Eric Belmont13 Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Review

Although I've stacked almost 400 hours of playtime between the first and second game, Kojima's mind never ceases to impress. Death Stranding 2 improves on almost every aspect when compared to the first game, tools, weapons, constructions (which have surprisingly cool upgrades) enemy encounters with ordinary goons and BTs didn't get much more intricate tough, so it gets to a point where enemies simply can't keep up with Sam's endless arsenal (mind you I've platinumed the game on the hardest difficulty from start to finish). Storywise it is really impressive, models are astonishing (some references though require knowledge from the first game and may leave new players lost) packed with easter eggs and whimsical gadgets from side quests. One thing though is that you have these characters with very traumatic backgrounds which never get acknowledged more than once sometimes. Regarding terrain, traversal and deliveries which is the core gameplay loop, I found it astonishingly easy when compared to the first game, you can basically take your truck with you from start to finish, also in Death Stranding 1 there were areas you were certain to not be able to take a vehicle there, which made for interesting challege and more careful route planning. For the completionists out there like myself, if you're going for all 400 deliveries with S rank, some may prove surprisingly difficult without preparation, though I guess most players won't play these. In conclusion, if you didn't like the gameplay loop of the first game, combat and specially story might keep you for the whole adventure (that ending though), if you're a fan or a diehard fan like myself and managed to understand that what the game is about is the journey, not the destination, you're in for a lot of improvement ans surprises, although if you're a completionist and don't intentionally limit yourself during deliveries, you'll find the game easy.