Update:
The leaked trailer described below has been replaced with the official 4k "Briefing Trailer," revealed by Kojima Productions at Tokyo Game Show 2019. Further, a new Death Stranding poster was unveiled by the man himself on Twitter, which you can check out before the original story continues below.
TGS now started. I’ll see you guys at the stage! Here’s new image of DEATH STRANDING by Pablo Uchida, the genius painter whom I even feel jealous of his talent. Title design by Kyle Cooper. We have a strong strand by respecting each other. 👍🌈🦀 pic.twitter.com/gGyBhWSv5SSeptember 12, 2019
Original Story:
The privately screened Death Stranding trailer that finally made GamesRadar's own Josh West feel like he finally understands what's going on with the game has leaked online, giving you your own direct connection to Death Stranding's core concepts. The video is all off-screen footage from a low "I'm definitely not filming this with my phone" angle with Italian subtitles added for good measure, but the audio quality is great, considering the circumstances.
The video shows main character Sam taking a meeting in the Oval Office. He's briefly briefed by Deadman - that's the guy with the skull mask - before Sam's old friend Amelie enters the room in a flash of light. Deadman and Amelie explain that she had led a convoy across these great United States (they don't use that exact terminology) to reconnect formerly splintered communities. It was going well until they got to their final stop, Edge Knot City on the West Coast. Its separatist inhabitants rejected their message and even took Amelie hostage to ensure nobody else from her organization would try to finish her mission. Turns out Amelie's only here as a hologram.
Deadman and Amelie want Sam to finish what she started: head west, reconnect the terminals her convoy set up, and eventually make his way to Edge Knot City and free Amelie. Like any self-respecting conflicted protagonist, Sam refuses and storms out of the room because of some bad history with this organization.
Unless all of the other stuff Kojima Productions has showed off about the game so far has been cunning misdirection, he does end up accepting the mission eventually. That isn't a joke about potential misdirection by the way; this game is being made by the same guy who did the Raiden/Solid Snake switcheroo in Metal Gear Solid 2. You never know.
See how our predictions about what Death Stranding is actually about line up with this trailer.
