Sam Lake, who works for Remedy Entertainment and has written and directed games like Max Payne, Alan Wake, and Quantum Break, is a big Hideo Kojima fan. In a recent Gamespot interview, he spoke on his admiration for the Metal Gear Solid creator and his unique take on video games.
“I love it, that we have auteurs and the possibility of just trusting your own vision and going with it,” he said. “Kojima is brilliant, I feel. I still don’t know what [Death Stranding] is really about, but I’m really interested to see where he’s taking it. The more that there are creative visions, and strong visions, and opportunities for creative people to express themselves, the more benefit it is to the whole games industry. It’s an opportunity to be inspired and try out new things.”
In the realm of film, auteur theory refers to directors that have control over all aspects of their finished work, which creates a unique, recognizable style and recurring or connected themes. Both Lake and Kojima have been called auteurs, and both are known to inject their film influences into their games.
Lake’s storytelling style uses supernatural elements and dream-like qualities, so it’s no surprise that he’s a fan of Kojima and the gonzo storytelling that the Metal Gear Solid series is known for. And from what we know of Death Stranding thus far, it looks to be just the kind of far-out experience we expect from Kojima.
Sam Lake’s next game is called Control, which he claims is a game that is being created with less creative barriers than Quantum Break.
“For this—and don’t get this wrong because I’m really proud of what we achieved with Quantum Break—but intentionally from the beginning, with Quantum Break, we wanted mainstream appeal, a big blockbuster thing. Because, creatively, you want to keep things fresh and interesting and get excited about it. It’s kind of a pendulum swing.”
“And for [Control] we just said: ‘You know what, let’s just go with what excites us,” he continued. “Really, even if it’s just really out there and weird, let’s embrace it and go with it. We love pop culture, we love many different things, but so do gamers out there. Let’s just trust that if we go on this journey that they’ll come along.’ And that excitement is contagious. So we didn’t want to be boxed in in any way; we just wanted to go out there and go crazy, in some ways.”