DEATH STRANDING 2: ON THE BEACH Reviews

One of the best games ever made, and one of my top *3* favorites. Ill do more of a review later.

Spoilers. Honestly, loving the first game so much and having so many great memories with it and how it helped me and I related to it, DS2 is simply not a good sequel and I don't know why it even needed one in the first place. Even so, I was excited and played it and.... it's just.. the same story beats as the first game. Really, if you play the first game, you basically played the second since it's not that different, it's just worse. From the trailers, I was promised rocky deserts, forests and natural disasters that would make the deliveries harder but that's far from it, the only forest you find is right at the start and that's just 2 pathways and the natural disasters are mainly rivers overflowing which doesn't change much, really, the first natural fire was scripted and then one patch of the map was constantly on fire, I've never saw fires beyond that point or any disaster other than rivers. Everything is either scripted or it never happens. The story is nonsensical and it doesn't follow the plot beats of the original game. Somehow Bridges was terminated even though they were the glue that kept the Chiral Network and every center alive, couple that with the abolishment of the whole government.. are you serious? We spent so much time trying to preserve that in the first game and trying to bring American Reconstructionism just as Bridget intended and they destroy it in the favor of a private corporation..., nice, all the work down the drain, Die Hardman would never allow that, or at least the guy who was supposed to be him. He even said that Porters are essential, that's why they never used bots part menial travels, they always destroy the packages and are not efficient and people NEED that human connection, AIPAC took that away in the service of bots, great job Hardman, now you have people who self delete all over the former UCA and if he knew that AIPAC were trying to do weird stuff, why not stop them? Like, are we for real? YOU KNEW!! Omg. The whole plot with Sam and his daughter is tragic but once you look closer it's actually so dumb, okay so, you're telling me that Sam saw his daughter grow into a full on baby that can almost walk so obviously bigger than a fetus. The BB pod is made into an aquarium and then Lou "dies". Fragile tells him she's gone and Sam goes to delete himself over and over so he knows she's dead. Upon taking the mission, he somehow believes/hallucinates Lou is in the pod???? Dude, you KNOW she's dead, that's why you kissed so many times, tell me HOWWW can a fully formed baby can fit in a BB-Pod???? That pod is barely big enough for a fetus. I get that trauma can make you go in denial but not when you KNOWWW. Every other character doesn't get much development, Rainy's whole personality is that she's pregnant, thank you Kojima that's how women work. Tomorrow has the mind of a child that is always barefoot, insane when you think about the implication and Heartman is.. worse? Didn't you receive an Email in the first game with him saying he wants to finally live his life instead of pursuing his family? Since he cannot find them at all but here he's back on it and worse for wear, they pulled back the development and now you recruit him and that's it, he doesn't do much in the story afterwards. Deadman in the first game told you he doesn't have a Ka since he's lab grown but in DS2 he apparently has one, okay so he dies but can just... possess people and BT's as we wants to, that doesn't destroy the world building and how death is viewed, at least with Dollman he truly cared about his daughter and doll, making him possess it, that makes more sense than Deadman just possessing Ghost Mechs. On the topic of Ghost Mechs, how does that actually work? Since it's explained they are not BT's so they are just machines without souls but the Odradek still responds to them, even though that's not how the Odradek works, you find plenty of Tar around but it only reacts to dead things, Mechs aren't dead things at all. Why can Deadman possess machines? and he didn't even tell Sam he was the Samurai Mech and tried to fight him in Mexico.. Still on it, why did the whole group think that, destroying the Mech Higgs was possessing, they kill him too? They know Mechs can be repaired and just redone over and over, Sam even saw them being spawned in from a factory, literally less than 15 seconds it took to make them from top to bottom (And how do they imprint Tar in them if they just 3D make them what) Fragile left Higgs on the beach and we know that time on the beach flows much slower than on earth, Higgs barely aged in the real world, they have to know he's still alive and just controlling one come on now, they act like dumbasses. The whole plot with Neil is overly stupid imo because he knows you're Lou's father, he banged Sam's wife after all. He apparently just wanted to give you a necklace or smt so why did he try to kill you?? Is he okay?? He wants Lucy and Lou to be safe, killing Sam ISN'T the way to do it and in the flashback he agreed to help Lucy despite him and her breaking up, so he WANTS to help you, he just DOESN'T, how does that even work my man. It's just the same story beat with Cliff, a lone soldier dragging you into the Beaches to kill you, except Cliff worked, he didn't knew you're his child, he wanted BB, since you have the same charm he had, he tried to kill you and take BB back and once he found out you're his child, he STOPPED. Neil knew you're Sam but he still tried to kill you all the same, he didn't have any moment where he realised, trying to kill the only relative of the child you're trying to protect isn't a good idea man, idk what to say and also Sam, my guy, my protagonist without personality, is he okay? Since when he found out his wife's back is getting blown out by some random guy, he just.. doesn't care? At least try to learn more about it, show us you're saddened because of that, because of the betrayal, he deadass only say "We were never together" BRO ARE YOU FOR REAL, I know he's avoidant but COME ON, there is literally no tension with him, it's actually so boring, the whole earth can pop and he wouldn't care that much. The final fight with Higgs was supposed to be peak fiction but it's just a repeat of the first one and it doesn't help that he's easy as hell, he just stands there and takes it, literally, I played on Brutal and I had to wait ages for him to try to attack me. It's just a dumbed down version of the DS1 battle, at least there the hits and stakes mattered, fist fighting in the tar was cool as hell and you could feel every hit, in the beginning he had his whole arsenal and teleport while you had broken cargo all around and no healing, you had to forage for heals while he took massive chunks of your health every time, It felt rewarding snipping him with cargo and running to beat him up. In the end he get vore'd by a giant baby Lou that... somehow exited a portal.... you know I'm not even gonna explain it, makes 0 sense. What was even Higgs' plan? Lou cannot be a new EE, they have an EE which is Amelie, she's trapped on the Beach. Higgs should know that's not how EE's work. There cannot be two at the same time and the fact that Lou is Sam's doesn't mean much really. The only thing a Repatriate can do is not die since he gets spit out since he doesn't have an umbilical cord and that his blood is toxic, that's it. There is no correlation between EE's and Repatriates, matter of fact, other people with higher DOOMS levels are actually impressive still, teleporting and seeing BT's from a mile away, why does it make Lou special? Repatriates are only special since they cannot die because apparently they syntesized Repatriate blood.

