WIth a massive upgrade to the visuals, story, characters, and a faster pace at which you get access to making your journey easier, Death Stranding 2 is easily everything I wanted in a sequel and then more. The sequel has a significantly faster pacing and setting than its original, enabling players to get into a better story in the first hours.
Story
The game takes place almost a year after the events of the first game. Sam and Lou are now living a peaceful life outside of the reach of the UCA until an old friend makes him come out of retirement, and work toward reconnecting Mexico to the network. Now working for Drawbridge, Sam takes on a few missions and successfully reconnects Mexico, but at a great cost.
With a greater focus on storytelling and letting Sam know that Mexico and Australia are also among the continents that survived the events of the first game, Sam embarks on a journey of connecting the two countries and is also on a path that will lead him to a truth may have been better off not knowing.
Throughout the story, we see some familiar faces, but also some new faces, each of whom plays a much stronger role in the story versus their role in the first game, which is something I really enjoyed in this entry.
I really want to avoid talking about spoilers, and while a lot of them are present in the trailers leading up to the release of the game, it is still something I want to leave for fans to discover on their own.
Gameplay
The first game was an introduction into the mechanics and other details for the game. You had to work your way through multiple hours to earn the tri-cruiser, the off-road truck, and more. In this game, you get them way faster, and you have a faster connection to resources built by other players such as bridges, charging stations and more. You also get suit upgrades, weapons, and other tools at a much faster rate when compared to the first game.
With a faster pacing, and easier access to resources built by players who were able to review the game, and launch players, the journey in the game is relatively smoother and a lot easier to navigate. While a lot of people will complain that this makes the game easier, you also have the option of ignoring the easy stuff in front of you and just doing things your way via an option in the settings if you wish.
With MULE being even more deadly, Sam is also equally more formidable with a broader variety of weapons now available at his disposable very early in the game, making the entire journey feel a lot simpler and easier.
Along the way, Sam will now have to deal with earthquake like events called ‘gate quakes’ which can hit you with falling rocks, avalanches, and more while you’re on a delivery, so you have to always be ready for anything and everything.
Presentation
The game looks and plays phenomenally. Playing it on the PS5 Pro, I played it on the Performance mode and even in that mode, the game looks absolutely maginificent. The Decima engine which was first introduced in Killzone: Shadowfall in 2013 has greatly improved, and as a PS5 exclusive, we now see greater visual detail than ever before because this is the first time the KJP did not have to work on a PS4 version of their title.
Everything in the world loads seamlessly and many players will agree that the faster load times greatly help to enrich the experience versus the amount of loading screens on the original title on the PS4 version. The level of detail you can see in photo mode sometimes mimicks realism, and even the opening 30 seconds for when you start a new game are truly some of the best visuals I have seen in a game thus far in an exclusive this console generation.
Audio-wise, the game is also stellar. You get the music player a lot faster and even without it there is still a lot of ambient sound from the area you are in to help keep you alert, and more importantly keeping your eyes and ears open for MULE and the new threat in the land.
Conclusion
Death Stranding 2 is everything I want in a sequel. It offers brand new areas to explore with their own missions to boot, massively improved visuals, story, and other great offerings to really show that KJP has put a lot of thought and effort into the game, making this easily one of my favorite games of this console generation.
If you played the first one and enjoyed it as much as I did (I have the platinum in the PS4 and PS5 version), then this game is a must-buy. It has everything you need and even more to defeat the monotony and slow pace of the original title.
