I loved Death Stranding 1 and I've absolutely fallen in love with Death Stranding 2. Kojima San did it once more. He's added his iconic weirdness to this game that just clicks. Now I just want a fanfic fight between the Pizza Chef and the Guitar Goblin. This game is absolute Kojima

Death can't tear us apart.
We'll always be connected.
You will never, ever be alone.

DOLLMAN IS THE BEST, WE LOVE YOU DOLLMAN.

Allright heres a small review of mine.

Death Stranding 2 is a great sequel. It builds up from the first one. If you liked the first game, you will like this. Yes its quite surprising, i know. This game here is more "fast paced" than the original, you are given a lot of gadgets and vehicles very quickly, maybe even too fast? Anyway i personally liked the slower pace from Death Stranding 1 more but of course you get to choose what you use and when you use so it doesnt really matter that much. Nevertheless i feel like the sequel was made to be easier than DS1 and at the same time it lost some of its charm. I played on the hardest difficulty (to the wilder) and only challenges i found were giant BT fights where i was almost one shotted if i was too slow to dodge. Allright i admit some normal mech fights were also pretty hard because of overwhelming numbers, mix of melee and ranged units. Will i be writing more about these mechs? Nope. There is also a lot of variety to weapons and gadgets in this game, have you ever wanted to throw rubber pizza at someones face so hard that they go unconcious? Well you are in luck because here you can do that. You can throw robot dogs at enemies, you can deliver packages while surfing on a coffin, there is also martial arts involving...uhm...pizza making skills?

I have to say this somewhere, this game having so much gadgets and weapons managed to remove "spooky" aspect from BTs. Walking around with an arsenal on your back and you can blast your way throught everything. You could basically do it in DS1 too yes, but with a very limited weaponry. In first game you had to choose if you would take lethal or non lethal weapons with you. Some weapons worked against only BT's and some only against humans. In the sequel 95% of your weapons are non lethal and they work against pretty much anything, human, bt or mechs....No need to plan your approach regarding weapons. Its surprisingly hard to kill people by accident in this game. Sam the man has hit like at least 20 bandits with his mail truck and they all have lost just their consciousness and maybe some teeth? (Though im not sure what happened in DS1 when you did that.)

There is a bigger map than the last time, more buildings for you to make. New additions are mines and monorails. You can restore 9 mines, you can also upgrade them to produce a loads of materials for you. And you are going to need them while you are rebuilding everything. Monorails are also a great addition because with them you can transport your huge load of materials from the mine to somewhere else with no problems. If you loved the snowy mountain from DS1, you are also in luck because there is a mountain here bigger and badder than the first one. I still have fond memories while travelling that mountain on foot, zero battery, zero stamina, zero speed, zero chlorobiotes in my pockets, floating carrier behind me filled with 600kg of stuff and things. Oh right and because the mountain is so tall, the air is thin there and if you run out of oxygen youre going to pass out. Ahh yes...best hours of my life... (You can get an oxygen mask if you get some stars with one of the residents living in that mountain.)

BTs BTs BTs...There are new BT's in this game yes. New BT type is called gazer and they uhm...gaze at you. I really like the sounds that they make, they are kinda unsettling, and when they die the sound is pretty eerie and memorable. I feel like DS2 underutilizes BT's and gives the spotlight to the mechs. Then there are couple of giants BTs and then there are even bigger BT's. The word bigger doesnt really make them justice. I should probably mention here that at one point of the game you get an item that lets you capture big BT's and then you can summon them to fight against each other. Like some sort of pokemon battle.

Story wise i dont really know what i can write here. Its a great story, has peak cinema moments, weird kojima moments, great soundtrack, it has pretty much everything. This games story is a bit predictable which is weird to say about kojima game. Im sure that this story resonates more with people who have family and kids. Death Stranding 1 focused on the isolation and loneliness and this sequel focuses more on the connections that we create and how they last. Ending of the DS1 lives rent free in my head and now this games ending is going to live there too. Getting pretty crowded. Very epic and memorable ending, worth the journey.

For me it took like 150 hours to compleate but i was also trying to 100% the game. When i was embarking on the final mission i noticed that i had compleated only about 197/400 deliveries. So now that the story is over, im heading back to upgrade all of the roads, monorails, mines, well everything. "Why?" you may ask, well its because i just like the game and its gameplay loop.

If you are reading this it means that you somehow got though all of my yapping. Because of that i hope that you will have a wonderful rest of your day.

Pure cinematic experience! If you liked the first game then you are going to enjoy this sequel as it is more of the same thing but with more action and tons of QOL updates! Thanks for porting it over to PC and optimizing it for portable PC game consoles!

I have already platinum it on the PS5 but I would very much like to play it again on to the wilder difficulty as I really enjoy doing deliveries and the photo mode is so much fun to play with!

