I was excited for Death Stranding 2, the first game was special and invited me to think deeper about the games I play and genuinely might have been the catalyst for much of the personal development I've had since 2019. So going into this game I had high expectations, it's a Kojima game after all and despite the many shortcomings I see in his writing he always manages to deliver something that entertains and leads to contemplation of his story, the ideas it explores, and my own beliefs. Death Stranding 2 is no different and is what very well might be his best work. It has writing that tells a more cohesive, tangible, and personal tale while still retaining all the existential themes and commentary on the world although more toned down to allow for that actual storytelling. The gameplay takes what the first Death Stranding did and evolves it in every sense of the word, the game refines all the features from the past game and introduces tons more that expand the sandbox to be more fun, varied, and dynamic. The core gameplay loop of delivering packages is still what the game is but how you do it has been opened up ten fold and features like stealth and combat have been executed to feel akin to MGS5 and more naturally integrated into the package delivery loop. It's seriously one of the most engaging gameplay experiences I've ever had. I became addicted to playing this game and as I write this all I want to do is dive back and deliver packages.
One of my biggest issues with the first Death Stranding was how difficult it was to discuss the story due to it being so wrapped up in world building and thematic commentary. Most of the game was exposition and vibes accompanied by bad pacing but when the game allowed itself to tell a story it was really special. Death Standing 2 is an acknowledgement of that shortcoming and immediately makes it clear that this is going to be a personal story focusing more on characters and less on extinction entities and all the rest. Death Stranding 1 was about evolving the ideas of this world and Death Stranding 2 is about evolving the characters, making me care about them beyond just being figure pieces for exposition. It's about exploring the direction of Mankind now that they are starting to connect and overcome the Death Stranding, questioning whether we should be stagnant and safe or embrace growth in face of the unknown. The game not having to fill in the player on how and why things are happening this time around gives way for an interesting storyline full of those special moments Death Stranding 1 so sparsely gave us. It gives us a deeper understanding of the world and its concepts through character work instead of exposition. Kojima figured out how to tell his story.
It's a direct and hard continuation of the last game, Kojima expects you to know how everything works and takes no time to explain things from the last game. For me to go into depth on the plot of this game would be a herculean task, there’s so much happening both beautiful and weird. If I was just to write out and summarize the story, it wouldn’t do justice to the emotions the story elicits because so much is wrapped up in the superb performances, music, and direction of it all. So what I’m going to write below is truly just rambles about the story with no real direction of flow and If you’re anyone who’s not me reading this, you’d be best off just skipping to the gameplay section.
The story starts with Sam being off the grid raising Lou but gets pulled into connecting Mexico to the chiral network which leads to Lou’s “death” and the appearance of a plate gate which acts as a teleporter to Australia. Fragile asks Sam to come with her and her new crew aboard the DHV Maglin to connect Australia as a way for him to cope with Lou’s death; it's a final journey with dead for Sam as he’s tricked himself into thinking Lou is alive. I do have issues with how Lou’s death is handled and just how the grief and damage it would do to a parent is explored. I don’t think enough weight is given to it and I needed to see Sam struggle with it or at least open up about his mental health more. Which might be out of character for him and I think we are expected to intuit the state of his psyche but having him be more vulnerable or at least show the others are perceiving him while he’s believing the lie that Lou is still somehow with him would have gone a long way.
All that being said, Sam is much more of a character this time around, we get to see how much he’s grown as a person while getting context about his past and what happened in the Voidout that took out a whole city and killed his wife and child and ultimately set up the first game. Being a father to Lou has brought out a much livelier version of him and he’s no longer afraid of connections, in fact he embraces them as seen with his interactions with Fragile and acceptance of the rest of crew. Sam is active in the story instead of just being an extension of the player like in first Death Stranding, he’s the driving force of the narrative and much of the game is about him figuring out the origins of Lou and what really happened to her. It's a mystery with an obvious twist but the layers of it deftly explore the character of Sam, Fragile, Lucy (Sam’s Lover that died), Higgs, Neil (the guy who Lucy had an affair with), and of course the character of Tomorrow. While also exploring the world of the dead, beaches, and how souls or The Ha and The Ka work in this story, plus fleshes out The UCA and BRIDGES. There’s a strand connecting all the characters and ideas in the mystery of Lou which leads to a satisfying finale that gave me answers to pretty much everything I could have asked. It was damn impressive how Kojima brings everything from the past game and this one to a conclusion without completely fumbling the bag, especially with the inclusion of batshit crazy moments so intertwined with Kojima’s past games and life. It felt like an ending to this game and him closing the book on his past franchise once and for all after it was stripped away from him. There was multiple clear FUCK YOU KONAMI moments in the ending and throughout the game.
