What could have been done? Either make the world even more a pain in the ass and restrict your tools even harder, or else maybe lean full into it now being a combat game.

I wish I had a good answer. I'm not sure how you keep the challenge of traversal without it just becoming annoying long term. To be clear, I think the first game had that problem, too. Past a certain point, the problem had been solved. I had hoped there would be more dynamic elements to contend with. The trailer showed avalanches and rockslides and flooding, but none of that matters. I've only seen one avalanche so far, and it's a scripted event based on the delivery. Flooding seems to happen, if not at random, at least not always tied to specific missions, but it doesn't actually present anything the player needs to contend with. I just wish more unexpected things could happen that the player might not be immediately able to account for. I couldn't actually say what that would look like. I only saw the one wild fire, and that was an awesome moment that, while not necessarily challenging, at least provided a fun moment to deal with, either with a tar cannon if you have one or finding the safe path through it. The only other wild fire I know for sure happens in the game is also tied to a specific delivery. I don't think it's just a thing that can happen while you're out and about.

I started a new playthrough. I'm not completely offline, but in the cargo only mode. I don't see other people's structures, but I can still interact with entrusting cargo for others and delivering shared cargo. It's been much more enjoyable. While still not actually challenging, it's much better to have to build my own infrastructure to deal with inconveniences.

I have to say I'm a bit disappointed the answer to "Should we have connected?" is "Yeah, probably." I think there would have been a really great story in there about the different type of connections, and how modern connections actually drive us apart. Maybe the chiral network isn't the answer, and the real answer is actual community.

While I think the story was a fun ride (at least the final few hours), I ultimately find it pretty disappointing. The tagline is "Should we have connected?" and the game doesn't really do a whole lot to address that point.

I also don't think it does anything interesting with Sam. The game is ostensibly his journey of dealing with the grief of losing Lou, except it's not, because that is never addressed like at all. Sam doesn't seem like a character going through grief. It honestly feels like Norman Reedus was expensive and spent a day recording dialogue and that was all they got. That made a certain amount of sense in the first game, or it at least felt like it fit the vibes of the game, but it feels very out of place in this one. It's just weird.

I also don't like that Lou is literally Sam's kid. Tomorrow being Lou is fine, but her literally being the kid he had with Lucy seems unnecessary. So that random corpse disposal dude in the beginning of Death Stranding just happened to have the super secret ur-BB?

I loved all the stuff with Higgs at the end, even if it's absolutely stupid as hell. It was ridiculous and fun, but the actual story of the characters of DS2 is basically non-existent.

There's a point in the story where Rainy needs to go see the Doctor. It's sort of set up like its an emergency. The game tells you, but then is like "finish up anything you want to take care of before we move," and I absolutely dropped everything--like Rainy is in trouble and needs to go see the doctor, lets go! And then nothing happens. We don't get any actual character development, we don't learn anything new--that scene just reiterates stuff the doctor already told us when we first met her, only we get to see her do it instead of being told about it, and the fact that it's Rainy doesn't affect anything at all. The whole game kinda feels like that.

I really doubt this is what he meant.

No I get it.

But That thing he wants where you're figuring out how they systems work and how to traverse the world can only happen once. The windfarm was a pain in the ass to get to the first time, but once you set things up and go back it's much more manageable. A skill you learn along the way.

But you go into DS2 already knowing these skills. Where to build structures, how to navigate terrain and use vehicles. You can't learn it a second time. Part of what made the first game special is literally not reproducible after you've played it.

What could have been done? Either make the world even more a pain in the ass and restrict your tools even harder, or else maybe lean full into it now being a combat game.

I have to say I'm a bit disappointed the answer to "Should we have connected?" is "Yeah, probably." I think there would have been a really great story in there about the different type of connections, and how modern connections actually drive us apart. Maybe the chiral network isn't the answer, and the real answer is actual community.

I made a bit of an effort to 5-star every connection, but some of them go soooooo slow that I don't see myself having the free time for it- and I haven't even got around to visiting Mr. Impossible yet :/

F7 Distro center is the worst, she is so stingy with likes!!!

<<Some long description of something that sounds excruciating and deeply disrespectful of my precious free time>>
"10/10. Pure Cinema!"
🤷🏻

I think the appeal (more so in the first game, from what Fooch was telling me), is that a lot of different muscles are worked in your head than you are used to, and the game gives you more time to work out the costs and consequences of each action.
Are you planning your trip based on the weather patterns? Are you packing the right equipment based on the topography and terrain features? Are you sure you aren’t packing too much?

The final delivery for Mr. Impossible has you retrieving a fragile object from each and every enemy base on the map, in 45 mins. It's like, maybe one of a few orders you actually have to plan ahead for and lay things down and figure out how you'll do it.

The rest you can just take the truck lol.

