From your first steps in Death Stranding 2, you know you’re in for something special. The sequel to Kojima’s 2019 game is an audiovisual spectacle throughout its 50+ hour story and endlessly replayable endgame.
The engrossing narrative – with a stellar cast all delivering arguably career-best performances – has you guessing what might happen at every turn. From the epic spectacles to the moments of quietude between deliveries, the pace is perfect and makes this follow-up a drastic improvement over the original.
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It’s a remarkable feat given its turbulent development, which saw Kojima nearly giving up on the game. We’re glad he didn’t.
Death Stranding 2 screenshots
What is Death Stranding 2 about?
Some time has passed since the end of Death Stranding, when Sam Porter walked off into the sunset with Lou, saving the Bridge Baby from its demise. They’ve found a sort of peace in their humble living conditions, but the world is still in disarray due to the events of the Death Stranding. That peace is short-lived though – we’ve got an arc to get through!
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As in the first game, your job as an experienced porter is to reconnect Australia. That means travelling across the continent on foot and in a range of vehicles, taking an assortment of goods with you and delivering them to those in need.
Death Stranding 2 assumes your knowledge though. This is not the type of game you can just jump into and expect to understand what’s happening. Sure, there’s a Death Stranding recap in the main menu, but there are major story beats and character appearances that won’t make any sense if you’re unfamiliar. Kojima even throws in some real deep cuts too, the type of references and callbacks only those with 100 hours in the first game will even recognize.
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Sublime storytelling
Death Stranding 2’s presentation is world-class with its visuals among the very best I’ve seen, and I played through the entire thing on a base model PS5. Kojima Productions is up there with Naughty Dog, the pinnacle of how video games can look, sound, and feel.
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Extraordinarily detailed motion capture helps emphasize the captivating performances, too. I loved Norman Reedus in the first game, but he was a bit generic, and he’s famously gone on record to say he wasn’t entirely certain what was going on in the first game.
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That showed throughout, but here, he appears to have much more of a grip on the narrative. He gives his all in scenes that are both heartbreaking and cheerful, masterfully displaying his emotions.
Troy Baker returns as Higgs – a monster who makes your skin crawl – in what might be his best work yet. Then there’s Neil, brought to life by French actor Luca Marinelli. He’s a revelation.
Kojima ProductionsTroy Baker delivers another breathtaking performance as Higgs in Death Stranding 2.
It’s a testament to the intricate creation process. The writing, performances, cinematography, lighting, animation, set dressing, all of it is executed on with such a remarkable level of care. It’s the type of game you just completely lose yourself in.
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Improved gameplay
Even playing on the Brutal difficulty setting after finishing the story, it’s clear gameplay has been ironed out so that very little feels frustrating or unfair in any capacity. You have all the tools at your disposal. If you mess up, that’s your fault. Whereas in the first game, you often had to fight against the jank while dealing with everything else.
However, as good as Death Stranding 2 is, if you weren’t a fan of the first game, this won’t convert you. It’s still the same game – The bulk of your time is spent navigating the land, only stopping along the way for the occasional conversation, to pick up more goods for delivery, or to fight against BTs (the souls of the deceased), robots, or other humans.
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Kojima ProductionsYou won’t be getting stuck on awkward terrain anywhere near as much as in the first game.
Gunplay is much improved. Back then, automatic weapons felt a bit flimsy, like you’d only use them in a last resort or when forced in the few sections with Cliff. Sam had no idea how to fire a machine gun then. Here, they’re much easier to control and there’s a greater variety of weapons – You’ve got shotguns, grenade launchers, snipers, handguns, assault rifles, machine guns, rocket launchers, and a great deal more that I won’t spoil.
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Stealth is also much more satisfying when you get it right, which is easier said than done. Before you even get close to an enemy base, you need to do some reconnaissance. It’s vital to not only know how many targets there are, but understand their positioning too. With a patient playstyle and the right equipment for the job, you can take down a dozen enemies without making a noise.
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Then there’s the BT encounters, which caused more frustration than anything in the first game. A bit more spaced out in the sequel, the presence of these haunting ghosts is still just as chilling, but it’s a great deal easier to avoid them altogether.
If you do find yourself in a fight, you’ll be treated to a vast array of unique enemy types. There are plenty of BT enemies both big and small that require different strategies and most of the time, different equipment. There’s no ‘one loadout fits all’ type of solution here and if you get caught in a fight with a BT in the sky but all of your weapons are for a close-range stealth mission, you’re very likely screwed.
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Kojima ProductionsOptions in combat feel near-limitless. It’s a tremendously deep sandbox.
The one thing we can say that hasn’t improved, however, is end of mission music. Not to criticize the selection of songs, but rather, the repetition of the effect Kojima is going for.
In Death Stranding, it always felt special when you overcame the odds, saw a haven on the horizon, and some melancholic track from Low Roar started blaring through your speakers.
They’re still present here in the sequel, along with a dozen other artists, but when nearly every main mission ends with a new song, it squanders the chance to make something special.
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In the endgame
For hardcore Death Stranding fans, the endgame is where the real fun begins. It’s all about mapping the most efficient paths between facilities in order to deliver packages unscathed and in a timely manner.
Your goal is to reach that Legend of Legend of Legends S-Tier ranking on as many deliveries as possible. So before even setting out, you first scout the area, assess any hazards, lay out zipline paths, and generally get a sense of how you’ll be navigating from Point A to Point B.
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It’s just as enjoyable here as it ever was, and with a litany of new tools and even revised versions of tools from the first game, it provides countless hours of fun.
Kojima Productions / DexertoEven this far in, there’s still so much left to do in Death Stranding 2.
At 100 hours, I’m only around halfway to flawlessly executing on every delivery. With the social reputation system too, you could play Death Stranding 2 and nothing else for an entire year without seeing everything.
Verdict
Death Stranding 2 is phenomenal. It’s among Kojima’s very best work not just for its narrative, but for the near-limitless variety in its gameplay opportunities.
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While it may very well end up being the final game in the series, at least with Kojima at the helm, we can only hope someone else picks up the mantle and continues to iterate on one of gaming’s most unique experiences. After all, why else would we have connected?
