Death Stranding 2's lavish and slightly leery photo mode is what happens when Kojima has a big budget and no oversight

Kojima Productions hosted a 90 minute panel at the Tokyo Game Show, during which Hideo Kojima and assorted guest stars introduced around eight minutes of new footage from the bonkers-looking Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. Among these was a glimpse at the upcoming game's photo mode, an incredibly lavish take on the idea that initially left me open-mouthed and then with an unmistakeably Hideo Kojima question: Is this genius manifest, or just ever-so-slightly creepy and weird? 

We'll get to Kojima's considerable history with in-game cameras shortly, but the Death Stranding 2 clip shows Sam Porter-Bridges (Norman Reedus) taking pictures of Fragile (Léa Seydoux), Rainy (Shioli Kutsuna), and Tomorrow (Elle Fanning) at various locations within the Magellan, the ship that seems to be your home base. The full clip can be seen during the TGS panel (timestamp) or in the below from Kojima Productions.

#TGS2024PlayStation Presents “DEATH STRANDING 2” Special Stage!First public release of game footage.Part 4: 'Photo shoot event' (Stuffed Cryptobiote also make an appearance).#DeathStranding2 pic.twitter.com/O3nrKcIvBWSeptember 29, 2024

To begin with the positives, Kojima Productions' motion capture technology is the best I've seen in a game, with its animations creating a real authenticity behind the character movements (for the most part). Atop this the studio's hyper-detailed aesthetic is stylised just enough that it's sanding off the photorealism before it reaches that uncanny valley stage: though under certain lighting, some of these shots could fool you at a glance.

This positively luxurious-looking photo mode is a love-letter to that scanning tech and Kojima being a hopeless star chaser as much as anything else, the kind of overwrought minor feature that you can tell was made a priority by one man because he loves to use it.

As the three characters swing their arms, shuffle around, and interact with one another there are a few noticeable loops and awkward transitions, but