Played on the PlayStation 5 Pro – VRR enabled
At this point, you are probably aware that Death Stranding 2 is getting overwhelming praise across the board – even from people that hated the first game. My take in this review is to solidify that opinion – to show that it’s deserved because we are dealing with a gaming crisis: overstimulation. Death Stranding 2 is here to pace us in finding the joy in gaming, rather than feed into an addiction. It is a much faster pace game than Death Stranding 1, but still a slower paced overall game based on current standards – Death Stranding 2 has so much to offer, layered and compartmentalized in such a way that encourages player exploration. This is coupled by Kojima Production’s effort in producing one of the best looking, if not the best-looking game ever. Yes, Death Stranding 2 exceed expectation from fans and new players alike, all while staying true to its core message – connect through unconditional love.
One Singular Beach
Hideo Kojima is firing through all cylinders in Death Stranding 2; this game is delivering a plot with a dark undertone, while thematically staying as whacky as it can be. What that means is, there are deep philosophical exploration, death, threats and consequences, at the same time encountering charismatic, strange and expressive people – even a pizza chef that will recreate a scene from Raid 2 and teach you pizza martial arts moves.
The story takes place 11 months after the events of Death Stranding 1 – Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus) is living an isolated life with BB-28, or Lou – who he named after his deceased daughter. Shortly after the game starts, we are visited by Fragile (Lea Seydoux), who is now running an out-of-state porter business to connect the rest of the world, calling it Drawbridge. Sam being a repatriate, a person that is connected between the world of the living and dead – and can’t die, is asked to help with this new endeavor because connecting the Chiral Network in American created a new phenomenon called a Plate Gate, which is causing environmental hazards such as earthquakes, unpredictable weather and new forms of BT’s (Beached Things – entities from the Death Stranding, another universe). Sam reluctantly agrees while Fragile watches over Lou as he connects Mexico and investigate this Plate Gate issue.
I’m aware that you’re here a couple weeks after review embargo lifted (Kojima Productions provided a code during early access period), but I won’t reveal the events that unfolds after, as I am a firm believer of players experiencing great things themselves first, and not through others. What I will tell you is that Hideo Kojima and his team crafted the most Metal Gear Solid story experience we’ve seen since Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. There’s a slew of cutscenes in conjunction of immense gameplay. Everything from performance, graphical fidelity, cinematography, choreography, dialogue and set pieces is through the fucking roof. Every facet that players complained about, is rectified here to such a degree that is unfathomable. This is absolute peak story telling. There’s a lot less confusing language for newcomers, which in turn helps clarify a lot of confusing elements for fans of the plot. I’m not going to deny that it may still confuse a vast majority of players, but you will need a lot less exposition this time around. There was one element I felt was delivered underwhelmingly, but it did not deter me from the plot, I just wish it was done a bit differently. If you’ve seen the trailer, it has to do with the red cybernetic samurai. The tail-end of the plot is filled with great set-up for Death Stranding’s future, one that I am eager to immerse myself furthermore.
Decima Engine is Outmatching Everything
Somehow, some way, Kojima Production managed to use actual sorcery to craft such an insane looking game. It is by far the best-looking game; one I think will only be toppled by GTA6 or The Witcher 4. Photo-realism is about 99.9% accurate with some telltale elements like BT critters that roam the environment or player structures. Norman Reedus’ (and cast) likeness and overall detail is damn near perfect too, complimented by excellent use of facial animation that is equal to The Last of Us Part 2. There are details such as peach fuzz on face and arms, cloth physics and slight muscle deformation which is seen when Sam showers. Light and shadows is the highlight here, as it complements the physical based rendering and incredible scatter detail. Because it’s so difficult to create ambient occlusion in open world games due to dynamic sun placement, to see it rendering in real time with no artifacts in sight, is mindboggling; it looks damn near ray traced at times, and I can only imagine the level of work the engineers went through to pull this off.
With gameplay elements such as environmental hazards – you will encounter flooding that can destroy player structures, avalanches while venturing in the high mountains, or even supernatural forest fires that will force you to navigate differently. This is coupled with the dynamic rigging animation Sam has when moving within the environment. Much like the first game, you will trip and tumble due to land formation and will need to brace yourself to keep balance. Imagine that gameplay element when escaping an avalanche – yes, it is very exhilarating.
You can switch between Performance Mode and Quality mode, and both options are exceptional – especially on PS5 Pro (which I played on) and while Digital Foundry did a splendid job determining which mode is best, I think them outright encouraging players to play Performance Mode is a disservice to me. Yes, Performance Mode is absolute wizardry, and yes there is this big debate regarding 30fps and 60fps, but Quality Mode is so silky smooth that honestly, it deserves to be played that way at least until the main plot is complete, if only to get the absolute best the game has to offer. There is a moment where you’re pulled into a world that has spinning Ferris Wheels placed all over the map, and GPU accelerated particles are sparking out of each seat rampantly- when you think of the fidelity this game is producing, it’s a wonder how they pulled that off at 60fps. But in Quality Mode, it has double the fidelity that Performance simply removes; overall scatter detail, post-process rendering is reduced such as sub-surface scatter, lighting takes a hit alongside shadows including ambient occlusion within grass and finer crevices (which creates profound dithering across the board) and anti-aliasing at a distance takes huge hit. This is also coupled with reduced resolution as mentioned in Digital Foundry. Image Quality is clear regardless of the mode, but what Performance Mode does for me is it takes away that Next-Gen feel this game has within Quality Mode, and makes it look closer to a “step-up” from Death Stranding: Director’s Cut. I don’t blame anyone for playing Performance Mode, I did for a large part of the game after completing the main story, but to outright just disregard Quality is a problem to me, because Quality Mode is absolutely worth playing in.