Death can't tear us apart.
We'll always be connected.
You will never, ever be alone.

The themes of this story hit pretty hard, especially as a new father.

Gameplay is also top tier, refining everything from the first game with some fun new additions.

Also expect Peak Kojima Nonsense all the way through.

Tldr Overhyped 'KoJIma' game - more mundane than the first not that innovative. More of the ususal mgs stuff. Decent story. Lots of brand placement and corporate influence, throws off the 'immersion/story'.

improved on the first game in all aspects but its held back by making the original concept of getting around less enjoyable and waaaaay more boring - how ? its actually easier to get around and far less rewarding to explore. Its very predictable and you can just drive everywhere early on - the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ part is that even driving the feeling of that is like a ps3 game. Combat is average and actually pushes you to it more because of the mgs vibes - even on the harder difficulty its just mundane and not really as sandboxy as other mgs games can feel.

the big killer tho is the use of influencers and brand placement everywhere in the game - it IMMEDIATELY removes me from the joy of playing a video game - and completely kills the immersion of the 'world of dstranding', nothing feels that authentic story wise and the cutscenes and repetitive super boring dialogue from the people you connect to the chiral network is really not interesting, not to ,mention the mashing of the A button to get through all the dialogue and random stats that pop up alll the time, such an information overload and alot of tree branching menus make it a headache inducing experience.
The main story line is okay so far its probably the only decent element so far. at 20 hrs in im not sure i even find it interesting enough to endure more of this boring rinse and repeat dialogue.

I loved the first game. I like this sequel. It is more fun than the first one, but it's less authentic and the story is more disappointing and confusing.

After 110 hours, I can safely say the ending delivered exactly what I expected. Classic Kojima: everything eventually clicks and hits you right in the face. However, the journey to get there had some very clear highs and lows.


- Visuals & Tech: The graphics are an absolute 10/10. Enabling Ray Tracing and Ambient Occlusion RT makes the game look breathtaking. Be warned, though: it is extremely demanding and pushes even an RTX 5080 to its limits.

- The Narrative Payoff: For a large portion of the game, I blamed Fragile for ruining Sam's plans and for Lou's fate. But the payoff—forgiving her once she admits her fault, and the massive twist that Tomorrow is actually Lou —was executed perfectly.

- The Climax: The final boss fight against Higgs, combined with the soundtrack at the end, is 100% phenomenal and epic.


- Recycled Formula: It often feels like playing DS1 in Australia. Niel Vana is essentially the new Cliff, Higgs brings the exact same conflicts from the first game, and the underlying motivations to expand the Chiral Network are recycled. They nailed the execution, but the structure is far too obvious.

- The DHV Magellan: The game tells you Drawbridge will help you unlike the UCA, but if you actually use the Magellan for deliveries, you are locked out of the "Legend of Legends" and "To The Wilder" ranks. For a perfectionist, this renders the ship completely useless.

- Constant Audio Interruptions: Dollman is downright unbearable during combat. Getting launched across the map by a massive hit only to hear him spam "Are you ok, Sam? Check your moves!" is incredibly annoying. Add the constant sound of BB crying every time Sam trips (because he’s a porter, not a soldier), and it gets exhausting fast.

- The Soundtrack: I might be in the minority here, but I am completely burned out on Low Roar. Having them dominate the tracklist again was just not to my liking.

It relies heavily on the original game's blueprint and features some genuinely annoying audio and mechanical quirks. However, the sheer visual quality and the epic narrative resolution make it a sequel worth finishing.

8/10

Because you're mine, i walk the line 💔

After roughly ~200 hours and all achievements done in DS2, I can genuinely say that, yes, I recommend the game. It is not a game that everyone will like, but if you like the first, chances are you'll like the second.
The story of 2 is not as well written as 1 (imo) and is not nearly as impactful, but it's still a nice story that left me in tears. DS2 improved a lot of the things I disliked about DS1, such as the horrendous vehicle controls, a way to easily repair vehicles (a 3-step process vs. a 1-step process in 2) and giving Sam the ability to actually traverse rocky terrain and climb off of stuff without falling flat on his face. They added a customizable music player so you can create your own playlist to listen to while making deliveries that grows as you discover new songs as play through the game, since 1 was quiet beyond 'key' moments. The music is incredible. The menu-ing is also a lot smoother and the combat reeks of Metal Gear influence (it's a good thing!) and the upgraded weapons and items you get are pretty cool. The game is nice and relaxing when you aren't running over marsupials trying to time a pizza delivery. I was honestly a little heartbroken when I 'ran out of things to do' in it, but do want to come back for another playthrough soon. Death Stranding has solidified itself as my favorite series in a very short period of time.

8.5/10