on Death Stranding 2
archived from backloggd. originally posted on 01/14/2026.
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a poor man’s Metal Gear Solid 2, and a poor man’s Death Stranding. it is the same once again, and that’s deliberate and interesting! it has the same pace, with the same tiny tutorial map > huge main map > back to tutorial map for the ending flow, same multiple plotlines that require their own conclusions, same connection flow, same chain of command, same *keep Sam in the dark* policy that everyone applies, many of the same villains and heroes, same tech optimism, same babified fetus mystery, same almost darn everything.
the differences are, unfortunately, sad to see in a game that was distinct for being a AAA blockbuster about travel, about walking and feeling each nuance of the ground under your boots. the deliveries are overall much heavier, and thus require the use of the vehicles or the floating carrier, both of which entirely remove weight management from the table. you have a mobile base of operations, which offers you fast travel and a private locker you can take anywhere! these may be “quality of life” features for Kojima Productions, but man does that take away like, everything that’s cool from the first title. DS1 Director’s Cut already had some of these, but they were awful there too! it’s optimizing what made the first game click. i guess Baby Steps exists now at least!
oh, and the focus on combat, justified only by a nonsense pseudoexcuse late game, has no place here! what would even entice a guy like Sam to use weapons *this* much? why do i gotta do mini MGS 5 bases more often than BT encounters? why is Higgs even back, aside from offering spongy robot enemies to mow down? this feels like any other AAA title now.
- *vague spoilers from now on**
also, yeah, i hate Higgs! this fucker is still here and Hideo Kojima tried making him look all cool with some new makeup, a Raiden-like design and a fucking dumbass guitar. Sam loves the guitar for some reason, and even does a duet with the fucker at one point? like they’re buddies? Higgs gives him likes after that section. what the fuck even is this character anymore, just a vessel for kidnapping every woman character (and calling them bitches), justifying some dogshit gameplay and emasculating Sam (a very poignant theme in DS2).
the twin narrative beats of this game are plain stupid. like Drawbridges’ plan, which involves doing the same shit the villains are doing in the same way, but like, doing some obfuscation so that the villains can’t do shit. so they never did anything at all. wow. also, why is an acclaimed videogame writer doing yet another dead wife story beat for the same character? what is he on? it just leaves the whole thing on a sour note that doesn’t add anything to the story. the actual plot twists at the end are things that are almost cleanly stated by the game from the beginning, before they’re walked back and then brought in again at the ending. what even is the point of all this?
i kinda enjoy how everyone keeps gaslighting Sam like in the first game, but now it seems he just accepts every friend and foe hiding everything from him always so that he gets used however anyone wants. in DS1 he had a healthy skepticism of power and bureaucracy that is completely dissolved in Death Stranding 2. it’s like Die-Hardman was always an unambiguously positive figure, and the entirety of the first game was a good (wifi for everyone) vs. evil (anarchist doomsday cultists). i like Tomorrow, though she barely exists in the dang game. i am sad about this videogame.
