Hideo Kojima loves a good photoshoot. His X/Twitter is littered with snaps of him with actors, writers, directors, and all types of avant-garde creatives. His affection for taking a good photo is now reflected in Death Stranding 2 ‘s ridiculous photo mode, which doesn’t just let you take extraordinarily high fidelity photos of the game’s characters, but has implications on the story too.
As part of the first few public releases of in-game footage, Kojima Productions revealed the responsive photo mode’s fidelity, producing like-life photographs that could easily be mistaken for the actors themselves. Lea Seydoux, Elle Fanning, and Shioli Kutsuna all feature in polaroid snaps taken in-game, and the Kojima Productions supplied footage showcases the dynamic range poses and lighting that players are able to snap. It’s incredibly immersive, but that’s not all; Kojima has said that there’s going to be impacts on the story too.
This was said by Kojima himself during the presentation, though there’s been little further information. There has been criticism from fans regarding the “horrendous vibes” of the photoshoot. This isn’t entirely unfounded criticism either, with Metal Gear Solid 4’s photo mode allowing you to take photos of women in compromising positions.
Kojima’s games have historically had moments like this, though Death Stranding seemed to have ironed out those issues. The same can be said for On the Beach, which doesn’t necessarily have women in.
