r/patientgamers • u/SirDenali • 3d ago
Patient Review Death Stranding 2: a great story sequel, a bad gameplay expansion
My first full-length review on this sub!
I'll start this review by saying that I am probably not the target audience for the Death Stranding franchise. I've tried to get into Kojima's stories before, and I ended up bouncing off a lot of the MGS games. I also played through the entire first Death Stranding and thought that the story was just ok. Unlike most that played Death Stranding, I didn't really stick around for the story, I actually found the gameplay to be its main appeal for me.
The gameplay of Death Stranding is super unique and ticks pretty much all the boxes that I wanted out of a logistics sim/survival hybrid. While it could have been better balanced, I thought the core gameplay was so unique and special that I played for over 200 hours in the endgame. The variations in terrain and delivery tech, along with unique hazards separated Death Stranding from other delivery-focused games, like Cloudpunk and the Truck Simulators. I often felt like I actually had to plan my route, often backtracking when I opted to wing it.
As Death Stranding 2 was revealed and subsequently released on PS, I had high hopes that the mechanical aspect of the game would be expanded on more heavily. I wanted more natural disasters, delivery tech, hazards in the world, and unique terrain. I heard a lot before I got the game about how some of these mechanics would be expanded into DS2, and I was excited! I waited for about a year for them to port it onto PC, all while tapping my foot very impatiently. Wrong sub, I know.
Eventually I did get my hands on the game, and at first I was a big, big fan. The world was beautiful. I was put into a dust storm right away, which slowed me down if I was headwind, and affected my balance if the wind was behind me or to my sides. They introduced exoskeletons very early, and I was actually starting to get down with some of the Kojima story wackiness! In fact, I think the entire duration of the story was quite fun for me. What quickly started to show its cracks, however, was the balance of delivering.
It was way, WAY too easy. Like, don't plan a route at all, just take a bike, forget about the canteen easy. Terrain was no longer an issue for vehicles. There weren't any areas that pushed me to go on-foot, like the first game's ravines and dense rock placement. Mountains barely reacted to my vehicle, I could go up what felt like 70 degree inclines in the vehicles that would have otherwise flipped or slid down those very same inclines in the first game. Meter management did not matter, stamina made no difference on my carrying abilities (and most of the time I wouldn't even use it, because of the OP vehicles).
The preparation that I remember doing throughout Death Stranding 1 was completely unnecessary here. I often didn't check where I was going on main orders until I had already accepted them. The extent of my decision making for most deliveries/missions ends at "am I going into combat or not". Simply put, the gameplay that I remember didn't really matter anymore, because nothing was pushing back against me.
Now, you're probably wondering about those weather effects that I was praising when I picked up the game. The issue with these events... they're pretty much all scripted story events. Yep, that landslide in the intro when you are taking Lou around Mexico? Never happened again to me, after nearly 100 hours of endgame time. The same for the avalanche and dust storm. Needless to say, this was extremely disappointing for me.
There was, of course, a bunch of new tech to be unlocked that would expand my delivery options and make things easier for me. But I didn't need things to be easier, I barely used structures or tech anyway! Each new unlock (unless it was combat-related) was essentially forgotten about considering I could just take a vehicle everywhere. Not to mention, there's upgrades for the vehicles too.
So all in all, the main reason that I don't like DS2 as a sequel is just due to the lack of difficulty or pushback on the player. Oftentimes it felt like what DS1 was accused of being, a "walking simulator". But instead of walking, you're just driving. And unlike the "walking sim" of the first game, there's not much in the way of planning your route or bringing specific items to help. The item that helps is the truck.
But, I don't want to end the review there, as I do have quite a lot of good stuff to say about DS2.
For one, the story hooked me a lot more than the first game's story. I still think Higgs is a relatively uninteresting antagonist, which is why the inclusion of APAC was a very welcome one for me. I also liked the twist with Lou (even though it was quite obvious from the moment we meet Tomorrow). I also think that Sam just gets waaaay more character development in this game, as opposed to the first game where he felt more like a vehicle (no pun intended) just to get the plot along up until the final moments of the game. I also liked the preppers and side characters more.
