I’ve played about 30 hours of this game and am still in the middle of Australia. I’ve done so much and I want to talk about this video game QUICKLY.

Let’s Talk.

PROS:

• The game looks great
  • cutscenes are probably the best in the biz.
• The cast is great
  • I love Guillermo del Toro, still.
  • I also really just like Norman Reedus
• The game looks phenomenal. The opening shot, when the camera zooms out. Perfection.
• The soundtrack is great. WOODKID makes my quiet drive/walk wayyyy better.
• The core gameplay loop of walking and driving stuff to people’s homes is still fun
  • So is building stuff for people.
• The combat feels the same, as opposed to the gun combat, which is tight and responsive.
• Driving feels way better this time around.
• The monorail is cool.
• The story is still just nonsense, and I like it.
• When I’ve had a long day, the relaxing, though hostile world is comforting.
• The rewards given by others are game-changing, providing a much-needed relief in the gameplay sector.
  • I can’t imagine what the rubber pizza provides other than a few giggles.
• The amount of Kojima in the game is funny. I like that the game is aware of itself.

Cons:

• I want to go back to the time when shooting something felt like a last resort.
  • That being said, combat encounters are so easy.
    • WITH THAT being said, the overall game feels so easy.
• Death Stranding 2 gives you every resource to succeed in the beginning of the game.
  • By hour 10, I felt as though I was invincible, and by the 30th hour, I’m kinda bored.
• Dollman is a fun companion, but he is just a talking Assassin’s Creed equipment.
• The animal wrangling thing just seems like a waste of time.

Death Stranding 2 is a very fun video game if I want to hang out and deliver stuff, but I am turned off by it being so incredibly easy. When I got the upgraded blood pack, I was invincible. With the level 3 battle skeleton so early on, combat encounters were so easy. When they were described to me by my fellow shipmates as INCREIDBLY DANGEROUS, I packed more than I should, got there, and blew through it.

I like the story, though I still have almost no idea what is going on, even with the mountains of reading material provided by the Corpus. I am stuck in the same rut I was in during the first game.

Some stuff just doesn’t feel worth it to do, kinda like it was tacked on. I understand the role humans play is saving animals from the rain, but why me? I am the only person to do it, not Churches, just me, Norman Reedus.

I’ve been contemplating where I should place the score I would give Death Stranding 2, and I have fallen in the middle of 8 and 9.

I’ll be generous.

9/10