Somebody actually remade the original Death Stranding trailer using PS1-era graphics and a 1999 release date.
Death Stranding has been out on both PS4 and PC for a while now, and even though the game didn’t sell as well as Kojima would have hoped, it’s still a cultural phenomenon thanks to its wild storyline and excellent marketing. Even if you’ve never played the game and have no intention of ever picking it up, you know exactly what Death Stranding is because of ads featuring naked Norman Reedus holding a fetus.
Plus that whole fetus thing has sort of turned into a meme unto itself.
Advertising for Death Stranding was so iconic that someone decided to recreate the original 2016 announcement trailer as though it were an ad for an original PlayStation game. It even has a fictional 1999 release date.
We have YouTuber Hoolopee to thank for this 3:4 masterpiece. It’s a faithful recreation of the original ad, right down to the use of “I’ll Keep Coming” by Low Roar for the theme song.
Just like in 2016, we start with a rocky beach full of dead ocean life. The textures are far less detailed as the PlayStation 1 really didn’t have the power to render much of anything, but it could manage a few basic polygons here and there if they were pre-rendered. Note that Reedus’ expression never actually changes until there’s a scene change--another nice touch from Hoolopee for remembering the PS1’s technical limitations.
The game originally came out in 2019, but 1999 seems more appropriate for a game that lacks widescreen support.
For those who want to experience the Death Stranding story without actually playing the game, a novelization is coming this November. Amazon has both paperback and digital editions arriving on November 3, 2020. So far there's no tie-ins with the game, which seems like a bit of a missed opportunity.
And if you still have no interest in the story, this seven-year-old boy has summarized the game pretty much perfectly.
Source: YouTube