For those who haven’t heard of upcoming driving simulatorSnowRunner,the game sees the player navigate offroad terrain and fully explorable open environments in a number of incredibly impressive vehicles as they deliver cargo across the open world. In several ways, the idea and obstacles thrust towards the player are very similar to those of another game, with a number of the title’s fans likening the idea to Hideo Kojima’sDeath Stranding.It seems the comparison between the two titles hasn’t been lost on the developers of the upcoming game either.
Posting a new and surprisingly emotional trailer titled “United We Drive,” Focus Home Interactive seems to be paying homage toHideo Kojima’ssurreal apocalyptic postman simulator through a number of small creative decisions. The homages, which are actually fairly plentiful, come through a lot of the trailer’s text, the gameplay aspects it shows off, and the wording of its teasers.
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Beginning with the emotional voice-over of a truck driver’s wife, the trailer eventually proceeds to play the song “Don’t Let Me Go” by Raign. Much likeDeath Stranding,the trailer elects to show off the title of the song and the artist through small text in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. It then cuts to numerous text cards with eerily similar font and wording to those from theDeath Strandingtrailers, telling the player to “reconnect a vast open-world” and to “keep America going.” Each of these is intercut with beautiful landscape shots not all too disconnected fromDeath Stranding’sstriking cinematography, showing cars ascending up steep hills and looking down over vast snowy landscapes.
To add even more fuel to the fire, the trailer then begins to introduce its roster of branded vehicles as though they are actors, with the effect looking near-identical to howDeath Stranding’srelease date trailer did last year. One, for example, reads “starring Chevrolet,” while another announces “co-starring Caterpillar.” It’s evidently a tongue-in-cheek reference to Kojima’s incredibly popular game and a hilarious example of how far-reachingDeath Stranding’sinfluence has spread across the industry.
Of course,SnowRunnerisn’t the first game to be influenced by Kojima’s popular 2019 release.Cory Barlog claimed he was listening to the game’s soundtrack in the background during his writing sessions, whileDay’s Goneadded aDeath Strandingthemed motorcyclein an update to celebrate the title’s launch. Evidently, Hideo Kojima has once again created an experience that has quickly become iconic within the gaming community.
SnowRunnerwill be available on April 28, for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