Just because Kojima nailed the ending doesn't mean the game's story is flawless though, quite the opposite in fact. He still struggles with the moment to moment conversational dialogue, it often feels forced just so the game can ferry you to the next big moment. The story needed to slow down and just let naturalistic interactions play out to bring some believability and humanity to the cast. Kojima can write the hell out of a monologue but he gets caught up in those and misses the little moments between characters. Each Character of the DHV Magilen is incredibly unique and interesting in design and conceptualization, they all get these exquisite lengthy backstory cutscenes that give us a real sense of who they are and why they are here. But as actual characters in the story they all feel very thin, you get little interaction with them apart from advancements in the plot which leaves little room for their character to grow. I just wanted to spend time with these characters and get to know them on a deeper level and have them get to know Sam, it's a huge miss to have so little bonding between the characters. For a game about forming connections I felt very little for the cast despite loving the idea of their characters.
That's not to say the game doesn't try to show the smaller moments between Sam and all the rest but it's often awkward and too quick to end. These are mainly done when you come back to the DHV Magilen after an order and Sam will walk on in some sort of small moment between Tomorrow, Rainy, and Fragile, it's just little slice of life stuff but it adds a lot to the characters which is why it's a shame that there's so little of it. If these scenes just went on for a few more minutes each I think the story would have benefited greatly because just as I started getting a feel for each character in the scene I’d be thrusted back to my private room to be barked at over the intercom by Tarman or Charlie about useless over explained information. And it’s only really Fragile, Tomorrow, and Rainy that get these scenes of bonding; everyone else is only active when relevant to the plot. Like, I wanted to love these characters and truly invest with them but there was just no chance for me to do so. The game was so invested in the plot itself that it ended up leaving its characters in the dust and then when the plot decided that I needed to care about the characters it was too little too late. The biggest victim of this being Tomorrow who is the most important piece of the puzzle, the entire time was spent establishing her role in the story instead of establishing her and relationships. It’s such a missed opportunity because her role in the story is beautiful and means so much to everything and everyone in it but she’s not given the character development needed.
The characters that are most well executed (apart from Fragile who character I thought really shined in this game) are the ones Sam has a more one sided relationship with because it's then when Kojima can shine and just write fantastic scenes, not have to worry about us being invested or Sam building a relationship with them. I think the clear example of this is Higgs who once again just chews up the scene and is a fantastic villain. I won’t claim that he’s interesting beyond being a villain for Sam which maybe can be seen as bad thing but he plays his role dam fucking well. He has some of the most entertaining scenes of any Kojima game and his motivations in this game are much more fleshed out. I feel like I understood his character even more, plus he lets Tomorrow and Fragile get some character growth when they are in scenes with him. Every time he popped up in the story I knew that was in for a treat. I can't stress enough just how good of a performance Troy Baker gives. The other character who falls into this camp is Neil Vana who while I think heavily falls prey to Kojima’s awkward dialogue does end up feeling fully realized and serves a role that brings everything together in an unexpected way. I disliked how I was forced to interact with the character though since it felt like an unnecessary retread of Cliff in Death Stranding 1 and they could have done something a bit different. I will admit however that those interactions breed some cool visuals and moments so I'm not that upset.
The last thing I want to touch on with the story is that while Death Stranding 2 tells a significantly better story in pretty much every way when compared to Death Stranding 1, I didn't walk away with much. What I mean by that is with DS1, I felt like Kojima was saying some pretty profound things about humanity and it had a valuable message. DS2 being more about the storytelling made it kind of forgot to say anything of true value and maybe I'm missing something but that's just my take. Which doesn't mean it's devoid of emotion or even necessarily needed to say anything new because the first game said so much and this game carries that same messaging which certainly counts for something. Plus, it does commentate on AI and the ways humanity is devolving or stagnating through the use of it. Thinking about it more now does kinda cancel out my point but it certainly wasn't as strong of a message as what the first game did. Which also might be a victim of the exploration of grief being fumbled with Sam and each of the side characters not being explored enough for them to really impart any true emotionality.
I don’t have nearly as many criticisms or mixed feelings about the gameplay as I did for the story because I think it's pretty much perfect. Now if you didn't like DS1 then DS2 won’t do anything to make you like it but if the first game was your shit then this game improves upon every aspect and expands it. The core loop of delivering packages from point to point, combating the terrain, vibing out, and arriving at your destination is still the heart of the gameplay. I talked about it in my DS1 review but the mechanization of movement is a weirdly engaging experience, every step you take is an active choice and the terrain alongside the deliveries and your gear impacts it. You’d be hard pressed to find a game with deeper movement mechanics, there’s a level of depth and detail that's unmatched. I won’t go over it all here because there’s just too much and I think writing about it would be boring but engaging with it is far from it. DS2 adds so much to it too, with deeper movement mechanics when it comes to dodging and weaving the body in the midst of combat and animation work has been touched about to look better and have more to it. I could legitimately just walk Sam in a straight line for hours and have a more mechanically engaging experience than a lot of games.