The Strand System Improved
When Death Stranding first launched back in Nov. 2019, I was incredibly hyped to play Hideo Kojima’s first new IP since Zone of the Enders – and especially outside of Konami. I remember buying the Limited Edition PS4 Pro and taking a week off of work to focus on this game entirely. It took me about 12hrs to realize how gravely disappointed I was in the gameplay. I couldn’t believe Hideo crafted such a boring video game, I stopped playing the game all together. When the pandemic hit, all of a sudden, I had all this time to play. I was constantly reminded of Death Stranding because of the console and decided to force my way through – and thank God I did. Not only did the design philosophy resonate with me, but it was a much-needed game to decompress from my overstimulation of fast paced competitive games. It was a realization that we are on a crisis in gaming and Death Stranding is the catalyst to bring us back to joy of video games.
Death Stranding 2 takes everything that was fantastic about DS1, reworks the button scheme, and adds deeper layers to the mechanics. We are talking improved combat, itemization, streamline approach, more weapons and equipment, and thoughtful innovations. The overall menu system seen a great uplift; everything is a button away and organized thoughtfully – the one standout for me is the ability to offload from private locker, backpack or vehicle and recycling without leaving the screen. Every structure has at least 1 new feature on top of what was available before, and customization is deeper as well with vehicles.
For example, and my favorite, is what you can do with the Zip Line; it now curves around obstacles that’s blocking the second anchor – I spent a couple hours placing anchors in this snowy region that was hard to navigate even with vehicles, and it paid off so well. Sam’s combat prowess has improved greatly, with the ability to do more than just a 3-hit combo – eventually you will come across a facility worker than will give you equipment for stealth and scrolls to teach you how to do some incredibly effective and whacky moves. You can now parry hits with and without the Strand Rope, stealth takedown without equipping a rope as well, and there’s a slew of new melee options like an energy great sword for example. I mentioned stealth, and much like the first game, you can do the usual approach, but enemies are much smarter this time around with newer threats to worry about. Day time espionage will result to more enemies on patrol, while nighttime there’s less. But if you take out everyone, the next time you pass through enemy outpost there will be less to worry about. Your handgun has a holster now, further emboldening the stealth gameplay mechanic that is coupled with your Overall Rating (stats) which will incrementally give you better passives in the process. This applies across the board regarding delivery skills, melee, shooting, breathing, etc.
Beached Things (BT’s) encounters have seen major improvement with a much wider roster and nearly Elden Ring level in difficulty. These extra-dimensional beings have more move sets and are bigger than ever. But the coolest thing about all of this is, you can now capture them Pokémon style and summon your very own BT against other BT’s – and like, of course you can, right Hideo? This changes the pace when playing on Ruthless difficulty (the only way to get Legend of Legends of Legends rating is through Ruthless) because you will get jumped by multiple BT’s at some point and even with SSS Online connected and other player supporting with weapons, it can be a difficult and tiring time for you when delivering packages. And yes, you can capture THAT BT, when the time comes for you to encounter it. I will spoil further.
Additionally, there is another set of passive skills you will be able to unlock throughout your playthrough called APAS Enhancements System. Here, alongside your Rating, will unlock and increase the more districts you connect through the Chiral Network. Bandwidth will allow for more point allocation and new passives to explore. You can turn on or off these passives as you see fit. They entail the ability to change how your Odradek scans, how well you shoot and stealth, detect hazardous environments, etc. I found myself unlocking pretty much all of the passive by the time I hit the final stretch, save for some like auto-scanning enemy outlines as the game was already cluttered with UI elements. Speaking of UI elements, if you’re not keen of over-information, this will feel a bit jarring to see on screen. Because of the Social Strand System online function, you will see a ton of holograms left by players in your travels. And if you are anything like me that does a lot of large deliveries, you will also see UI icons of your packages when roaming outside of your Off-Roader vehicle. There’s no way to reduce this as this game doesn’t have an accessibility option. I found myself turning off the prompt control as that was dead center of the screen and it was annoying me. Just like the first game, there’s 2 vehicles to drive, alongside enemy variants. They work similarly to DS1 but are improved in meaningful ways. It still drives a bit janky, with the usual collision issues with rocks and inclines, but you can now customize it further rather than getting level 2’s and 3’s, wasting materials and cluttering the screen. The 6 slots on the Off-Roader can now be interchangeable with anti-gravs and extra batteries, you can add additional armor and improved wheels for tougher terrains – best of all, you can attach non-lethal and lethal weaponry on the vehicles. There’s even an attachment that can grab items for you from a distance, it’s so neat.
The Social Strand System online function has response improvements. Before you connect a district, the Chiral Network is offline which prevents the SSS online function from working. When connected, you will start to see player structures appear within the district. In DS1 I found that the time it took for new structures to appear delayed. Now, it seems to be immediate. Because I’m use to the gameplay loop of Death Stranding, I often leave a facility with a slew of materials and Precision Control Calculator (PCC) to build structures and repair roads – there’s now mining facility to fix up with a monorail that connects to a facility, which you can use to ride and mine new materials. Connecting these is hugely beneficial if you want to not only make your travels easier but raise your total Likes from other players and NPC’s, which will result to better overall gameplay stats.
REVIEW SCORE: 10/10
Death Stranding 1 is a generational game that isn’t fully appreciated. Death Stranding 2 is a generational leap beyond that in a way that is approachable yet still maintains its core principle. Every facet of this project is a masterclass unlike I’ve seen yet. Playing other games at the moment just doesn’t hit like Kojima Production’s masterpiece. It’s time to hunt for the Platinum Trophy.
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