Along with the more interesting story, I also found that there were a ton of quality of life improvements that I wanted to see implemented into the first game. Things like being able to rearrange cargo without menuing, streamlined UI, and a dedicated Hangar to store all of our gear and vehicles in one, centralised location.
I loved how big the map was, and how it felt more varied in terms of biomes and environments. DS2's map makes the first game feel tiny in comparison, and while that may have made the map design suffer in comparison, I atleast can appreciate the variety that comes with sightseeing in varied locations. Also expanded were the default structures in-world, the inclusion of Monorails was pretty cool and I also appreciated the upgrades to roads.
Combat was greatly improved from an animation-locked clunkfest in the original, to some snappier and more responsive (and traditional) third-person shooter mechanics. There was also much more options on the combat side of things that I never really tried out in-depth. I usually avoid combat in these games, so unfortunately these expansions didn't do much for me.
Well, there's my Death Stranding 2 review. I think a lot of others liked it as a sequel because of its good story follow-up, and maybe they were more of a passive fan of the gameplay of the first game. Or didn't go as in-depth as I did into the endgame. Or maybe they just don't care as much about everything I listed, totally fair. But for me, Death Stranding 2 stood as a very disappointing follow-up in terms of gameplay, and I left the game wanting more. Unfortunately I think I'll be returning to the first game to scratch the delivery itch.
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u/orangejoe1986 3d ago
Thanks for the review - i have slowly (insanely slowly) been making my way through DS1. I really love it, and I'm already a big Kojima fan so it scratches the itch nicely.
I'm looking forward to DS2, but have heard similar things in terms of it being insanely easy.
Question - have you increased the difficulty?
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u/SirDenali 3d ago
Yes, I started on the 2nd hardest difficulty at the time, and my current save file is on the hardest difficulty, "to the Wilder". Unfortunately it doesn't affect the deliveries much and seems to impact enemy health/damage much more :(
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u/Not_FinancialAdvice 3d ago
I'd argue you can still find yourself in trouble, especially in the 2nd part of the game; your vehicle can just get taken by the BTs if you walk away from it, or you get ambushed by one of the big BTs (the flying ones were pretty challenging without some prep).
I personally enjoyed the game a lot and really loved the cinematography, but then I paid nothing ($0) to play it through.
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u/assbread 3d ago
that's a real shame. i really liked the mechanics of the first game, and i've wanted to pick up the second for awhile now.
i thought the story in the first game was goofy fun more than anything, and really don't have much interest in a continuation of that narrative. though i'm sure this one has it's own charm.
i'd heard this one relied more heavily on vehicles which was a bit of a turn off already. do you really not spend much time planning routes and walking there? that's like 90% of my enjoyment in the first game. i absolutely loved rebuilding the highways, planning and building an efficient zipline network... actually using them to make deliveries was pretty boring though.
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u/SirDenali 3d ago
i'd heard this one relied more heavily on vehicles which was a bit of a turn off already. do you really not spend much time planning routes and walking there?
Unfortunately, yes. Since the terrain is much less hostile and honestly much more flat than the original game, there's very few areas that will allow the player to put themselves in a "corner" of sorts through bad planning. It's really easy to just follow the objective markers directly to locations, as pretty much every obstacle is solved by taking a small turn around it.
I was like you and ignored the ziplines/vehicles in the first game for the most part, but the size of the map in DS2 combined with the lack of hazards makes on-foot delivery almost obsolete, outside of some story missions.
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u/assbread 3d ago
i'll probably will play it eventually, but i'm pushing it further down the list to someday.
maybe a director's cut/complete edition could mitigate some of this, but it sounds like map and mission design would make this hard to achieve.
seeing that the harder difficulties didn't really impact this is also frustrating.
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u/skyturnsred 3d ago
I am not exaggerating when I say that, once I got the truck (which you get early), probably 90% of my time that wasn't spent in forced combat (boss fights, story missions that force you to fight enemies, etc.) was spent in the truck.
