Death Stranding Is Now Playable, Albeit Still Shrouded In Mystery

Hideo Kojima, the creator of the Metal Gear franchise, has been hard at work on his latest adventure, the PlayStation 4 exclusive Death Stranding, and while we're still trying to figure out what the game is all about (and we're not alone on that), it has been gaining quite a bit of exposure, between its initial reveal at E3 last year and its latest trailer, which premiered during The Game Awards last December.

But the game has been making substantial progress, and, according to Shawn Layden, chairman of Worldwide Studios for Sony, it's actually gotten to the point where it can be played now.

He noted that the game "actually exists" and is in playable form, noting that "it's up and running" while speaking with Telegraph. "It's been aided tremendously after Kojima-san decided to co-opt the Decima (graphics engine) from Guerrilla (that powered Horizon: Zero Dawn). And, gosh, that really gave him a leg up to get up and running and test it and have some prototype levels running. I couldn't explain to you what the game is…" (So it seems like Layden is still trying to figure out the plot as well.)

That said, he did note that the game is definitely taking a turn in the right direction, as it promises to be as revolutionary as Kojima noted it would be, "and more." Of course, since it didn't really get any sort of new reveal at E3 last week (especially during Sony's press conference), we're still not entirely sure what it's about.

But that works in Kojima's favor, as he's always kept his storylines shrouded in mystery, only to surprise us with big reveals when games eventually release – and that hype is certainly building for Death Stranding, just as it has for previous releases in the Metal Gear saga.

As far as when we'll see something new from the game, Gamescom is around the corner, and PlayStation Experience is happening later this year, so we'll probably see something that could queue us in on what's going on with the storyline. Or maybe not.

Death Stranding will release sometime in 2018 (or maybe later) for PlayStation 4.