Death Stranding 2: On the Beach has an official June release date locked in, and judging by the new trailer, a few nods to the Metal Gear Solid series that Hideo Kojima worked on during his tenure at Konami. During the new look at the game, a character by the name of Neil–played by Italian actor Luca Marinelli–was introduced. While his dark past with the Bridges organization was teased, it’s the brief moment where Neil dons a bandana that had Metal Gear Solid fans pointing at their screens:
Gallery
As seen in the image above, Neil looks remarkably similar to Solid Snake once he dresses up for a fight. Back in a 2020 Instagram post, Kojima mentioned that Marinelli would be the “spitting image” of Snake if he ever decided to wear the character’s bandana, and it looks like that prediction has come true in Death Stranding 2.
What’s also interesting to note here is that the character is flanked by several soldiers, similar to how Death Stranding’s antagonist Clifford Unger would surround himself with troops whenever he appeared in the game. That suggests that Neil has died and has become a post-death entity, someone who finds himself driven to complete his unfinished business and can journey to battlefield beaches.
Another reference to Metal Gear Solid can be seen in the brief scene where Heartman takes control of the DHV Magellan submersible, fusing it with a gigantic entity from the tar to take on other titans. Yoji Shinkawa, who was the art director on 1998’s Metal Gear Solid, also worked on Death Stranding 2 so it’s not too surprising to see a few visual callbacks with the design of the Magellan.
There’s also a hint of Pacific Rim in the control interface here for Magellan Man, which is a nice allusion to the film’s director and Deadman’s visual inspiration, Guillermo del Toro.
Gallery
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach will launch for PS5 on June 26, and anyone who purchases the digital deluxe or collector’s edition can start playing two days early on June 24.