I wanna preface by saying I love this game a lot, and think it's generally just an all around improvement over the first. If the story ends here, and this is the last Death Stranding game? I'd be perfectly satisfied and it'd land in my top 5 game franchises of all time for sure.
That being said, I had a few issues that were really starting to wear me down the more I played. While I'm probably gonna ramble about them far more than I should, none of them are really THAT big of a deal-- I just sorta need to vent this out somewhere and get it out of my system so I can focus more on what I loved.
Firstly, the physics in general are still very rough at points. It baffles me that a game so focused on traversing rough terrain manages to really miss the mark in such seemingly simple areas. The vehicle handling/physics are still pretty bad, almost no improvement. Although I will say, I managed to complete the story without ever getting a truck or cruiser stuck, but I'm pretty sure that's due to me being more familiar with the mechanics after all my time spent in 1. I'm willing to give the vehicles a pass, because I think the on-foot gameplay is more fun-- I'd say it's the "soul" of Death Stranding's gameplay loop. But even then, small things like falling from heights are really janky. For example, I was in the middle of connecting the mountain region of Australia-- and ended up falling off of a small rock that was along a small slope. Instead of maybe rolling or sliding down the slope, Sam proceeded to enter this illogical, janky hover-fall DIAGONALLY all the way down the slope, triggering enough fall damage to kill me instantly. I wouldn't have been mad if I genuinely fell off a cliff or some shit, but that specifically would've been very survivable had the game not... blatantly defy the laws of gravity to murder me. I will grant that this is not anything new, as 1 had the same wonky physics. They just frustrated me a lot more here, because I guess I was hoping the sequel would polish up some of those issues.
In that same vein, I see a lot of people praising the combat in 2. I do think combat is overall a far better experience, with a lot more fun tools and interesting enemy variety-- I especially like how they trimmed a lot of fat with the gun/bullet types and just gave us multipurpose bullets in every gun (for the most part). But I was really struggling with the button mapping in 2 for some reason, far more than I ever did in the original game. Every fight, I was having to constantly battle with the left trigger button, as it seemed to have a mind of its own, just choosing what it actually wanted to do at random. I was always either bracing/grabbing a package when I wanted to aim, or vice versa. I know there's a setting to change what it prioritizes, but only ever reversed the issue for me. Also I hated random switch between O and R1 between the two games, really peeved that I couldn't change that back. Probably a skill issue mostly, but an issue no less.
My next problem is the music pacing. The music itself was GREAT, almost every track was a banger. And I loved that DS2 doubled down on 1's great use of songs during the longer deliveries-- and basically gave every main delivery a song in 2. However, I'd say about 75% of these songs would only trigger within the last 500 meters or so of an order-- meaning I'd either need to slow down/stop/waste time just to listen or proceed with the delivery at my normal pace and miss out on a portion of the track. I wouldn't even say I was rushing that much during many of these instances, I'd genuinely have to just stop at the border of the destination facility if I wanted the music to finish. Granted, I recall this happening SOMETIMES in 1, but nowhere near as often as this. I really wish the music would play just a little earlier in most of these missions.
Next up, I'd say I picked up on a few very minor/subjective "vibe" issues. The private rooms, specifically the facility ones, have lost a lot of their charm to me. I like the custom picture wall, but they're just... bland and small in comparison to the first. Just really dry, plain tables and clutter as opposed to the original's dope ass built in shelves and big display cases. Although I will say the DHV Magellan's private DHV Magellan room upon the DHV Magellan was pretty cozy and grew on me a lot by the end. I also missed some of the quirky 4th wall breaky "easter egg" stuff from DS1's private room-- like lingering the character on Sam's crotch too long, or his completely random gestures. But I'm willing to forgive a lot if this considering Sam overall is in a far worse headspace for a majority of 2, and it'd be jarring to come out of a super emotional cutscene moment for Sam, just for him to immediately point at me and make a silly face or some shit. So I do understand that one, even if it does end up making the Private Rooms more boring.
But, almost unironically, my biggest issue by far is giving us such cool outfits for Sam that are locked solely to cutscenes or specific story moments. The porter suit + trench coat combo in the intro (or the subsequent story beats that call back to the intro) was by far the coolest look for Sam, perhaps even one of the coolest Norman Reedus looks in general (and that main has had some pretty cool and iconic fucking outfits across all his characters). Or the DHV Magellan jacket that he and the others wear in certain cutscenes upon the DHV Magellan (or his black "off-duty" jacket aswell). I understand Sam has his "set" uniform, and Kojima is seemingly pretty stubborn on enforcing a main character's canon "outfit" (first game not even letting you change the colors of your suit until the end, or many similar situations in the MGS games for example). But come the fuck on man, those other fits are so cool :( I'd even gladly take a small penalty where you don't have the shoulder cargo mounts or something while wearing the more "civillian jacket" outfits (seeing as the description of every other suit unnecessary clarifies that function for some reason).
The customization options here are cool, don't get me wrong. It's a definite upgrade to the first and I LOVE backwards hats as a feature. But I can't stop myself from being a little dissapointed that all we got were re-colors and camos on the main drawbridge suit for the main outfit. I was even surprised to see the lack of a ponytail option? Don't get me wrong, I prefer Sam with the iconic Norman Reedus hair, especially with the impressive updated hair physics-- but the ponytail was such a staple look for Sam, I was really surprised to see it cut from 2.
Finally-- this one isn't really an issue with the game itself necessarily, moreso the marketing. But I knew WAYYY too many story details going into this whole thing. Maybe that's on me for watching the trailers at all-- but man, they really just gave us wayy too many puzzle pieces for this storyline right off the bat. Hell, most of us guessed some of the biggest twists of the damn game pretty much as early as trailer 1 or 2.
Anyhow, I think that's all of the "bad" I experienced for Death Stranding 2-- which to further clarify, yes, is all petty shit which really doesn't matter. If THESE are my biggest complaints with the game? It's a pretty damn good game.
I'm just quite passionate about these games, and felt compelled to yap for a minute about the few things that kept this title away from 100% perfection for me. The gameplay loop is still insanely fun, an objective upgrade from the first. And the story of 2, imo, resonated in so many more ways than 1 (an already superb story in my books) ever did for me. These "issues" are irrelevant when stacked up agains all the good, DS2 is just so insanely confident in what it is and really delivered (hehe) on just about every big expectation I had and then some. So like I said, don't take my ramblings here as me being a hater of Kojima or the games or anything, as it's quite the opposite.
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