Death Stranding 2’s weird dummy is making Alan Wake 2 fans do a double-take

Oh damn, is that famed author Alan Wake himself?

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Death Stranding 2: On the Beach features one character that sure looks like a dead ringer for none other than Alan Wake himself.

Yesterday at thePlayStation State of Playshowcase, Kojima Productions unveiled Death Stranding 2, now subtitled ‘On the Beach,’ complete with anew 9-minute trailershowing off the sequel’s story. Among the details is a new puppet, who’s makingAlan Wake 2fans do a double-take.

In short, everyone’s making the same joke: this is Alan Wake seemingly trapped in the Death Stranding universe. Quite why Kojima Productions has arrived at a character design so eerily similar to the famed author is anyone’s guess, but it’s garnering a lot of attention around social media.

It was cool of kojima to add alan wake into the game https://t.co/0YQBVSWoBbFebruary 1, 2024

I haven’t even seen the Death Stranding 2 trailer, all I’ve seen is this still of the Alan Wake puppet and already I’m confused pic.twitter.com/0vYPmTfOSvFebruary 1, 2024

Alan Wake trapped in another realm apparently https://t.co/2zOFFP3Z3SFebruary 1, 2024

Well, technically, the newcomer to Death Stranding 2 isn’t actually a puppet - it’s a ventriloquist’s dummy. But, again, we’ve got absolutely no clue what said dummy is doing in Kojima Productions' new game in the first place. That’s just one of many questions we’ve got on our minds, and they won’t be answered for a fair while yet. The one thing we do know is not actually Alan Wake, but is in fact a portrayal of Turkish-German film director Faith Akin, one of the many celebrity appearances that we can expect in Kojima’s new game.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is set to arrive next year in 2025, exclusively forPS5. The new trailer yesterday also showed off aship that looks somewhat inspired by Metal Gear Rex, if you wondered what other anticsHideo Kojimahas buried in the latest trailer for fans to pour over for at least the next few months.

Head over to our fullupcoming PS5 gamesguide for a look at all the other exclusivesSonyhas pencilled in for the foreseeable future.

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Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.

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