When Hideo Kojima wrapped up development onMetal Gear Solid 5, his next project was meant to beSilent Hills, an ambitious reboot of Konami’s survival-horror game franchise that was being developed in collaboration with award-winning film director Guillermo del Toro. Unfortunately,Konami canceledSilent Hills, and eventually Kojima parted ways with the company, leaving nothing but theSilent HillsdemoPTas a clue of what fans could have expected from the game.
Horror game fans were understandably upset to learn thatSilent Hillswas canceled, but then Konami rubbed salt in the wounds when itremovedPTfrom the PlayStation Store. On the bright side,PT’s popularity inspired a number of copycat games, so despite not even releasing the final product, Kojima’sSilent Hillsstill left a mark on the industry.
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Unable to continue his work onSilent Hills, Kojima started an independent version of Kojima Productions and set to work on a brand new IP that would becomeDeath Stranding. Kojima hyped the game for years with bizarre, cryptic teasers, and while the game certainly has horror elements, it’s far from the pure horror that fans were expecting fromSilent Hills. Even so, there is some ofPT’s DNA inDeath Stranding, with certain parts of the game appearing to directly referenceSilent Hillsand its demise.
Before we can get into those references, please note that this post will haveMAJOR SPOILERSforDeath Stranding, especially the ending of the game. This will also contain spoilers forPTas well.
Lisa
InPT, players are tormented by aghostly woman named Lisaas they move through a hellish, endlessly looping corridor. As players continue moving through the loop, they learn some details about Lisa and her tragic fate. It’s implied through the information players collect inPTthat a pregnant Lisa was murdered by her husband when he shot her in the eye and the stomach. Eventually, players are able to get away from Lisa and escape into the outside world, though more horrific things likely await them there.
As it so happens,Death Strandinghas a character named Lisa. Lisa is the wife ofMads Mikkelsen’s character Clifford Unger, who is a US special forces agent. Like the Lisa inPT, Lisa inDeath Strandingwas pregnant, and like Lisa inPT,Death Stranding’s Lisa also suffers an unfortunate fate.Death Stranding’s Lisa is in an accident prior to the events of the game, rendering her brain-dead. Lisa is kept on life support while her baby is put into the Bridge Baby program.
Out of all the female names Kojima could have chosen for Unger’s wife, it’s telling that he selected Lisa. The parallels between the two further solidify the likelihood that Lisa inDeath Strandingis meant to represent or reference Lisa fromPT.
Bridge Babies
Another possible connection betweenDeath StrandingandPTcomes in the form of theBridge Baby Louand Bridge Babies in general. InPT, players can discover a mutilated fetus in the bathroom sink, likely the baby that Lisa was carrying before her husband shot her. InDeath Stranding, players carry around a baby named Lou that helps them detect BTs and other threats. It’s not likely a coincidence that Kojima decided to use fetuses in both games.
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Death Stranding’s Ending
In theDeath Strandingending, Clifford Unger kills his wife Lisa and attempts to smuggle their baby out of the Bridges laboratory where he was being held. This entire sequence could be interpreted as an allegory for Kojima trying to leave Konami with his “baby,” akaSilent Hills. Instead both the baby and Lisa are killed (mirroring the cancelation ofSilent Hills). But then the baby is reborn as Sam, which could be a metaphor for Kojima’s canceled project being reborn asDeath Stranding.
Norman Reedus, Guillermo del Toro, and Junji Ito
While some of the possible nods toPTandSilent HillsinDeath Strandingrequire players to look a bit deeper into the game’s plot than they would have otherwise, there are some more obvious connections between the projects that should be pointed out. First and foremost,Norman Reedus is the protagonistof bothSilent HillsandDeath Stranding. Guillermo del Toro, who was attached toSilent Hillsin a creative capacity, allowed his likeness to be scanned-in toDeath Strandingso that another actor could portray his character of Deadman.
And finally,horror manga artist Junji Itowas also involved in both projects. The extent of Ito’s involvement inSilent Hillsisn’t entirely known, though he does make a cameo inDeath Strandingas one of the preppers that players can visit in the game.
SinceDeath Strandingis full of easter eggs, it’s possible that there are even more connections toSilent HillsandPThiding in its open world that are waiting to be discovered by players. Considering this, it wouldn’t be surprising for even more connections to come to light in the future.
Death Strandingis out now for PS4 with a PC release to come in the summer of 2020.