Just like the first game, the terrain is the challenge and this time around it is much more varied with biomes from both Mexico and Australia. Across both of them you’ll see a mix of dry desert, tropical mountains/valleys, deserted towns, rocky cliffs, a red desert, icelandic beaches and mountains, a massive snowy mountain, and more. I'm not saying the landscapes make sense for their given continent but it makes for one the most beautiful worlds I've ever had the pleasure to explore. All these new environments bring new hazards too, there’s of course just the challenge on conquering the raw terrain but now rivers can flood, bush fires can break out, sandstorms can roll in, and avalanches or earthquakes can fuck your shit up. It's just a more interesting world than DS1 with secrets and areas that are worth going to just for the sake of it which DS1 really didn't have. There would be times when I was just making deliveries and just stopped all of the sudden and took in the world, rested, listened to the music, and marveled at its beauty and details. It led to some surrealist reflections on both my own life and the story of Death Stranding, it was powerful and when the game feels to be working in perfect harmony with all its bits and pieces to do something no other game has done.
With a more interesting world you still have all the tools from DS1 at your disposal and are touched up for the most part to conquer it, and DS2 introduces even more to use. Just to name a few small things like ladders being mechanized, ziplines allowing for curvature, bridges having more reach, and cargo catapults being enterable shows the developers really thought through the ways they can improve upon what was there and adjust them for new terrain. Tons of these small changes to the tools from the last game can make a world of difference when out in the world making deliveries and alone would have made it a successful evolution of the gameplay. But the game introduces new tools like a hover board, teleporters, monorail systems, silenced weapons, more melee weapons, new exo skeletons, grip gloves, various boots, fresh attachments to your backpack, a blood boomerang, new vehicles with customizable attachments, and many more things big and small to aid you in the many deliveries. The deliveries themselves are more varied as well with more types of cargo and delivery conditions, the biggest of them being live animals that you can rescue and take back to animal shelter and build up your own little zoo. But deliveries will also push you into enemy camps more often which is where you see how much the stealth systems have improved and just how many tools you have at your disposal. I already talked about the silenced weapons but there’s also gadgets such as knockout gas and decoy grenades to name a few then the melee combat is just so much more robust. Plus you can take off your backpack to get real sneaky and just rock a silent pistol and assault rifle to really feel like a badass and infiltrate an enemy base. I still wouldnt say the stealth and combat is great but its much much better and actually enjoyable to do when out in the open world. The sandbox is very much reminiscent of MGS5 which is a huge complaint to the game.
As for the BT gameplay, it's pretty much the same but those sections have been drastically scaled down which honestly was such a relief. Instead they added more variety to the BT boss fights and actually made them a little challenging but they still just mainly engage you through amazing visuals and designs just like the last game. And while they are more challenging mechanically complex you have so many more weapons at your disposal and even combat capabilities from the DHV Maglin that it kind of trivializes them. One super cool thing though is being able to capture BTs and summon them in fights so it pretty much turns into a mini pokemon game and getting to see massive BTs fight each other never got old.
I haven't talked about the social link systems yet just because it’s all the same as the last game but just applied to all the new stuff as well. So it's just as cool and a big part of the experience but I don’t have anything new to say about it. And I do want to start wrapping up my thoughts but it's hard because there’s so much more I want to write about but this is already going on for too long. I haven't even touched upon the progression systems which while still mainly being rooted in unlocking new gear and goodies which there’s a ton of there’s now a whole skill tree and mastery stats plus a lot of visual customization for Sam and his gear which wasn't in the last game. Then there’s the mines and the revamped material and construction economy laid out across the whole map. Tons of small things to do while resting in your private room or out in the open world. I mean I haven't even talked about the DHV Maglin and how it changes the way you get around the world and store your shit or the streamlined menus and interactions with the facilities you deliver too. I guess I’ll just end it by saying that this is a game that thinks of everything you could ever want and has a feature bill around it. There’s a reason why im still delivering packages 90 hours in and having the time of my life. Death Stranding 2 feels like a perfect evolution of this brand new genre Kojima makes, and while the story both impresses and stumbles I can't deny how addicted I was and still am to playing this game and being in this world. Kojimia did it again.
