5/5 ★ – DWAG's review of Death Stranding 2: On The Beach.

This is definitely an improvement on the first death stranding in terms of gameplay, I found myself rebuilding all the roads and monorail lines and completing most of the game’s various side content. The combat, while still not perfect has been greatly improved upon however there is still a distinct clunk to it. The stealth however is amazing and definitely the best way to attack a bunch of enemies. There are some notable problems in enemy ai pathfinding and I feel that while the first game suffered from too many BT’s, the sequel suffers the opposite problem where even with no planning in the routes it is extremely uncommon to run into a group of BT’s let alone be attacked by them. Death stranding one was not a game for everyone however this time it is clear that Kojima has made the game far more accessible and appealing for newcomers. I am delighted to say that the vehicles have been fixed and are not nearly as clunky as the first. My other main complaint for the first game was the lack of the amazing licensed music however in the sequel they have clearly addressed this issue by adding a music player and by letting some tracks play before you have almost arrived at the objective. The decima engine once again remains the top spot in graphical advancement and performance. I ran the game on fidelity mode at 30 frames and it is safe to say that this is the best looking game ever made, even photorealistic at times. The score is once again brilliant and woodkid, gen hoshino, Grimm Grimm, Chvrches and most importantly low roar (rip) are brilliant for setting the tone whether it’s upbeat or that distant feel. The story pacing was also greatly improved upon. However… the story itself… now this may be a bit of a hot take but I almost prefer the narrative of the first game which is very odd because I normally love games that have a lighter tone however what I especially felt was missing in the second game was that dark gritty horror feel. Nevertheless the story still slapped at the end and I just loved it when, just like the first game, all the pieces came together. The cast is brilliant, superb even and the new characters are equally as unique as those original ones from the first game. Rainy, tar-man and dollman all have incredible backstory’s however let’s face it, the game is about Sam, Fragile, Lou, Tomorrow and of course Higgs and just like the first game, Norman Reedus and Troy baker performed incredibly. Elle fanning as tomorrow was a great choice and she is besides Higgs, my favourite character of the game. Higgs was a true Joker this time around and that guitar is awesome. Troy Baker absolutely killed it, this may even be his best role yet (up there with Joel at least). The ending still slapped, however even though it was obscenely obscure it still had that same emotional impression on me as with the ending of death stranding. Kojima has done it again, this is truly a masterpiece 10/10. Not sure what Kojima was thinking when he thought of all this stuff. I think somebody needs to write down all of his obscure ideas and we might even cure cancer.