Death Stranding 2 Concept Art Reveals Sam’s Lost Turtleneck Phase

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach isn’t exactly subtle in its themes, as the story is clearly influenced by COVID, lockdowns, and travel restrictions in place during the early years of the coronavirus outbreak. Originally, game director Hideo Kojima had an entirely different story in mind, but after the COVID pandemic began in 2020, he began to rethink his approach to the topic of connection. So what did Death Stranding 2 originally look like? For starters, it would have involved a lot more high-end fashion for its protagonist, Sam Porter Bridges, and his allies.

Kojima recently posted images online from the upcoming Death Stranding 2 art book, showing off a “pre-COVID” look at Bridges and Fragile. Bridges is wearing a stylish suit and turtleneck instead of his usual timefall resistant porter outfit–the look was inherited by another character in the game–while Fragile is decked out in some killer fashion that references her original outfit from Death Stranding.

“This is an earlier, pre‑COVID setting, from the art book,” Kojima wrote. “On the left are Sam and Fragile in the final scene. Once the pandemic hit, the original pre‑COVID storyline was revised.”

Things would eventually change as Kojima wrote a new story for the sequel, which saw Bridges embark on a continent-spanning journey to reconnect the scattered cities of Australia, heal from his trauma, and stop his nemesis, Higgs, from bringing about the final Death Stranding extinction event. After launching on PS5 last year, Death Stranding 2 is headed to PC on March 19, offering a variety of improvements and new features, including uncapped frame rates and support for ultrawide monitors.

If you’d like to grab the Death Stranding 2 art book and see just how different the original pitch was, you can grab it for $40 (was $50) from Amazon ahead of its release on February 17.