Death Stranding 2: On The Beach

Partial spoilers ahead. Compared to its predecessor, this game is mellowed out. There's just nothing about it. It got hit with the "your favorite game has been adapted for mainstream audiences". From traversal, to delivery, to story, it's just worse in every way. The one exception, I believe, is the gear assortment. I find the expanded arsenal KIND OF fun, and I still have a road-paving addiction. The arsenal expansion would have been SO FUN to play with inside a game with actual challenge to it. Let me tell you the details on exactly how this game disappoints, if you're a fan of Death Stranding 1: The traversal: Everything is too flat and too easy. You unlock an entire HOARD of equipment, but the game is so painfully EASY, the terrain so horribly unchallenging that you never have to think or use it. Even on the hardest difficulty, there is zero brain activity involved. There's ZERO reason to plan routes, zero reason to think about equipment, zero reason to do anything. You unlock vehicles extremely early in the game and then there isn't ever a reason to use anything ever again. Ever heard complaints that DS1 was a walking simulator? Well this one is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Euro Truck Simulator instead. Not even halfway through the game I found myself BEGGING Kojima on my KNEES, PLEASE give me a challenge, PLEASE GIVE ME ANY REASON TO BRING A LADDER. PLEASE give me ANY REASON to think instead of holding W. No. Not only that but the terrain is just so easy that you don't even NEED Sam in this game. 90% of the entire damn continent could be linked up with a wind-up toy with the Q-pid glued to it. The path from one connection to another is a straight line. It's downright frustrating how mindnumbingly easy it is. There is no overcoming. There is zero sense of pride or accomplishment. You never get a dopamine hit from reaching another person. There's no "I made it" feeling, EVER. The gear you have unlocked is staring at you straight in the face like it mocks you, because to actually try and use traversal tools would be a straight efficiency and ease downgrade compared to the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ truck. Even for scaling "difficult terrain" the truck is superior. Exoskeletons? Forget those. Ladders? Nawh. Climbing anchors? Unnecessary. Heating packs? Needless. Deep water? Tar? Slope? River? Canyon? Maze? Rocky terrain? Snow? The best traversal option is truck. On the story: It is kind of abysmal compared to DS1. There's no sense of mystery or wonder at any point. I struggle to narrow down where it fails. What I hate is that the Extinction and Death Stranding as a whole exist as a mere backdrop right now. It feels like humanity no longer struggles. There is no feeling of darkness or hope against a hostile world, nope! Everything's under control, we functionally beat the Stranding guys! We actually harvest it n ♥♥♥♥ and build all sorts of crazy technology and it doesn't affect us really anymore, it could very well not even exist. Especially the phenomena of individuals like Rainy make the struggle feel pointless, with Tomorrow's presence, and discoveries like timefall resistant animals etc, it's just... arbitrary. Nothing feels dangerous or special anymore, because everyone and everything is. The beauty of DS1 highlighting the resilience of human spirit against the cruelty of the universe is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ gone, man. I'll be waiting outside. Past some point, I felt like I'm watching a cheap superhero movie where everyone is more special than Sam. On top of it I feel like the lore of death stranding itself has zero application here outside of gameplay, like you could rip the death stranding out of this game and the story wouldn't have meaningfully changed. Everything takes a backseat for boring interpersonal drama with zero stakes. I hate what they've done to the characters, I hate what they've done to Sam in particular. At no point do I feel required or pivotal to anything excepting the game deciding that I am, for some unbeknownst reason. Anyone could take a Q-pid, get in a truck and drive these 200 meters from shelter to shelter. The narrative feels to somewhat revolve around Sam and his loss of Lou, except it doesn't really. We get some expansion of personal history of Sam's wife, and the events concerning her and Neil Vana are far mor important to the plot than anything you've ever contributed. It reminds me of Destiny 2's storytelling model where you complete an activity and watch two people more important than you have their story unfold in front of you and you just act like the go-here-do-this silent cameraman. A spectator to your own life. Everything that was terrifying was systematically dismantled, and every stake was driven into the ground. My mind goes to how marvel and DC create a million stories where someone dies but they're too afraid to actually commit to it so they just bring them back in a later release. The story has zero weight and zero consequence. Worst of all? [spoiler] Not only does the big reveal ruin the found family trope from DS1 about Lou being genetically Sam's kid, but the sorrow of losing a child is undone by literally bringing Lou back as Tomorrow. Found family ruined. Grief and coming to terms with loss ruined. [/spoiler] The message of the game gets ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ obliterated from high orbit the very second it could have meant something. I swear to God, it's like watching blockbuster slop wearing the peeled skin of my beloved IP. --- The positive things I have to say is that the expanded arsenal is kind of nice. Structures feel way more interesting, and so do weapons. I enjoy the backpack attachments, the vehicle customization is very nice (I just wish there was any reason to put on anything else than extra batteries). My particular love goes to Level 2 roads, and angled ziplines. I would have loved these in death stranding 1. Monorails are interesting, but I'm not a big fan of watching my screen idle for minutes on the end. Mines are a wonderful concept, and a great way to procure resources. Tranq Handgun and Sniper fondly remind me of MGSV. There's a lot of extra stuff, like BT hologrenades, stealth and decoy nades, smokes, EX nades, it's so nice, it really is. The game just suffers from a terminal case of "it's too easy so you're handicapping yourself by using infiltration tools instead of just mowing everyone down with the shotgun". Unlike DS1, I feel like the game doesn't have real replay value. I am still going to 5-star everyone - but it just feels like wasted potential every moment I play. It makes me sad. I hope DS3 is more like the original than this game. The only thing I'd really pass on from this one are weapons and structures. If you enjoyed DS1, there's a chance you will still enjoy this game, but high chances are you will play heartbroken, every moment of the game seeing what could have been instead of this. I think it's still worthwhile to play it if you liked DS1, but I feel like it's a game made for people who hated the original. Despite my enjoyment of it, I must leave a negative review, as I hate the direction this game decided to take.