Actor Norman Reedus has gone on record as stating that Death Stranding is a better game than the canceled P.T. would have been. The abandoned game created quite a stir when its demo released in 2014, and would have been the ninth game in the Silent Hill franchise, and the first developed by Kojima Productions for Konami.
Directed by Kojima, Guillermo del Toro, and Junji Ito, the P.T. demo showcased a terrifying game experience that players couldn't stop talking about. However, in 2015, Kojima left Konami, leaving the fate of Silent Hills up in the air. Eventually, del Toro announced that Konami had outright canceled the title, which spurred a lot of hatred from fans against the company. Konami removed P.T. from the PS4 store, confirming that the highly-anticipated project was officially dead. However, Kojima later reformed Kojima Productions as an independent studio and announced its first title, Death Stranding, at Sony's E3 2016 presentation.
Despite the defunct status of Silent Hills, though, fans still want more. There have been multiple remakes of the demo, as well as a recent hack that unveiled just how scary the demo really was. However, Reedus, who was involved with both projects, recently told The Hollywood Reporter that he feels that Death Stranding is the superior game. Reedus said:
It was completely different. Silent Hills had the backstory and people knew that game, knew what it was about and what it would look like. When that went away, I was bummed, but when Hideo described what we were doing next, I completely forgot about it. I was like, thank god that didn’t work, because this is way better. This is a completely different thing. I’ve been with Hideo at the Game Awards, and he’s like the Beatles. Grown men in their 40s are screaming with tears in their eyes like Elvis just walked into the room. I’m like, who is this guy? The Hideo that I know is a friend of mine. He’s had dinner at my house, met my girlfriend and my cat. He’s always been super personable and such a friendly guy with a great sense of humor. He’s great to hang out with. I’ve really gotten to know the mind of Hideo a little bit. I like the fact that Silent Hills didn’t happen, to be honest, because I’ve gotten such a peek into the way he works and the way he thinks, and I’m completely blown away by this guy.
Of course, most players still have no idea what Death Stranding is about, and Kojima has described it in a way that continues to make it sound mysterious. There is a theme of connection, and Kojima describes it as a new genre of game, an "action game/strand game(social strand system)." Although there have been trailers, most include mostly bizarre imagery, including a strange upside-down world, a strange rain referred to as "Timefall," babies in pods and late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien in an otter suit.
The strangeness of Death Stranding is so out of the box that critics seem frustrated when it comes down to how they feel about it. However, this is the first game featuring Kojima without the chains of Konami, and that alone should be enough to convince players to buy it. It's certainly not the same game as Silent Hills, or like anything seen in the P.T. demo. But if Reedus is right, Death Stranding could help P.T. fans get over their grief over the canceled project and accept that Kojima has moved on to grander ideas and concepts.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter