In the starting hours of video game auteur Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding, things get weird quickly. You’re on a mission for the president of what’s left of the United States and you’re tasked with transporting a corpse to the incinerator, but every time you shimmy too much weight to one side, your character can easily fall over.
It’s the first few moments of story setup and world placement that Kojima carefully designed, and depending on whom you ask, it’s either brilliant or baffling. That’s exactly the sort of reaction Kojima often garners with his art, where he’s always trying to push the envelope, whether it’s in gaming — or in a recent collab with Uniqlo’s sister brand, GU, with Death Stranding branded fashion. But the artist has a weird paradox of accidentally being too popular when he’s trying to be provocative. Now onto his sophomore title after founding his own company Kojima Productions, leaving behind Metal Gear partner Konami, the 61-year-old has shown no signs of taking it easy.
