In an interview with GamesRadar+ ahead of the 2026 BAFTA Game Awards, actor Troy Baker describes Metal Gear and Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima as a developer who puts "big swings" and creative risks above some need to entertain.
Baker, who played Higgs in Death Stranding 2 and has acted in dozens of high-profile games, says working with Kojima was a process of trust. "It was him trusting me with that role," he says. "It was me trusting him to go, 'You know where this story is going. I'm going to do my part and I'm going to hand it over to you.'"
Higgs was well-received because of how the character "fits into the whole thing," Baker reckons, and that broader vision leads back to Kojima and the way he makes games.
"I think that there's a lot of people that are making games – and I don't blame them – that, right now, are trying to razzle dazzle the player the entire way and make sure that they're having fun," he says. "After all, it's entertainment. But I think that there's other people who go, 'I would much rather have the player walk away impacted than entertained.' And that takes a lot of trust. That takes a lot of faith. That takes big swings only. And you do risk a lot, you do put a lot in the middle when you take that kind of philosophy in making something, especially of this size and this magnitude."
Baker tips his hat to Lucas Pope, creator of Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn, who he calls "a brilliant game designer," as an example of modern developers creating incredible, atypical experiences with small teams (in Pope's case, one-man teams). For Kojima's atypical creations, he returns to the idea of scope and trust.
"Hideo is still making games in very much the way that he made Metal Gear, where it is so conceptualized, and so huge, and so thought out that I think the only way he knows how to swing is big," Baker says. "And when you do that with trust, and you surround yourself with talented people – not only in the cast, but also in the crew – and you still execute that, man, it's a miracle. Truly is a miracle."
Previously, much was made of Kojima's alleged decision to make Death Stranding 2 weirder because playtester feedback was too positive. Kojima later clarified that his intent was to make a game that isn't "digestible," because "something that is not digestible stays in that person for a long time." But the underlying point is consistent: Kojima doesn't seek to make his games suit a mold. And if nothing else, Death Stranding does not fit a mold.
The 2026 BAFTA Games Awards with Google Play will take place on Friday, 17 April 2026, at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.
