... But not entirely unexpected. Death Stranding 1 was an example of Kojima's sleeper cell style storytelling. Spoilers- Ahead for DS1 and On the beach warning ** [spoiler]It started painfully slow at first and then stayed at a firm power-walk pace for almost the entire game, broken up by the battlefield sequences where it began to really run and show the full potential of the gameplay, and almost perpetually it gave you the feeling of falling down a rabbit hole into the mystery of the Death Stranding, what caused it, why the Tar was appearing more often, chiral density increasing etc. Now we only have the death of Lou being used to... manipulate Sam into saving the world... again. This new story made a bold choice in the way it handled Lou's death, and Sams subsequent descent into what is likely full psychosis or just more Death Stranding Shenanigans, I call this a bold choice because unlike the last game you are fully invited to participate in Sam's mental state if you played the first game. in DS1 you came to understand him over time, you became Sam through the exhaustive control scheme and his experiences, now having always been Sam (the player) Seeing Lou in the Pod still, is presented to the player as a mystery, is Lou still here? is this all just a delusion? how many more times can Sam void himself out over losing Lou? I don't understand it yet, but I'm going to I'm sure.... Traveling to a new Continent was an awesome choice, and I'm loving the outback of Australia to explore, much like the first game, the first area in Mexico represents a sort of tutorial zone, where you relearn the mechanics (some buttons like the crouch button feel like they were swapped in this game... wtf Kojima...) The driving mechanics feel better, the physics feel more refined- I still can't tip my truck over which is both a blessing and a curse; the blessing being, yay no wipe outs on the highway triggering my car accident ptsd lmao, curse being- driving makes terrain traversal trivial, across flat land, I prefer more challenge to the experience, I feel more likely to damage cargo while walking, then driving a truck. I like the game it just hasn't grabbed me and held me down yet like the first one did, could be I just connected with that Story a little better. I still believe this game is a piece of art and should be considered one of the greatest games released this year, but I also think something isn't quite there. a certain element is missing- a certain je ne sais quoi- The "Burn the ships" , attitude that made it such a daring venture at the time (we will return home in Persian Ships or die here). Many of the choices to change the menus and UI feel like compromises to Kojimas vision, the inclusion of a perk system feels hamfisted, and a bit forced even if it does fit the aesthetic of the game. Things like adding the sniper rifle to combat and changing lethal and non-lethal weapons to be BT and "multipurpose" feel like compromises to the soul of the work. for example, in DS1 you could choose to use Lethal weapons, however it would desync Lou's connection and then you would have to dispose of an entire camp of mules or terrorists loading them into a truck and carting them off to the inceinerator. The result was: the camp stayed empty longer and Porters could traverse the area for a longer time before the Gestalt (Mules) and Demens(Terrorists) came back. The multipurpose rifle feels like an attempt to remove that element from the game as if the point is already made. It's been made, yes, but it made the world a deeper and more desperate place, and I think that took something away. BT's are much scarier now, and I definitely have more fun around them, boss battles actually are somewhat challenging now, and I have yet to reach a level high enough where I decide I want to go BT hunting to farm Chiral Crystals (Hint: Killing one of the big catchers that appear after being dragged by a watcher in DS1 if you manage to kill it, it usually drops a -blam!- ton of chiral crystals AND those crystals make your back pack lighter the more you are carrying- you're welcome Beach-heads) Also the new enemy types (robo buddies that Higgs leads) are interesting but I haven't learned enough about them, they've managed to kill me once. But I haven't seen them since. All in all, I like it, I'm just still waiting for that "Wow" moment, I have faith I may still find it, but I still need to sit down and play the game more. [/spoiler] tl;dr boredom-post about how game is good; as good as DS1 though? idk...