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To the surprise of most, Hideo Kojima didn’t play a trailer for Death Stranding 2 at The Game Awards but rather showed off his first horror game since the canceled Silent Hills project nearly a decade ago. The details about this new horror game, OD, are slim at the moment since Kojima is continuing his pattern of cryptic promotion, but there are a few things worth talking about right now.
Players Will “OD” On Fear
Little is known about the story or mechanics of OD at the moment, but Kojima Productions has stated that the intention is to test the fear threshold of players. Relating to the title, the stated purpose of the game is to make players “OD” (Overdose) on fear. What that translates to in terms of gameplay is anybody’s guess, but it seems as though this won’t be an experience for the faint of heart.
Xbox Cloud Technology Will Somehow Be Involved
When OD was announced at The Game Awards, Hideo Kojima said his team is working with “Xbox Game Studios and their cloud gaming technology to take on the challenge of creating a very unique, immersive, and totally new style of game – or rather, a new form of media.” So this title will also apparently be utilizing cloud technology in some form. Again, it’s really difficult to imagine how this relates to a game about ODing on fear from the outside, but Kojima is certainly hyping this up to be an innovative experience.
It Will “Blur The Boundaries of Gaming and Film”
Following up on the idea that this will be an innovative title, another comment made by Kojima at The Game Awards is that OD, “is a game, but at the same time a movie, but at the same time a new form of media.” A hybrid movie/game isn’t necessarily anything new. Titles like The Order: 1886, Until Dawn, and even Death Stranding have blurred the lines between gameplay and cinema in the past, but something about this seems to have Kojima feeling like it’s the next step in that evolution.
The Stars of OD
The teaser for OD shows off three pretty major actors who will apparently all have starring roles in the game. The first is Sophia Lillis, the actor known for portraying Beverly in both of the recent IT films as well as Doric in this year’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. The next is Hunter Schafer, who is known most prominently as Jules from Euphoria, but also Tigris Snow in this year’s Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. The last is Udo Kier, the acclaimed German character actor most known for films like Flesh For Frankenstein, Suspiria, and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
Jordan Peele is Involved as a Storyteller
One of the most-hyped features of the announcement was the sudden appearance of Jordan Peele, the comedian-turned-horror director who has spent his recent years writing and creating some of the most acclaimed Hollywood terror features like Get Out, Us, and Nope. He’s going to be involved in the storytelling of OD, a role that will certainly elevate the profile and hopefully the scare factor of the game.
