We’ve finished Ghost of Yotei and now we’re diving deep into one of our most anticipated games of 2025. Death Stranding 2.
Having re-played Death Stranding earlier in the year, we have a love for and connection to Kojima’s desolate future.
The story of Sam Bridges, BB (Lou) and the cast of characters really struck a chord. With a stunning world, a strong concept, stellar music and a weird, but engaging narrative. We’ve been dying to see what comes next.
Whilst it’s only a few hours in, we have some thoughts! So here are our initial thoughts on Death Stranding 2.
Death Stranding 2
The story is starting to take shape (so much as a Kojima game can do…). We’ve got plate gates, more beaches and BTs, and we’ve connected Mexico in a pretty swift manner.
The introduction of Sam and Lou, and then Fragile was lovely. Showing the time passed since the first game and how Sam has been living it in isolation, hidden after leaving at the end of Death Stranding. A cosy life, tucked away from the world.
Fragile is a great exposition tool to bring us up to speed with how the world has changed outside of Sam and Lou’s little bubble.
It works really nicely, and then you get given the inevetable task of getting back out on the road. This time connecting Mexico.
In no time at all, you’re back in the well bedded-in boots of a porter and out doing the thing you do so well.
Death Stranding 2 does a great job of bringing you into the game as a player of the first, but it feels nicely crafted to on-board new players, perhaps unfamiliar with the orignial game, too.
Change
When you get a sequel to a game, you expect change. And whilst we don’t have hours and hours racked-up yet. There is plenty of change on display from these early moments.
Death Stranding 2 is very much a continuation of the first game. Systems and concepts all still in play. But now you have new weapons, now control schemes and even a new way of accessing the menus to plot your route.
Gone is the hand-cuff style bracelet that you eschewed at the end of the first game. Everyone is using thumb rings now, for the same purpose. With the concept of a thumbs-up and “liking” things being so prominent in this world, it makes a lot of sense. In Death Stranding 2 you have to give a thumbs-up to open the menus.
A new electric hand gun and a hand gun holster mean you always have some means of stunning enemies beyond your usual cord or fists. We like it, and it seems to set the game up to be a little more action oriented. Although, this is speculation at this point.
New ammo, blood grenades and a new kind of trike. Death Stranding 2 is more about iterating on ideas from before, so far.
Nothing feels forced or out of place. All the change we have seen so far is natural and largely makes no odds to the general experience of the game.
Having a social network element in the “SSS” is nice, getting photos from Fragile with Lou as I’ve had to set out solo on the road. Lovely touch.
Looks and sounds
Death Stranding 2 takes the aesthetic from the first game and just seems to better it in every way. Granted, it’s early hours and we’ve only really seen one biome. But the dry, mountainous region of Mexico feels hot, it feels dusty and dry.
Add to it the introduction of storms and you’re expereincing the world in a very new way.
Graphically, the game is stunning. Mexico looks real, and with the flow of rivers that may quickly rise during a timefall storm, you feel like you’re part of a real world.
Then, as was introduced in the original game, you get hit with a cinematic camera angle and a perfectly-procured song to see you through certain parts of your journey. Always emotive. Helping you feel a little more like you’re on this journey alone, in a desolate, open world.
This is all the original game but turned-up a notch.
So far, so good
Death Stranding 2 is (so far) just more of the good stuff, with natural change and improvement. Combining all the elements of the first game that we loved, with the improved power and performance of the PS5 and a team that seems to have gotten a better handle on the game engine, too.
It’s hard to comment too much more at such an early stage, but we needed to get some thoughts down, so we can reflect in the following parts of this review.
We’ll see how things go, but it’s a promising start.