "Cetacean Stranding". This could be a metaphor or abstract for a sense of loss when it comes to the child. With the baby being the center of everything in the trailer, it is very clear that he/she is the mission and they are trying to retrieve that baby at all cost. Perhaps the baby is dying in the real world or having troubles surviving child birth and Sam goes into this other dimension to ensure the baby lives and is not taken fully to the otherside. The Dreamcatcher leaves a lot of room for speculation.


Also "Porter" is a really cool easter egg from Zone of Enders. They were invisible enemies.

Speaking of easter eggs.....



Does Death Stranding take place in the past or the future? A post nuclear fallout future? This is interesting because this is a direct reference to the lyrics of the song "Nuclear" by Mike Oldfield (Lyrics here: https://play.google.com/music/preview/Tppwkn5zhyzmcr7uuawrvoc7pei?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-lyrics). This is likely very intentional on Kojima's part as he seems to be a fan of the song. He used the song for one of the trailers for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.  Kojima is a very anti-nuclear person and uses this theme in many of his games and he could be exploring a post nuclear wasteland in Death Stranding. Or perhaps this is part of the realm he is in. Though the timeline is incredibly hard to pin down since the second trailer looked like it was set in France during WW2 but with modern weapons. Kojima said there are intentional misdirects to keep us from figuring out the plot so when the game takes place is fully left to speculation. With the concept of at least two different realities there's a lot of different possibilities to keep us guessing.


There's a lot of piece together that can give us a bit of a basic plot. A bit of an outline of things that we could expect the game to be about. Though knowing Kojima we will only figure out the basic outlines. All the twists and cleaver mind fucks Kojima is known for will be there. We'll never see half the shit he has planned coming.

Update: There seems to be more than one baby. The baby in trailer 2 isn't the same as trailer 3. That raises a few more questions.