I have some significant issues with this as a sequel, but overall this is a much better realised game than the original.
Overall, if you liked the original game, play this.
If you didn't like Death Stranding 1 but are open to the basic gameplay idea, play this.
If you hated the original, don't play this.
The gameplay is improved accross the board. Much more to do, many more systems added, a fully fleshed out stealth system has been added and there are more combat options than any single person could realistically use in one playthrough - this is essentially a giant (and I mean giant) Death Stranding- themed playbox.
I recommend you rush The Lone Commander to 5* and then just focus on story missions. Having all the optional content not completed in the post-game where you have access to all your fun tools and not making the main story too easy by developing the world will absolutely be the best experience.
I played entirely on SteamDeck and other than the first 2 weeks of release where I had to use a dodgy Russian mod to get higher than 20FPS, the game now runs consistently between 30 and 50FPS other than a few extreme cases where you're at or under 20FPS - but these never overlapped with any gameplay that wasn't just travelling.
The only exception is when there is ablot of weather and explosions in a short period while fighting large camps humans, where the game would occasionally hitch while aiming.
While I whole-heartedly recommend this game, there are a list of issues.
1. The story.
As one of Death Stranding 1's best features was the story and the storytelling, this is my biggest gripe with the sequel.
The first 2/3s of the game has a shocking lack of story and cutscenes.
While the public's biggest issue with the original game was too much cutscene, the fans of the first game's biggest issue will likely be the lack of story and how weak the storytelling is.
Characters are frequently introduced then ignored for most of the rest of the game. Some plot points happen and then are presented as twists at the end despite the player already knowing the truth of the twist.
Sam barely plays a role in the story and unlike the first game where the player is in the same shoes as Sam, this game goes for the opposite angle and has the protagonist ignore 90% of the facts given to him creating a huge disconnect between player and player character.
A lot of the usual Kojima cutscenes are now just optional, half-hidden text to read.
I think the intention was that the first game they want to make you feel connected with everyone, but the second game they want to make you feel disconnected. This is a great idea, but the gameplay (which is 95% of this game) does not support this goal, while in the original the ganeplay and story both worked in harmony to create the intended experience.
If this was Kojima doing his Kojima thing, it may be the worst example of it since Policenauts.
But I have a feeling that this was more Kojima being petty, "well if you complain about too much story, how about I take all the story out!"
2. Difficulty
I admit this point may become moot when I try the To The Wilder difficulty, but despite me being bad at the first game and not much better at the sequel, I almost never found the game dofficult. I had a total 5 deaths over the 180 hours it took me to beat the game and 3 of them were just because I didnt understand what a boss was trying to get me to do on the first attempt. I never died twice to any enemy.
Feeding into this is how massively overpowered the offroader is in this entry and how abundent stamina buffs are - I ran out of stamina exactly twice. One was during a 2-part mission where the second part was a surprise so I wasnt prepared (one of the best missions in the game) and the other was due to an extended boss fight where I wasn't paying attention to my stamina.
This is all alegedly resolved in the new difficulty.
I do not use player-made ziplines (which were what trivialised the first game), so I am surprised that the game was still extremely easy despite not using easy mode.
But the real issue I have with difficulty is the natural disasters, or more the complete lack of them.
Considering the marketing for the game and the constant reminder of the phrase "into the wild", I was never once put into any real danger by natural disasters, and they all appear to be locked to specific areas, so what should have been the coolest new mechanic ultimately ends up being a gimmick for 3 or 4 missions and never turns up again. A real shame as this would have been one of my favourite aspects of the game otherwise.
3. Delivery variety
Other than a few notable standouts (almost all of them related to The Adventurer), the deliveries in the game never really get beyond "deliver this", "fetch and deliver this" or "kill this".
This is made especially evident once you unlock Mr Impossible. All of the sub orders for Mr I were very, very fun and had you engage your brain to complete his missions, some even requiring active prep work in the field before taking the order.
Once you play his missions, you immediately start to wonder why all of the 400 optional deliveries fail to engage your brain beyond "do I drive or climb for this one". There are even some Aid Requests which require more thinking than the missions which are the bulk of the game.
So while the game improves on the game mechanics accross the board and adds a whole host of new mechanics to get stuck in with, the major gameplay of the game is unfortunately barely improved on the original, but unlike the original, this gameplay is no longer used to enhance the story.
The story itself is also perhaps one of the worst written from Kojima, and this is from someone who loves MGS4 - I am lost in the sauce enough that I should gobble up anything from Kojima, so this is especially bad.
4. The Soundtrack
The first game was explicitly inspired by Kojima's time in North Europe and his instant love for the band Low Roar, and you can tell - on occasion the game feels more like a 100hour music video than its own product.
The second game unfortunately completely fails to capture this feeling.
Partly, this is due to the very unfortunate circumstance of the lead vocalist of Low Roar passing away during the development of the game.
This should have been an opportunity for that real life event to take more presidence in Death Stranding 2, as this fits thematically with the story of the sequel, but instead the majority of times a song was played it completely failed to hit the mark (other than Raindrops of course). I dont think this game had to be another Low Roar music video, but they swung way too far the other way, just like the storytelling.
The other major issue with the music is the ability to play songs (almost) anywhere.
When you play the first game, you end up wishing that you could play your music collection outside of your private room, but playing the second game you start to wish that the use of music was more targeted like the first.
I think the solution here would have been to only have playlists playable in the offroader - this would have maintained the atmosphere of the original while still letting you listen to your tracks fairly often.
Regardless, if this is your first Death Stranding experience, I highly recommend. This is an absolute banger of a game.
I'll update this once I 100% the game and see if it was all worth it.