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.

You ever played DayZ or Arma or Rust? If your answer is “yes” then you probably don’t mind running. Pointless, virtual running, not actual exercise. But what if I told you it didn’t have to be pointless? What if I told you you can run in the desert, the snow, the cliffs, the woods without the worry of getting one tapped in the head by a 15 year old that skipped school today to camp in a tree for 5 hours and snipe everything with two legs and hemorrhoids from sitting in a gamer chair all day? As a matter of fact, you can spend those five hours doing Olympic diver level spins and somersaults off a 400 meter cliff, dome rocking your fellow man with rubber pizza dough, and staring at a baby’s ass cheeks after inevitably shattering your legs into a haze of chiral crystals for the 20th time all while listening to a strangely banging soundtrack. Sink an absurd amount of time into this game building the perfect zip line network, hike back and forth to the most obnoxiously placed shelter known to man to earn your last pube hair of progress on a 4 and 7/8 starred shelter, and hear that same shelter resident gas you up for a job well done. If you’re old as ♥♥♥♥ or simply an introvert who doesn’t feel like talking to strangers after a long work day, look no further. While it’s notably more upbeat than the first game, there is a sense of melancholic connection to this game thanks to its good vibes and shared world building. Don’t even get me started on the story. I haven’t finished this one yet, but the first game left me in an existential crisis for at least a month. I expect nothing less from this masterpiece. Try it if you’d like. You’ll either hate it or love it. At the very least, you’d be hard pressed to present to me a game that looks as beautiful and cinematic as this one does. It’s a simple saying, and not the first time I’ve heard it, but there’s something about a saying these last two games have popularized in my daily life that really resonates with me. Keep on keeping on

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.

