wHat Death 2 tried to say it? This is a question you’ll ask yourself on the second time in the second Hideo Kojima’s Hypnosis, Mystery and Provocative Slow Cargo Management Simulator series. First, because in many long and smooth treks in the supernatural vision of Mexico and Australia, you have all the headspace in the world to think about its small details and crack the confusing things you just witnessed. Second, because this question often reveals something profound.
It can tolerate this extended contemplation is a hallmark of the exquisite craftsmanship of this game. No one will spread notes to reveal Doom: The Dark Ages are gradually disappearing or exploring clues in Marvel competitor cutscenes, like those games. Nothing to invite such censorship is invited to any game, let alone stick with it. But Death Stranding 2 is another game, one with the atmosphere and narrative delivery of the Arthouse movie, its storytelling touch, but exhaustive in the game system, the tension between the two makes it so compelling. At first you ride the other bravely; then, over time, you taste both.
For those who missed the first death barrier, this is indeed the second in a series of games about moving goods between waypoints, walking or riding; packaging for food, technology and luxury, such as post-apocalyptic Amazon drivers. At the beginning of the first game, a mysterious event fundamentally changes the world, allowing the dead to return to the realm of life as a spectral entity called the “Beach Things” (BTS). When BT kills humans, it causes a catastrophic event called “invalidity”, a supernatural nuclear bomb explosion that leaves only a huge crater.
The protagonist Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus) dispersed and isolated humans in underground bunkers, connecting the remaining pockets of civilization in the United States to a global technological infrastructure called the “hand network” to restore hope for a better tomorrow. He also manages it throughout the continent, carried in an artificial uterus with a supernatural baby Lou. With the sequel beginning, he is enjoying a secluded life in Mexico with the now toddler Lou.
Trust me, these are the fewest cliff notes. Death Stranding 2 begins with a six-minute cutscene that attempts to convey a strange world of sci-fi and poetic metaphors built by the island, and even feels like a rough summary. Decrypting the mystery is the fun half here (the other half is box displacement), but even if you don’t interact deeply with the world, it follows its own fantastic logic and begins to have intuitive meaning. It is not clear whether Death Stranding 2’s Australians ever looked like the one we know, or whether it was always a piece of Icelandic tundra, snowy mountains and multi-colored deserts. What matters is the feeling of consistency.
It might be meditation, but it’s not to watch Sam enjoy retirement and father’s game in 50 hours. He was inevitably asked to re-action, this time reconnecting the Mexican and Australian populations to the chiral network in exchange for a costume called drawbridge, a logistics company funded by an unknown benefactor and led by the return role Vulnerable (Léa Seydoux). If it sounds a bit dry, what if I tell you about a long pair of greta garbo gloves around her fragile neck, can she move like a second set of hands?
A clumsy gang helps Sam perform his mission, following him on DHV Magellan, a boat that is more A-listers than the Cannes red carpet. Seydoux, George Miller, Guillermo Del Toro, Nicolas Winding Refn, Elle Fanning and Shioli Kutsuna all performed well, and experienced actor Troy Baker is also the chief Baddie Higgs. The main character exists mainly in poetic installations and pathological metaphors: Rainy (Kutsuna) is an oppressed optimist who rains whenever she goes out. Tarman (Miller) lost his hand to supernatural tar and can now use it to guide the ship through its current. Heartman (Darren Jacobs) dies and reborn every few minutes. According to rights, they should all be simply too weird to cause sorrow, but there are few moments when allegoricals are called, they interact in human and poignant ways. If you don’t feel the lump in your throat watching it raining and singing with tomorrow (Fanning), it’s not only dead.
Strangely, packaging delivery is the highest standard of gaming. It sounds boring, but you can’t help but be attracted by the magnetic draws of these detailed systems. In the last game, fighting felt like an afterthought, but this time the mission brought you into conflict with BTS and other humans, there were more and more ideas this time, and often supported by sleek mechanics, which made the feeling of firing a grenade or catching the neck equally satisfying. You can make tools that can be carried – ladders and climbing ropes for mountain routes, assault rifles and grenades. There is as much fun in preparation as in action. It feels good to impose some order in an otherwise chaotic and unknowable world. That’s probably why we all bake so much banana bread during the lockdown.
Kojima has a story about Death Match before the 19 COVID-19 pandemic, but has been rewrited from scratch after being locked up with the rest of the world. You don’t have to look too hard to see the impact – this population is too afraid to walk outside, and the government promises to save you by ending travel and physical contact, which is the profound loneliness of Sam as a porter traveling alone across barren landscapes.
Suitable is that you can interact with other players, but only at distance, share equipment, build structures and leave holographic logos, and like other players in your own game. Ultimately, it’s a harsh lock-down irony – as time goes by, the world’s flickering icons are clogged, and as more structures look, you face a constant “like” symbol. It feels like the incredible focus on spam on social media, and it is by no means accidental.
The advantage of the first game is the surprise. Death stayed 2 no. The good numbers and tedious majority of this game are also correct for the last game, but at the same time, it has perfected every singular element. The combat feels stronger, the world map is more handmade, and the tasks are more diverse. Asking you to do all this again in a brand new game should be like a practical joke, but it’s so rich and meaningful mechanically that you just nodded for the second time and put on your backpack.
Among the many things about obstacle 2, it’s about saying: you’re never truly alone. Global disasters, large-scale technology, and even death itself – these things may abstract how we connect with each other, but they cannot completely cut off the connection. The game about delivering the box is pretty good.
