Back in 2019, I didn’t really know what to make of Death Stranding, the first post-Metal Gear project from game director and friend-to-all-celebrities Hideo Kojima.
Its message of connecting people fell sort of flat, at least until five months after release, when COVID-19 took hold in the United States and suddenly many people were holed up in their homes relying on underpaid gig workers to get groceries. Its delivery-focused gameplay worked well enough, but pacing issues made actually seeing the end credits kind of a nightmare.
Most importantly, Death Stranding lacked confidence, relative to other Kojima Productions games. It felt like the development team still wasn’t quite sure what they wanted it to be, even after it shipped.
This is all to say that Death Stranding 2 is the polar opposite, in some respects. Kojima’s latest journey with the dead comes replete with swagger, a more coherent narrative, and just straight up better gameplay at almost all times. To say it’s merely a better game than the first is an understatement; Death Stranding 2 is Kojima’s best, most complete game in nearly two decades. Here’s why.
Death Stranding 2’s story makes the first game look even worse
Warning: This section contains minor spoilers for certain story elements in Death Stranding 2
In case you don’t remember what happened at the end of the first game, the good news is that hardly anyone else does, either. It just wasn’t a compelling story, nor was it told in a particularly engaging way.
DS2 does not have the same problem. For starters, its characters are actually present and feel like more than just celebrity cameos this time around. Protagonist Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus) sets out on a journey to connect all of Australia to the chiral network, a sort of magical internet that enables high-level 3D printing of quality goods. He’s joined in this journey by a motley crew of weirdos and freaks on a new ship called the DHV Magellan, including Fragile (Léa Seydoux), Tarman (voice of Marty Rhone, likeness of Furiosa director George Miller), and a talking doll named Dollman who is also kind of Sam’s therapist.
This game’s cast of characters is actually in physical proximity to Sam most of the time. You see and hear from them so much more than you did in the first game. It’s a small thing, but it matters a lot. But the story of Death Stranding 2 really shines when you get to the parts where it’s been clear that Kojima and his co-writers Shuyo Murata and Kenji Yano have been reading the news and have some thoughts about where the world is going.
Put succinctly, Death Stranding 2 pretty explicitly takes the position that American cultural and technological hegemony is a global perpetrator of violence and suffering. Characters don’t mince words in repeatedly referring to the increase in chiral network coverage as an expansionist policy of the United Cities of America, the successor to the United States. For whatever everyday conveniences the chiral network brings to its users, it also brings supernatural horrors and an influx of gun violence, making you wonder if all of this connection is even worth it.
Oh yeah, there’s also the part where the UCA’s president is chosen not by democratic vote, but by an AI that assesses the population’s desires and works from there. The AI was developed by a private organization called APAC, which is pronounced in dialogue exactly the same way as AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group that donates to myriad elected officials across the real-world U.S. Intentional or not, it's tough not to notice.
Yes, in Death Stranding 2, the president is indirectly chosen by APAC. Subtext is for losers. The UCA and APAC, working in conjunction, launder violence around the world in this game. It’s not subtle.
Messy and potentially traumatic elements (largely related to motherhood and childbirth) rear their head throughout the narrative, to be sure, but I honestly wouldn’t have it any other way. So many big-budget video games shy away from taking any kind of position on real-world issues at all. In that sense, DS2 is hugely refreshing, and it feels like a return to form for the people who brought us Metal Gear Solid.
Death Stranding 2 knows what it wants to be
I’ll keep this relatively brief because I went into the mechanical and design changes of DS2 in more depth already, but the game also clears its predecessor when you’re not watching cutscenes.
This is generally due to an increased emphasis on stealth and combat, two things that were present in Death Stranding, but never felt quite at home. Human enemy bases in that game were just kind of there, full of materials to steal if you wanted to, but otherwise never feeling like much of a threat. There was simply no reason to engage with combat in Death Stranding unless you wanted to build every highway in the game.
DS2 smartly places a lot of enemy bases directly in the way of your delivery routes, forcing the player to figure out a way around or through them. You’re given a much more accommodating roster of non-lethal armaments this time around, so if you want to just Rambo it up at every base, you can do that. There’s also a fun suite of stealth tools for players who prefer to do it that way.
With all of that in mind, DS2 feels much more secure in its vision of a gig worker action game. Yes, you will spend many, many hours peacefully hiking around Australia while listening to CHVRCHES, but sometimes you have to fight. I think this makes the game much more enjoyable and varied than its predecessor.
Death Stranding 2 saves the best for last
Last but certainly not least, perhaps the biggest issue with Death Stranding was that the final half-dozen hours or so were easily the worst part of the game.
It was a boring slog full of bad third-person shooting, uninteresting cutscenes, and a part where you confusingly wander around a beach for a while because it’s not clear if the game is over yet or not. I’m pleased to report, without spoiling anything, that DS2 took that criticism to heart and instead saved its absolute best for the final four hours or so.
Kojima’s best games have always had wonderful finale chapters full of twists and fun escalation, and DS2 is no different. I had a big, stupid grin on my face for most of the final act, and that often turned into full-blown laughter. Not at the game, mind you, but with it. There’s plenty to chew on thematically in the finale, but even if you don’t feel like doing that, you will almost certainly appreciate how unbelievably absurd and audacious it is.
In other words, I don’t remember the last time a big-budget game made me wonder how it got past its corporate overlords as often as DS2 did in just the last few hours. I need people to finish it so I can talk to them about it. Stop reading this article and go do that, please.
