Death Stranding’s Traversal Could Have Been Different, Reveals Kojima

Death Stranding is finally here after many years of vague teasers and somehow even vaguer gameplay videos. The game is noteworthy for its slow pace and traversal system that puts an emphasis on slow and steady over the quicker pace of most games. That’s proven to be polarizing to some, but it wasn’t always this way. Apparently, the game’s traversal was much swifter in earlier builds.

In the livestream to countdown to the game’s launch, which  you can see below, Director Hideo Kojima talked about at one point Sam could carry heavy gear and weapons, as well as being a much faster character and able to jump over things and scale things at a faster rate. Considering how part of the game’s idea is its slowness and struggle to overcome the mundane, they scaled it back thinking the more encumbered feel fit the game more.

“In fact, as we saw Sam traveling in the previous clip, we also tested exactly the opposite of things, which makes him wear the heavy power gears and carry a lot of devices and weapons, which could technically enable him to jump all over those places. It’s not something new.

“Therefore I decided not to do this in the middle of the process.”

Death Stranding is available now for PlayStation 4 and will release in 2020 for PC. For a look at the mysterious BT entities in the game, we’ve got you covered through here.