Thoughts on: Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Despite the original Death Stranding releasing back in 2019, I only got around to play it (in the Director’s Cut version) 2 years ago. And despite its many flaws, I really enjoyed it. It was a very unique title about the journey, where the movement took the center stage. Yes, it was a bit clunky, the storytelling was often self-indulgent and stupid, the combat and stealth were quite primitive and not very interesting, but just the process of moving between one point and the other, making deliveries, overcoming difficult terrain was far more engaging than I could’ve ever imagined.

Making a direct sequel to that game would’ve been an odd choice, but this is Hideo Kojima, so he’s full of odd choices. And besides, by the time I have played the game, the sequel was already announced. So… is it as magical as the original game? No. But it’s quite alright in its own way.

Just like the first title, the premise is quite simple. You make deliveries from point A to point B across an open world with difficult terrain. As you plan your route, you need to consider the weather conditions, the terrain, the creepy BTs (different types of ghost-like enemies), the armed bandits, the weight of the cargo and conditions for the delivery and your own equipment. Maybe you spent additional time unlocking new stuff or rebuilding roads and, new to this game, monorail tracks and have more convenient options available. Maybe you wanna risk it and drive a vehicle across a zone with enemies, hoping to outrun them. Maybe you can afford time and resources to take a long way around, using safer but slower paths. That’s up to you in most of the deliveries and only select few missions in the game set strict conditions or are not about deliveries at all.

The cool thing about Death Stranding 2 is that it attempts to expand and improve upon almost everything the original game did and provide more options and more quality of life features. Shortcut menus are a lot better and require even less need to go through full menus. To motivate players experiment with enemy encounters, almost all weapons are now viable from the start, making open combat and stealth more varied. As in the first game, killing humans was extremely dangerous, most weapons were not advisable to use against bandits, but in this game you really have to try hard to kill a human. Both main vehicle types got much better even before you add any upgrades to them. You constantly unlock special optional perks that make the game even more comfortable to play. You now have a lot more quick travel options, including the “mobile base of operations” that you can travel in, even during deliveries (though if you transport cargo like that, it affects the ranking). Even the whole world structure now eventually loops onto itself, covering a miniature version of Australia in a clockwise path.

All these changes and tweaks alone make the game feel a bit different. But, if one were to retroactively add most of these to the original game, it wouldn’t make that title wildly different. Sure, a lot of nuance about planning combat or stealth would go away. Yet, the core experience of Death Stranding would remain. Yet, that last thing about the world structure is what makes Death Stranding 2 play completely differently. You see, while you did get to use vehicles a lot in the first game, there was an overall balance between walking and riding. And usually when you had to push to the next key point of your journey, you had to do it on foot. Most of the snowy mountains, for example, even by the end of the game were simply not well suited for using vehicles in that game. But in the sequel I spent at least 80% of all my playthrough in a vehicle. Because it was the most efficient thing to do for almost any situation. And while there’s nothing particularly wrong with this game being less of a literal walking simulator and more of a Euro Truck Simulator. If not for the fact that it basically defeats the purpose of most of the game’s mechanics that made the original so engaging.

Planning the weight, the equipment, carrying around ladders and ropes, setting up ziplines… Why do that if you ride a truck instead? No need to think about the height of your cargo stack or plan where anything goes, put it in the trunk. Uneven surface? Risk of being swept away by the waters? Gripping for balance? You’re in a truck, silly, none of that matters.

So, inadvertently the game robs itself of everything that made the journey across its open world unique, and becomes just another open world game with cars. Without making said cars interesting in any way. In fact, despite being so efficient, it often feels as if the developers didn’t even consider that they made a game about cars. They still get stuck on absolutely nothing or hit air, damaging cargo. They don’t have any truly unique mechanics or systems that make them as fun to use as walking is in the game. And even the reuse of the idea, where after certain missions the licensed song starts playing as you’re getting closer to your goal, is often cut short, because you barely have time to hear the song in a vehicle and you’re done.

It doesn’t help that the story is not very engaging either. I’ll reiterate – the original was quite silly, self-indulgent and often nonsensical. But the concepts, the world, the mood – those were really top notch. This time, the storytelling is actually a lot better, leaner, more polished, usually far less stupid. It does do many dumb and not deserved repeats and references to Metal Gear franchise from time to time, but that’s forgivable. And the new set of characters is also solid, with some older characters returning in surprising new roles. Yet, there is no interesting concept anymore as that got fully explored in the previous game. And there’s very little to really hook you and keep you invested. The main villain is fun, sure, but also extremely one note (no pun intended). The repeat of a “mysterious soldier enemy” feels like it’s here just because the first game had one and the story for this character ends up being far less interesting than the game seems to expect it to be. And then there’s one huge plot revelation which gets introduced and then immediately resolved in the exact same scene?..

It’s an enjoyable enough game, if you liked the original. Still too long and this time it doesn’t feel like it deserves the length. The combat and stealth remain not very interesting, but they are more varied. The music score is still very good and while the licensed music isn’t in the range of songs I tend to enjoy, those are good too. It looks great. It improves on a lot. But in the end, I just don’t see much of a point in it. It’s like a nice but overly long encore to a great show. I don’t mind it being there, but I would’ve been happy with just the original game.