Hideo Kojima isn’t just widely regarded as video gaming’s first auteur — as the mind behind cerebral and ground-breaking series Metal Gear Solid — he’s seen as a bit of an oracle, too.
If the Japanese developer’s track record is anything to go by, perhaps Australia should be a little wary. Our country is the main setting for his latest game: the post-apocalyptic Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, where bushfires, floods and earthquakes are as much danger as its anti-matter ghosts, who can be fought off with boomerangs infused with blood.
History has revealed several of the Japanese developer’s games to be eerily prescient: The shadowy antagonists of 2001’s Metal Gear Solid 2, for example, work towards a digital world where disinformation runs rampant, decentring objective truths in favour of echo chambers.
Then there’s Death Stranding, the first release from his own independent company Kojima Productions.
Death Stranding 2’s subtitle ‘On The Beach’ is a reference to Nevil Shute’s 1957 sci-fi novel, set in Australia after a nuclear war. (Supplied: Kojima Productions)
It centres on courier Sam (portrayed by The Walking Dead actor Norman Reedus) delivering parcels across a post-apocalyptic landscape filled with deadly ghouls invisible to most. It was released in November 2019, just before millions became reliant on delivery drivers for food and everyday items due to the invisible threat of COVID-19.
“Everyone was also isolated in real life — it was almost like the world of Death Stranding,” says Kojima, speaking to journalists in Sydney via translator.
While divisive upon release, the game began to widely resonate with more than 10 million players as Death Stranding’s overarching themes of connection — with Sam also digitally reconnecting a disparate United States — took on new weight.
Now, thanks to some clever COVID workarounds and inspiration from such Australian film greats as George Miller, Death Stranding 2 is here, showing a familiar but stark Australia to the world.
Overcoming illness for On The Beach
While gamers found solace in Death Stranding, Kojima was struggling with the sequel, which he calls “the most difficult challenge” of his career.
The Japanese developer, now 61, fell seriously ill during production of On The Beach, and felt as though he may never recover. At the same time, eye pain prevented him from both focusing or escaping, unable to work or watch film — a favourite past-time.
Hideo Kojima and George Miller came together at the Sydney Film Festival to talk about their work on Death Stranding 2. (Supplied: Photo by Tim Levy)
“It got to a point where I almost gave up. But I came back. I reconnected with myself, with this project,” he says.
There were also logistical issues, with travel restrictions leaving Kojima unable to travel to either Australia or Los Angeles, where he was to work on motion-capture with the game’s main actors, including Reedus, Elle Fanning and Léa Seydoux.
“Usually, when I decide on a location, I go scouting. I go to scan [people and environments] or interview — and the last time was Iceland. This time, I was thinking a little warmer,” he laughs.
“This is a game where Sam traverses, so you need a lot of great environments, deserts, mountains, animals as well, its own plants, species. That’s another reason.”
Actor Elle Fanning plays the role of Tomorrow in Death Stranding 2. (Supplied: Kojima Productions)
So, Kojima worked with a local photographer who travelled across Australia, with the designer watching via a real-time live stream.
“I was saying, ‘Go a little bit to the right!’ But it bummed me out.”
Kojima’s cinematic Australia
But Death Stranding 2’s setting is probably more indebted to Australian New Wave cinema than any reference photos — Kojima is a noted film buff, and credits watching Mad Max as a teenager as the inspiration to enter gaming.
Mad Max creator George Miller, who appeared in conversation at a Sydney Film Festival event with Kojima this June, even features in On The Beach, with his likeness used for a new character. (Also featured are the Australian directing duo behind horror hit Talk to Me, as well as fellow directors Guillermo del Toro, Nicolas Winding Refn and Fatih Akin.)
George Miller helped Kojima create the dystopian Australia we see in the game. (Supplied: Photo by Tim Levy)
With our cities destroyed, On The Beach’s Australian landscapes are as stark, foreboding and alluring as Miller’s apocalyptic world, where isolation in the harsh landscape is both a source of safety and danger.
It’s also hard to not think of Nicolas Roeg’s sweltering Walkabout as you wander around orange deserts; or of nature fighting back in Long Weekend as you endure a dust storm or sudden flood; or the unsettling eeriness of Picnic at Hanging Rock while climbing rocky outcrops.
Australia also proves more deadly than the US in Death Stranding 2, with an increased focus on combat compared to the first game. It goes hand-in-hand with the sequel’s tagline: “Should we have connected?” — a question inspired by COVID.
Miller’s likeness inspired the character Tarman in Death Stranding 2, although he is voiced by Marty Rhone. (Supplied: Photo by Tim Levy)
“I felt that, during the pandemic, the direction of the world was heading further and further into digital,” he says. “And I thought, ‘Is that really good?’… I rewrote everything that we had.”
For years, Kojima has referred to the first Death Stranding as a “rope” game, riffing off a notion by Japanese novelist Kōbō Abe that the stick was the first tool of humanity, used to attack and defend, while the second is a rope, used to unite and create community.
“If you look at all games, they’re stick games,” says Kojima. “Even though you’re connected online, like a big rope, you’re still fighting over everything — with a stick.”
“I wanted to make a rope game. But looking at the world, you can’t really connect everything with just the rope. That’s one of the themes in Death Stranding 2. In the gameplay, you have a lot of weapons — and that has meaning, too.”
While gamers battle through apocalyptic Australia, Kojima is making even more connections of his own. These include a film adaptation of Death Stranding, produced by zeitgeisty studio A24, as well as two games: the mysterious Physint, and horror game OD, co-created with Get Out director Jordan Peele.
Kojima took direct inspiration from George Miller’s Australian dystopian Mad Max films. (Supplied: Kojima Productions)
Given a Kojima game takes an average of five years to create, the 61-year-old will be busy for a while — but the concepts (and premonitions) keep coming.
“Sometimes, I see movies and get ideas,” he says. “But usually, it’s just talking to people. Eating, walking, or maybe when I’m in the bath.
“It’s almost like a disease. I’m imagining things all the time. Even when I’m talking with my family, in my head I’m in a totally different world.”
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach is now available on Playstation 5.