Spoilers ahead: Death Stranding 2 is a way more polished, player-friendly, and just downright fun take on the Death Stranding gameplay loop. There are more ways of traversal, more ways to deal with enemies, more ways of dealing with BTs, etc. In short: if you liked the first game for its gameplay and want to play that game again, only this time Kojima decided to give you a personal arsenal that would make Doomguy blush with you ripping and tearing your way through simple enemy encounters left, right, and centre, then this game is for you. Unfortunately, this shift in tone has sanded away all of the interesting edges that made the first game such an interesting artistic experience. While the original game presented players with one of the most cohesive and interesting worlds ever put into a video game, it also explained said world in such great detail that Death Stranding 2 doesn't have any way of expanding this world any further. With the world-building being at essentially 0, a lot of the weight is therefore put on the shoulders of the game's characters. And unlike Sam, who is clearly capable of hauling 300 kg of "bazinga material" over a mountain pass for a VTuber science girl that rewards him with a hat that forces him to say "Peko" a bunch, the surrounding characters aren't capable of picking up a snail without crumbling to the ground before taking their first step. The three girls on your ship are indeed girls. You can see that by the way that they jump around, giggle, and gossip like a bunch of ten-year-olds; meanwhile, most of them have a backstory that should leave them scarred for the rest of their lives. The year is 2026 (in-game it's way beyond that). Sam mentally and physically suffers more than any man or woman ever has, yet the best his crewmates can do is to tell him to pick himself up by his bootstraps and remind him that another settlement needs our help. Seriously, if these same characters were part of a Bethesda game, most people would be making memes out of them and endlessly talk about how stupid they are. But because they look realistic, exist in a Hideo Kojima game, and do awesome anime moves on occasion, they get a pass. How am I supposed to feel any sort of tension when basically every person that dies in this universe returns in one way or another? The question of "Do Frankenstein-like monsters have their own souls and beaches?" was one of the many interesting ones left unexplained in DS1. Not only does this game just give you a blatant "Yes, they do." but even when they give Deadman a well-deserved goodbye as he decides to go swim with the fishes, he just returns later because apparently the heart houses the soul, or something. One of the few deep and interesting debates that happen in this game (Should humanity forgo their bodies / natural states and exist as souls without pain and suffering?) is literally ended by a character arriving out of nowhere, doing a K-pop dance and Fortnite emoting all over the place, telling us, "Nu-uuuh, that can't happen :3", solving the problem for us. And I guess that I'm supposed to stand up and clap as that happens? Just how I'm supposed to stand up and clap at the random guitar-riffing battle that occurs as the world is nearing its destruction? Don't worry, if DS3 ever happens, Kojima will find a way to retcon Fragile's entire story arc in this game. Similarly to my TLOU2 review, I can see the vision. The technology on display is incredible, the visual clarity of the game is insane. The fact that this game has no issue rendering the ending battle or the first "Nirvana" scene is nothing short of technological magic, let alone in a time where popular engines like UE5 can't even render an empty room without massive frame drops. The enemy design is awesome, the world and premise are superb. It's just that much of what happens in between feels like it completely misses the mark of what made the world of Death Stranding so interesting to begin with. 5/10

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.

The central themes of connection, isolation, grief, and humanity's relationship with technology feel even more relevant today. The game's emotional climax is widely regarded as one of [i]Kojima[/i]'s strongest endings in years. The core loop remains familiar: transporting cargo across dangerous terrain while reconnecting isolated communities. However, nearly every mechanic has been expanded and refined. The traversal mechanics remain the heart of the experience, but the additional action and stealth options prevent gameplay from becoming repetitive. Players who found the original too slow may find the sequel significantly more approachable. Visually, the game is stunning. Powered by the [i]Decima Engine[/i], it delivers some of the most impressive environmental detail seen on current-generation hardware. Vast deserts, rugged mountains, violent storms, and surreal supernatural landscapes create a world that is both beautiful and unsettling. The soundtrack is equally memorable, blending atmospheric music with emotional story moments in classic [i]Kojima[/i] fashion. Strong performances from the cast help elevate even the strangest narrative sequences. [b]Death Stranding 2: On the Beach[/b] is a remarkable sequel and one of [i]Hideo Kojima[/i]'s strongest works outside the [i]Metal Gear[/i] era. It refines the original's bold ideas rather than replacing them, delivering a more polished, more emotional, and more entertaining experience from beginning to end. If you enjoyed the first [i]Death Stranding[/i], this is essential. If you were intrigued by the original but struggled with its pacing, the sequel offers a much more refined version of [i]Kojima[/i]'s unique vision. [h1]9.5/10[/h1] DISASTER | BAD | MEDIOCRE | OKAY | GOOD | GREAT | [b][u]AMAZING [/u][/b]| MASTERPIECE [quote] Reviewed on: Win11 Home 64-bit, Intel i5-11600K, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB PRIME, 32GB DDR4-3600 RAM, 2 x Kingston NV1 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD, Internet Broadband 1000/1000 Mbit[/quote] [quote] If you like this review, then please consider giving it a thumbs up. I've also reviewed other games that you might find interesting. If so please follow [u][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/27418263/] Top of the Chart.[/url][/u]

