Summary
2023’s The Game Awards was a huge boost for the industry, letting fans reflect on the best gaming experiences of the year while giving fascinating glimpses into what can be expected for the near future. One of the most exciting announcements of the show wasOD, the next project to come from the mind of Hideo Kojima, working in collaboration with accomplished actor and director Jordan Peele.
In trueKojima Productionsfashion, the presentation gave fans the first bizarre glimpses atOD, bringing up more questions than it did answers about what experience the game will eventually entail. Of course, the commentary from both Kojima and Peele gave more insight into what the project is trying to achieve, and it seems thatODis attempting to be even more genre-bending and transformative than 2019’sDeath Stranding.
Death Stranding and OD Signify Kojima’s Unique Mark on the Industry
Recent projects from Kojima Productions have made a concerted effort to push the boundaries of what is expected from the gaming industry, withDeath Strandingbeing the most glaring recent example of this. In the run-up toDeath Stranding’s release, Hideo Kojima stressed how the game transcended the traditional labels of genres through the gaming lens, with the project having an overall focus on delivering a thematic experience like no other.
Death Strandinghas been widely labeled as the first ina new genre known as strand games, with the title’s ability for fans to help other players outside the usual parameters of multiplayer experiences being the core of what makes this new genre tick.Death Strandingis a deeply isolated and lonely experience, seeing players make deliveries in a barren and perilous landscape with many geographical hazards to navigate. Players can place invaluable tools like ropes and ladders to circumnavigate these hang-ups, which can then appear in other people’s games to give a sense of community and a shared approach to achieving goals.
OD Will Build On the Unconvential Success of Death Stranding
This revolutionary approach to developing games is seemingly going to a whole other level with the release ofOD, with Kojima himself stating how the game is attempting to transcend the concept of video games as a whole to usher in a new medium of interactive content.The trailer forODfeatured highly realistic and emotive performancesthat became increasingly distressed and disturbing, immediately showcasing the creeping horror elements that are set to be at the heart of the title.
Kojima also stressed howODcan best be described as a merging of gaming and film, likely meaning that fans should prepare for a deeply cinematic experience that showcases interactivity away from the usual gameplay loops that games have historically employed. While this may still seem confusing, the fact thatODwill be working closely with Microsoft Games Studio’s revolutionary Cloud Gaming technologymay give some serious insight.
This could hint towardsODfeaturing unconventional multiplayer interaction in the same wayDeath Strandingdid, with players potentially tackling horror scenarios as a collective through the Cloud. WithODpresumably being an abbreviation of overdose, the main purpose of the title is to supposedly push fans to the limit of overdosing on fear itself, and players pulling out of experiences may directly impact how they are perceived by others who are still braving the terrifying gameplay of the title. While more will become known about exactlyhowODfunctions in the near future, it is clear that Kojima and Peele are attempting to create an entirely new medium in their most ambitious project yet.
While it is confirmed thatODwill use Cloud Gaming capabilities, it is currently unknown if this will have multiplayer implications for the game.
