"Once there was an explosion, a bang that gave rise to life as we know it.  Then, came the next explosion. An explosion that will be our last. Aww, yeah."

　　Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding dropped a new trailer at The Game Awards 2017, and, well, what can you possibly say? Like past Death Stranding trailers, it kind of defies description, but I suppose I’ll try. But first, you can watch it for yourself, below.

　　The trailer, which stars The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus, begins with the line from the top of this post. We open on Reeedus' character, who wakes in a rain-drenched wasteland wearing some sort of protective outfit. There are other people in the same protective suits there, one of which has gotten his leg trapped under an overturned vehicle. The trapped man breaths in some type of contaminant in the air, which makes him age rapidly.

　　Suddenly Reedus and his buddies are surrounded by strange spectral creatures. One of the men is carrying a creepy baby in a capsule on his stomach. Black ooze starts to seep up from the ground and carries away everybody but Reedus. A giant Lovecraftian monstrosity looms on the horizon.

　　We cut to a naked Reedus floating underwater (Kojima knows he has to deliver that beefcake). The camera plunges down Reedus' throat, which happens to contain another creepy baby, who flashes us a thumbs up. Sure, why the hell not? Cut again to Reedus, who's returned to the rocky location from the first Death Stranding teaser. He sheds a single tear.

　　What's it all mean? I haven’t the faintest notion, but I’m sure as hell on board. This eight-minute-plus trailer feels like it’s about thirty seconds long. You’re gripped the entire time. Hopefully Kojima can deliver an entire game’s worth of this craziness.

　　Death Stranding will launch exclusively on PlayStation 4.