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.

One day, you play a game so good that it defies your simple expressive abilities, leaving you wondering how you can, because you want to so badly, communicate such greatness to other people. How can you describe so many emotions, characters, and their phenomenal portrayals, or a story so wrapped around itself yet so simple? What really makes this game so magical is that, despite being a story written by Kojima, it’s so unbelievably simple when you strip it down to the basics. What a fascinating contrast: Sam, the humble porter, reconnecting the world… one delivery at a time. People who played the first game will remember the smile and gratitude displayed on the faces of the isolated inhabitants of the UCA as you delivered them their medical supplies, a lost t-shirt, their favorite tabletop game, or the device they needed to filter drinking water. No matter what it is, you were there, Sam, you delivered, you saved countless lives, and you brought the whole of America together. Sam finds himself in the same shoes once again. Except everything is bigger and better now. Everything in this game is an improved and refined version of the previous game. There’s so much to see, so many different tools to get the job done, and the same genius of players coming together to help one another build and repair structures and make other porters safer and happier. The music is really a tune to the ears. I can say so many things about the soundtracks, every song is delightful, some will make you cry, and some will make you laugh. The game’s greatest and most pivotal moments are amplified to infinity by beautiful music that will make your heart ache and eyes water. The terrain variety introduces new gameplay mechanics, and the weather, too. The weather effects are really well done, gameplay-wise, sound, and visuals. Raindrops or snowfall, thirsty deserts or flooded rivers, bottomless lakes or sky-touching mountains, forsaken masses of land or thick forests, all winding up and down to create both a challenging and enjoyable world to walk in. I highly recommend playing this game with a controller and not a mouse and keyboard, a controller that supports haptic feedback. You will feel the raindrops in your hand, and the vibrations are implemented in a way that is just as important as music during cutscenes or fights, missing them could hurt the overall immersion. Not to mention, holding R2/L2 to regain balance is a classic. A light-pink morning where, from where you stand, nothing can be seen but an endless horizon of milky clouds, made colorful by the shy sunshine that has just risen, atop the snow-clad mountaintops. Or a moon so giant that it feels like it's about to crash into earth, so white and glorious in its black backdrop of nothingness, its light so vast that the stars, around it and elsewhere, fade away. Sam, in either case of the previous, and for all that goes between them, is delivering and reconnecting while overwhelmed with sadness and grief. To play Death Stranding 2 is to experience complete loss and utter defeat, but unlike the previous game, Sam is not alone… not anymore. “You will never be alone, Sam. We will always be with you”. To play Death Stranding 2 is to experience friendship, solidarity, self-sacrifice, regret, evil, and manipulation. But, I feel, most importantly, is to experience love too. Love that permeates everything, the same love that allowed for such a creative game to be made, both lore-wise and in real life, and for such an amazing story to be told. Norman Reedus is made with an unnatural amount of charisma and mystique that situates him perfectly to play this role. To say he was born to play Sam Porter Bridges would be an understatement. Like many things in this ever-so-short life we live, the only way to truly experience it and know firsthand what it is like is to touch it and to try and be one with it. In games, it is to play the game yourself. If you loved the first one, you will absolutely lose yourself in the second. When I’m playing something that I love, I don’t want it to end, but of course, it always does. I feel so sad that this… thing is over and cannot be experienced again for the first time… but that’s life. Like the first game, this one too has become one of the most special games I have played. I will always cherish its memory, in this life, on my Beach, and in the hereafter. See the sunset… The day is ending… Let that yawn out… There's no pretending…