henke on 26/6/2025 at 15:42
Death Stranding 2 came out TODAY! I have played the first 2.5 hours. Here's a cool trailer, probably. I haven't watched any of the trailers nor will I watch this one because I wanna experience this fresh but don't let that stop YOU from watching it!
[video=youtube;EQdOSTt7YpY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQdOSTt7YpY[/video]
So, super early impressions: the early cutscenes and storytelling are very restrained by Kojima standards, and it lets you get to the gameplay quickly. I like what storytelling is here tho. Game looks fantastic and runs smoothly on the Performance mode. In the first game I was amazed at how little focus there was on stealth-action despite its robust stealth-action systems, well that's not the case here as the game early on nudges you into enemy encounters and the early missions are quite stealth focused. Perhaps this'll be more of an action game than its predecessor? No sign of any road-building yet, but perhaps later. So far, so good.
Anyone else playing this yet?
Aja on 26/6/2025 at 15:45
I'm picking it up at lunch!
henke on 26/6/2025 at 20:11
Ok, around 3 hours in the story gets going and HOLY SHIT
Aja on 26/6/2025 at 20:42
Lunchtime update: it came and went, and I did not pick up Death Stranding 2. But I may still go on my way home. I liked the first one enough to buy it twice so that I had a physical disc, and I think I'll probably end up wanting the disc version for the sequel, too.
Aja on 30/6/2025 at 15:09
Okay, I got the game and played it for two hours. It feels really good, doesn't it? All of the detail in the environments and the sound effects and animation contributes to a sense of moving across a real landscape, even more so than the original. And I'm only in the first section, but the world feels bigger and more correctly scaled than the almost diorama-like presentation of the original. Death Stranding is basically a survival game but one where you only have to prepare for a mission at a time, and in this moment it's feeling like exactly what I want to play. I'm not prepared to say it's narratively restrained, but I have enjoyed the storytelling so far. I like these characters even if they are a bit uncanny.
In the cons section: Sam puts on a VR headset for his training missions, and I figured maybe Kojima would include an easter egg if I plugged in my PSVR2 at that point, but sadly it did nothing.
RobDyrdekNW on 4/7/2025 at 06:13
Thanks for sharing! I not play it yet, but I will get it soon. Good to know gameplay start fast and has more stealth this time. I wonder if road-building come later like first game. Looks really fun so far. Please keep update, I like hearing what others think.
henke on 9/7/2025 at 13:16
This goofy ass game, man!
[video=youtube;RxO3TQMGezY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxO3TQMGezY[/video]
I'm like 32 hours in, and... I don't really have much to say about it. Partly because I don't wanna spoil anything, but also just because it's kinda a straightforward sequel in most ways. There's some neat stuff in here, but also stuff I wish was better. The soundtrack is so-so. Why no Australian artists? The cast is like 90% stunt casting, to the point that when someone who I don't recognize shows up I just assume they're one of Kojima's friends and not a real actor. But the thing that's bugging me the most is that the vehicle physics haven't been improved at all. They were weak in the first game, they're weak here, and there's not much variety to speak of. Oh well, overall I'm having a good time tho.
henke on 29/7/2025 at 11:17
I took a few weeks break from this but came back and finished it over the last couple days. ~48h total, mostly did main missions but also ambled around and did some side missions. It's... good, but didn't grip me like the first game. The story just isn't very compelling. It sure is weird, but that's not a substitute from something that really hooks you. Playing 1000xResist made me look more critically at DS2. Resist is also weird and has a lot of crazy futuristic sci-fi concepts and tons of characters, but is a much more compelling story, and made on a fraction of DS2's budget. Not that DS2's story is terrible tho. The opening few hours are great and the final ~10 hours things really shift into high gear and there's some great moments. But most of the middle of the game is kinda a drag. The finale is... heavy metal, baby. Overall, yeah, good game. I still have some post-end-credits content to play.
