Here’s eight minutes of new Death Stranding 2 scenes, posted chopped up and context free on social media as Kojima intended

Promotional Clipman

Despite his cinephile tendencies, one thing you can’t accuse Kojima of is being precious about how people experience his work. Would Scorsese release eight minutes of a film chopped up into two minute chunks on Xitter, to be experienced fractured and contextless to anyone who didn’t tune into the Tokyo Game Show? Would Scorsese have the chutzpah to call a character Head Viceman or Tempted Christman? I doubt it. Irishman doesn’t count. It’s Dollman’s time now anyway. Let’s have a look at the new Death Stranding 2 scenes then. Watch them on your phone for added kino.

Here’s the “first public release of game footage,” say Kojima Productions, via X.

This one shows Norman Reedus’s Sam and Léa Seydoux’s Fragile in a grimy boat, meeting a skinsuitted George Miller as Tarman, who has an inky cat with wings sitting on his shoulder. I played and liked the open world of Death Stranding a lot, but I can’t remember any of the proper nouns, so you’ll have to forgive me for not using them. The ship’s dashboard is so wonderfully intricate I give it two weeks before Microprose make a game about it, and the ship’s wheel itself is a crisp projection that contrasts starkly with the decaying interior.

They have a chat about voyaging through the tar, and Fragile lights a cigarette with the hands on her top, which seems like an incredibly specific use for such an elaborate garment. We’re then introduced to floating puppet Dollman, who’s animated at a lower framerate to evoke old practical effects. I don’t use Twitter these days, although I’m almost tempted to sign up just so I can post about how the doll’s framerate ‘looks like a PS2 game lol’ and see how many people I can annoy.

Dollman insists he’s not actually a puppet - he’s alive! Alive or not, he certainly enjoys singing, as we’ll soon find out.

This one features Sam - now in full colour - still on what I assume is a ship, alongside Shioli Kutsuna’s Rainy and Ellle Fanning’s Tomorrow. Sam is wearing Dollman on his waist now. Rainy is pregnant, and they have a chat about birth and death. Again, I’ve forgotten much of the lore, but I distinctly remember Weird Baby Shit being one of the themes, so this all checks out. They have a singalong, Dollman and Sam insult each other a bit, and it’s on to clip number three. You should watch this one reflected in the back of a spoon.

This one features Sam meeting Hartman from the last game in a spooky lab full of goop statues. I’m really starting to curse my memory at this point. Hartman flips a hourglass over, then collect a tear in a dropper. I remember this all being significant and interesting but I can’t remember how. I foresee many ‘explained in 10 minutes’ videos in my future.

Ah, I do remember this place! It’s Hartman’s house in the mountains, the trek to which was a prime example of the sort of delightful ballache that comprises much of Death Stranding. Hartman has a new device that lets him fall over at weird angles and contorts to support his body, which looks brilliant amounts of fun.

The last two clips aren’t really cutscenes. One is an excellent looking photo mode, and another is a music video featuring multiple dancing Dollmen. I like what I see! But I would like to see Sam climbing a thing next, please. There’s only so many musical numbers I can take before I vow to only play Death Stranding 2 through goggles made out of toilet paper tubes, as Scorsese intended.

If you haven’t been keeping up, we last got a trailer back in January, alongside the announcement of a 2025 release window. Matthew Castle (RPS in peace) reviewed the original Death Stranding in video form, calling it a “brilliant take on open world exploration; a full body cleanse of the genre’s worst habits.”