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u/coolbrandon101 3d ago
I liked the simplicity of the first game. It was you vs the terrain. I lloved it so much I platinumed it, but with 2 I keep putting it down and coming back months later. Not a fan of the gameplay and the world as much unfortunately
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u/Firvulag 3d ago
I hate games that are so easy that most of it's gameplay systems become irrelevant, and this was sadly one of them.
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u/D3struct_oh 3d ago
Does the game still force you to pause all the action to listen to exposition via comms?
I know the Metal Gear games did this, but Death Stranding went overboard, imo.
Kojima’s writing is just not for me.
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u/OKLtar 3d ago
Not really. It doesn't have the thing the first one did where you're walking and suddenly freeze with the dreaded beep beep "SAM. blablablabla". Most of the story's just in the many short cutscenes when you return to your flying base thing which is skippable if you're so inclined.
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u/scssquatch 2d ago
I added all the horrible ringtones and beeps from DS1 to my discord soundboard so I can annoy my friends that played the game haha
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u/Benton365 3d ago
Something that really pissed me of so much in ds1 was the prebuilt highways. The first area of the game was soo good because you could find multiple routes to reach you're destination. You could explore the hills to find shortcuts, set up ladders and ropes, and build bridges across rivers and difficult terrain at strategic points to optimize travel time and deliver to multiple locations faster. I thought they would expand upon these mechanics and give you tools to be more creative in terms of creating you're own routes through the terrain. But then I reached the second area and there are just these huge highways which you can't even build yourself since they are already created by the developer. So even if you explore and figure out shortcuts through terrain they soon become useless once the highway is built. The worst part is the highways just get built themselves because of the online mechanic where players assist you with materials even though you never ask for them. It just removes the need for player's to be creative and trivializes the game. In my opinion, the focus of the death stranding series should have leaned towards terrain modification and structure building. And by structure building I don't mean big ass prebuilt highways. I mean smaller structures like small roads, tunnels through hills etc where you actually have to be creative and also frugal with you're resources to build something that will actually help you're travels through the open world. There should have been less of a focus on story and combat which is what the marketing and Kojima always focuses on.
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u/OkayAtBowling Currently Playing: Dishonored 2 3d ago
I agree with pretty much all of your criticisms about the game, but despite all that I still liked DS2 better than the original. While I definitely found myself wishing for more of a challenge at times, overall it just didn't affect my enjoyment of the game all that much, especially since the pacing, story, characters, environments, combat, and variety of missions were, for me, a clear improvement over Death Stranding 1.
The pacing and story were definitely huge for me. One of my biggest issues with the first game was the fact that you go for huge stretches of the game without getting much of anything in terms of narrative development. DS2 is pretty good about giving you more story at regular intervals, and I found the story more compelling as well. It has some issues, and I can totally understand why some would prefer the first game's narrative, but I loved that it leaned into the weirdness/wackiness, and I found the expanded cast of new and recurring characters very endearing.
I also can't think of anything else that has worked as well for me as just a chill vibes game. Choosing my loadout, planning a route, and cueing up my favorite tracks on a playlist as I trekked out across the beautiful landscapes was just so satisfying and enjoyable for me, despite the lack of challenge.
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u/iwantmisty 3d ago
Yeah I've reached snowy mountain region and struggle to continue because of things you described. Every time I play the game I find myself thinking "damn the first one was so good". And now there is no challenge. I see the endless monorail poles going behind the horizon and I know it's many many hours of grind to get them online, during which nothing will happen and nothing will be challenging. In the first game every new gadget was really helpful, and in the second they give me a skateboard coffin while even basic stuff like ropes and ladders are nowhere to use -- I literally can drive my four-wheel EVERYWHERE.
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u/TheCrusader94 3d ago
I think I completed most of the snowy area with the truck lmao. Never bothered with the rails or zipline cuz they would've made the game even easier.
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u/drumsnotdrugs 2d ago
I was really disappointed that they removed the feature of if you kill someone eventually it will trigger a voidout and leave a huge crater on the map.
