Why Death Stranding 2 is set in Australia and other things we learned speaking with Hideo Kojima

Australia Broadcast Center

19 hours ago

It's not every day you get to meet one of the most visionary storytellers in gaming — let alone sit across from him in a Sydney boardroom. But that's exactly what happened when I joined a small group of journalists to speak with Hideo Kojima, the legendary creator of Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding .
A genre-defying, post-apocalyptic epic about connection and isolation, Death Stranding cemented Kojima's reputation as gaming's great auteur. He was in town for the Sydney Film Festival, where he shared the stage with filmmaker George Miller ( Mad Max ) in a dream pairing of cinematic minds.
With Death Stranding 2: On the Beach on the horizon, Kojima opened up about sequels, storytelling, and why Australia is the perfect place to end the world.
Sam Bridges (Norman Reedus) treks across Australia in Death Stranding 2: On The Beach ( Supplies )
On why Death Stranding 2 is set in Australia
Hideo Kojima: Death Stranding was based in North America, and we kind of recreated it from east to west — like going after gold back in those days. So I was thinking for DS2 , "What's a good continent that's similar to DS1 ?" Eurasia is too big. Africa might be too long. So I thought Australia would be a perfect fit.
This is a game where Sam walks — he traverses. So you need a lot of things: great environments, desert, mountains. Animals as well. It's almost like a very specific area in the world that has its own animals, plants, species. That's another reason.
But the real reason I selected Australia is this: usually when I decide on a location, I go location scouting. I go there to scan, or to do interviews-things like that. Last time, it was Iceland. It was great-but it was a little cold. So this time I thought, let's make it a little warmer-Australia. But then, no. The pandemic happened.
On what inspired Death Stranding 2
Kojima: Sometimes I see movies and get ideas. But usually, it's just talking to people. Eating, walking, or maybe when I'm in the bath-I kind of come up with these ideas. It's almost like a disease, I call it, you know?
"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."
So even when I travel, I'm not working-but in my head, I'm always thinking about this stuff. When I talk to George Miller, he understands, because he has the same disease. He says, "I've been like this since I was a child — I've been imagining." A teacher once told George, "If you didn't imagine so much, your grades would go up." He told me that story. And I think for me, it's the same. I'm imagining things. I'm happy to be in this job because I'm free to imagine whatever I want.
On the biggest difference between Death Stranding 1 and 2
Kojima: DS1 was a delivery game. It was the very first game of its kind. So I wanted players to understand it. Now people know this is a game about delivery, so I thought for DS2 , I would add more rhythm. More weapons and things you can use — and with that combination, you can now decide: do you battle, go stealth, or avoid?
It's more like you have this rhythm, this beat, where you have the choice to change and decide. It's still a delivery game, but you can fight if you want.
"So the recommendation is: don't go back to DS1 after you play DS2. You should play DS1, then go straight into DS2."
On the hazards of over-connectivity and digital overload
Kojima: During the pandemic, everyone got so isolated in real life. It was almost like Death Stranding . The world of Death Stranding came out three months before the pandemic.
But we had the internet. It wasn't like the Spanish Flu — they didn't have that. During our pandemic, we could order things online. We could work online. We could connect via Zoom. Even concerts — they did live concerts on the internet. Society kind of shifted to being very digital. Even Kojima Productions had to do that-everyone was working remotely.
But I felt that during the pandemic, the direction of the world was heading further and further into digital. And I thought-is that really good? When we were animals, we were born in the ocean. In the water. But we came out, moved to land, and became human. So I think everything on the internet — too much of it-is not healthy. Especially in the digital society we have today.
George Miller provides a motion capture performance for Death Stranding 2's Tarman
On casting famous filmmakers in his games
Kojima: Okay, I'll tell you the truth. It's all people I like.
"I want to work with people I like-people I respect, and who respect me back."
Like, for instance, George-he's my god. And if I work with him, I'm really happy. But if I put my god in the game, I can't escape. I have to really make him perfect in the game. I can't forfeit that once I commit.
On what idea lies at the heart of Death Stranding 2
Kojima: The apes created the stick. You see it in 2001: A Space Odyssey — they become human, but the first tool was a stick. The second was a rope, to pull something you like closer to you. That stick and rope led us to civilisation.
With Death Stranding , I thought: if you look at all games, they're stick games. Even though you're connected online, like a big rope, you're still fighting over everything-with a stick.
So in DS1 , 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 DS2 . In the gameplay, you have a lot of weapons-and that has meaning too, in terms of the theme.
On what you should feel playing Death Stranding 2
Kojima: I want you to use what you experienced in the game in your real life. Connecting people. Rope and stick. Isolation. Not just in Death Stranding , but when you go outside, I want you to feel something in your real world.
And then when you turn the game off, go outside-you realise something different. You see a road, electricity, a bridge. Like the bridge here in Sydney. Someone made that. Someone who created that bridge might have passed away years ago, but you're connected to them.
On what makes a great sequel
Kojima: You know Ridley Scott's Alien ? It was so scary because you don't see the alien until the very end. Everyone wanted to buy that figure. But then, once you have that figure, it's not scary anymore.
Same in Death Stranding . You had the handprints, the BTs come out-that was scary because you didn't know what was happening. But now you do know. So when you do a sequel, it's not scary anymore.
"But with Aliens — James Cameron was so smart. He turned the movie from horror into action."
DS2 is not 100% action, but it's more like that. You already know what Death Stranding is. So topping that — creating surprise in a world people already know — that was the biggest challenge in making the sequel.
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach asks whetner connection is really worth it in a psot-pandemic world.
On how the pandemic influenced development
Kojima: DS2 is quite special because we had the pandemic-everyone experienced it. We couldn't meet face to face. I've been creating games my whole career, but DS2 was the most difficult challenge I've ever had. I know everyone went through similar things. We all experienced that — and we overcame it. So I think we're a little stronger now.
I wanted to go one level higher because of that shared experience. So I created a game about connections.
It got to a point where I almost gave up. But I came back. I reconnected-with myself, with this project. And that's another reason I'm doing this world tour now. I couldn't travel or meet people for the past five years. So I thought — it's about time.
Angus Truskett presents Culture King, a weekly dive on all things pop culture on triple j Drive each Thursday afternoon.