<<Some long description of something that sounds excruciating and deeply disrespectful of my precious free time>>
"10/10. Pure Cinema!"
🤷🏻

I think the appeal (more so in the first game, from what Fooch was telling me), is that a lot of different muscles are worked in your head than you are used to, and the game gives you more time to work out the costs and consequences of each action.
Are you planning your trip based on the weather patterns? Are you packing the right equipment based on the topography and terrain features? Are you sure you aren’t packing too much?

It’s engaging gameplay that really relies on you getting better at making decisions, without bombarding you with stressors or a need to have fast reflexes. It’s definitely not for everyone, but it’s very rewarding, IMO.

https://www.ign.com/articles/hideo-kojima-made-significant-changes-to-death-stranding-2-because-playtesters-thought-i...

Also, I’m finding a good number of the express deliveries have REALLY tight timings for S rank. There’s one from Lone Commander to Mr Impossible where even a direct series of zip lines won’t get you there in time. I ended up using the coffin and some jump ramps and making it with just a few seconds to spare.

Unsurprising considering DS uses Guerrilla's Decima engine. It even surfaces the effects of things like weather/wind!

There's obviously a little bit of cheating with bespoke cinematic lights being turned on, but every game cutscene uses those anyway.

Cutscenes in DS2 incorporate the time of day. You could get it day, morning, sunset, or night. 10/10

I wanted an actual day/night cycle in Death Stranding so bad. I'm glad it's in DS2. But, like most video games, it doesn't even get dark. The Odradek has a flashlight function, but I couldn't tell you why.

I've finally encountered a little bit of what I've been looking for when the DHV Magellan gets sidelined a bit and you have to trek back and forth through the mountains. Recovering the cargo for the Phantom Smith in the mountains in a BT area was a genuinely cool moment, and it's one of the only areas I've seen where the cliffs are steep enough that you can just Skyrim your way up and down them without proper tools. It was neat, because it was one of the few places where it was a genuine pain in the ass, so I actually planned ahead and brought a bunch of PCCs with me to set up ziplines on my way down so I could just zoom back up. I'm not sure if it's the normal configuration most end up, but I ended up have to cross over one zone that wasn't in the network, but it was sort of skinny, so I was able to just set up a zipline tower on either side of the unconnected zone and zipline through it on the way back.

Even then, though, that challenge was self-imposed. I could have just grabbed a truck and drove right over the top and been done, or taken a Bokka Skeleton and had no worries about stamina.

It seems weird, given how much I genuinely love Death Stranding 2, but I am find myself really itching to go back and replay the first game and get the Platinum. But, even for all my bitching about overtuning the quality of life stuff in DS2, I think it might make it genuinely kind of annoying to go back to the first game. Also, DS2 is so damn good looking. It's going to be disappointing to go backwards. Death Stranding is still a great looking game, but it definitely had some uncanny valley in its characters. Death Stranding 2 has the best character models I've ever seen in a video game. The close up of Sam when he goes in the elevator to enter or leave the private room is so realistic, it blows me away every time I see it. I think it also might be the first time I've ever seen a baby in a video game that looks like a real human baby.

Due to never transferring my save to the Director’s Cut, I had gone ahead and restarted the whole game, and let me tell ya, I needed it. Nothing stuck in my head other than “hold the triggers at all times lol”.

And I got to the part of the tutorial where you leave central knot to establish the first Q-pid. I struggled trying to figure out the pre-trip inventory management, but after some random button presses and experimentation, it clicked.
Working my way up the valley, I picked up every piece of cargo on the ground, remembering that I had wished I’d done that the first time I played.
I carefully hobbled up the mountain until I hit the cliff, saw the Climbing Anchor tutorial, and went into my quick-pocket… and saw nothing there.
Can’t be right.
I check the other pockets… nothing. I read and re-read my inventory…
Nothing but lost cargo and the meds…

I left the rope at home.

Surely the game has contingency plans, right? An easy plan B route for the gaming journalists? This is the tutorial!
I look to my left, and then scan longer to my right- and it hits me.
I have to walk back to grab the rope.
I get a notice that my stamina is dropping.

It starts raining.

10/10 I missed this game.

Cutscenes in DS2 incorporate the time of day. You could get it day, morning, sunset, or night. 10/10

And I got to the part of the tutorial where you leave central knot to establish the first Q-pid. I struggled trying to figure out the pre-trip inventory management, but after some random button presses and experimentation, it clicked.
Working my way up the valley, I picked up every piece of cargo on the ground, remembering that I had wished I’d done that the first time I played.
I carefully hobbled up the mountain until I hit the cliff, saw the Climbing Anchor tutorial, and went into my quick-pocket… and saw nothing there.
Can’t be right.
I check the other pockets… nothing. I read and re-read my inventory…
Nothing but lost cargo and the meds…

I left the rope at home.

Surely the game has contingency plans, right? An easy plan B route for the gaming journalists? This is the tutorial!
I look to my left, and then scan longer to my right- and it hits me.
I have to walk back to grab the rope.
I get a notice that my stamina is dropping.

It starts raining.

10/10 I missed this game.