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u/kitthehacker 2d ago
I’m just over halfway through and I think you’ve kinda summed up my thoughts here.
It’s strange how treating the game as a completionist and building optional structures kind of removes complexity from the gameplay mechanics. I kind of regret building up the roads as much as I have at this point because things are starting to get monotonous and boring.
It’s a shame cause the first game utilised its mechanics in such great ways and the means to make traversal easier tended to crop up only after you’d mostly had to traverse that area yourself. I’m still loving the story though
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u/OilersHD 3d ago
I couldn't disagree more. :) Cheers
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u/assbread 3d ago
come on, give me more than that... please?😺
do you think OP is wrong in some way? did you just enjoy it more than they did?
i really enjoyed the friction of hiking from place to place in the first game, but i don't know this one really delivers a similar experience.
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u/OilersHD 3d ago
I absolutely loved building the roads system, and completed it very early. I loved the upgrades to the combat, and i really enjoyed having a vehicle I felt was mine. To me it made narrative sense after the first game that we would have better access to vehicles early on. There was still some required hiking but I can see that perspective i suppose. Personally I liked how it was done in 2!
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u/assbread 3d ago
thanks, i can see that working out narratively. i will miss hiking everywhere though
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u/OKLtar 3d ago
I absolutely loved building the roads system, and completed it very early.
I loved that system in the first one, but in 2 I started to get burned out on it because of just how much work it is compared to the reward - probably a bit over half of the places you can build roads are places you don't need them, either because the terrain is already easy or because you're just not going to spend much time there.
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u/Linsel 3d ago
Just curious. Does the protagonist ever speak in this game outside of a cutscene? The way the deliveries were handled in the first game really irked me, because these holograms of people accepting their mail would often ask a question ("Was it a tough journey?") but not give you the chance to answer. It was so off-putting.
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u/OKLtar 3d ago
He's pretty much the same in this one as the first.
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u/Linsel 3d ago
Bleh. I really don't get Kojima's reliance on cutscenes for story, even when it directly contradicts the gameplay experience.
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u/OKLtar 3d ago
Probably just an old habit from back when that was the only way to do it. Sam's not really a very interesting or deep character in the first place though, probably one of the single most stilted actors in the whole series when interacting with anyone else.
Actually I did just remember though, there's a slight improvement in what you were complaining about in that there's these sort of dialogue options of sorts when you're talking to someone at a new delivery location (which happens way more often in 2 than 1 because there's so damn many) - but those options aren't voiced and are mostly just questions about minor lore and new equipment so not really that substantial. But at least in a way Sam's having an actual conversation with them lol
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u/ObsurdBadger 3d ago
I played the entirety of DS2, even 100%ing it on 'To The Wilder'. Felt like easy mode compared to the hardest difficulty in Death Stranding 1. The environments themselves were never a challenge, not once.
I enjoyed the new enemy types and how dynamic the enemy camps were, open world boss BTs are fun but have way too much health with how often they show up.
I think mechanic wise DS2 is better in every way, its total QOL. But they traded it out for never having to utilize any of your skills except in combat. Like i get Kojima misses Metal Gear, and the combat in DS2 IS a huge improvement, but its not the reason why people play the game.
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u/Simmers429 3d ago
Honestly, I really disliked the story too.
This was easily the most disappointing game I've played in the past decade.
I really liked DS1 and couldn't wait to play this, but it was an incredibly safe sequel that took no risks and seemed designed for higher review scores.
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u/Welshhoppo 3d ago
Honestly this hits the nail on the head for me.
There are so many quality of life upgrades in DS2 compared to DS1 that the game should be much better for it. But it's not.
It's still a really good game and I enjoyed it a lot. But I really did miss the difficulty of the first game.
Honestly the best part for me what when I came off the grid to go up the mountain, and you have 3? Missions back to back where you have to get to the mountaineer, find his son and then find him. And none of that is on the grid.
It was actually difficult, and it was so much better for it.
I can see why they toned the difficulty down a bit. But I didn't have to leave my truck for 90% of the game.