Hideo Kojima Shows Off Death Stranding Photo Mode

Hideo Kojima has provided a first look at the photo mode that will be available as part of the PC version of Death Stranding.

He shared footage of the photo mode in a Twitter video that, unfortunately, isn't of the greatest quality. What can be seen in the low-res video is that Death Stranding's photo mode will work much like many other photo modes in other games.

These are some examples from the Photo Mode in the PC ver. We will introduce on how to create them in another video later. Me, and some staffs that loves to take photos enjoyed making this Mode! Available, June 2nd.

Pre-order nowhttps://t.co/TxRuNL91u2 pic.twitter.com/WvMwqzPiBn — HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) March 4, 2020

You'll be able to pause the game at any moment and then move the game camera around to get the shot you want. You'll also be able to tweak the brightness, the depth of field, change the aperture, and add filters. If you want, you can even make protagonist Sam Bridges pull different expressions and poses, or remove him from the shot entirely. It seems you may also be able to put themed frames around photos as well as turn them into posters.

In another tweet, Kojima mentioned that he'd like to hold photo contests for Death Stranding "by letting users send the photo that they took with the in-game camera." He's referencing a Metal Gear Solid 2 competition that rewarded players for creative use of the camera in that game.

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Finally, around the same time as the tweets about Death Stranding's photo mode, Kojima brought up the fact that, in Metal Gear Solid, he hid a number of his staff members in the game as ghosts. The only way you could see these ghosts were to take photos in certain places using the in-game camera. In fact, most of the Metal Gear Solid games had ghosts hidden in them that can be found through this method.

Kojima doesn't make any direct connection between the Metal Gear Solid ghosts and Death Stranding. However, given that he mentions it around the same time as posting this video, it could mean that there's something hidden in Death Stranding that can be revealed with the new photo mode. Maybe it'll be something related to Kojima Productions' next project, or perhaps even a Silent Hill tease?

Death Stranding comes to PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store on June 2. As well as the photo mode, it'll have higher frame rate caps, ultra-wide screen support, and Half-Life content. There's no word yet on whether any of these new features will be added to the PlayStation 4 version of Death Stranding.

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Chris Priestman is a freelancer who writes news for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.