Is Death Stranding Cyberpunk?

Today Playstation released a nine minute long release date reveal trailer. As the trailer started up I thought it had a very strong cyberpunk aesthetic. I was even gearing up to write an article about my thoughts on it. However as the trailer went on, I began to think it looked less and less cyberpunk. So I decided to scrap the article. But tonight I was on r/Cyberpunk and I noticed someone with this question, "Is Death Stranding Cyberpunk?".

The old high tech, low life feel is definitely there. It also looks like we will be dealing a lot with the breakdown of social order. Now I don't think a lot of the tropes have to be there for it to be considered cyberpunk. For example, from this trailer I don't see any kind of "megacorporations". As a matter of fact it looks like the government has a stranglehold on society. The other noticeable factor is the story takes place in a post apocalyptic world.

So is the game cyberpunk? Technically it's probably too early to say without too many details of the story. Not to mention that this trailer raised more questions than answered. So there is that. Now I'll tell you a little bit of what I actually think of the game from the reveal trailer.

It should be noted that this is clearly a Hideo Kojima game. Everything from the graphics to the combat look exactly like what you would expect. I haven't played a Kojima game since Metal Gear Solid II. So that probably has some influence on the way I feel about the game.

I'll say right off the bat that I'm not floored by the trailer. At least not as much as most of the gaming community. All of the early cinematic trailers just confused me and the only thing that really had me excited was the involvement of my favorite modern day director, Guillermo del Toro. Recently news has come out that del Toro will not have his hand in the game as much as we thought. That was a little disappointing to me.

Now the actual gameplay doesn't really impress me either. The combat looks a little clunky to me and as I said earlier, the animations are distinctly Kojima. But I hope I am wrong. Despite my first impressions I'm completely open to the game, although I will probably wait for early reviews when it is released on November 8th, 2019.

You can check out the trailer below and I'm curious if you guys think Death Stranding is cyberpunk?

After the collapse of civilization, Sam Bridges must journey across a ravaged landscape crawling with otherworldly threats to save mankind from the brink of extinction.