Death Stranding 2 sounds like everything I hoped it'd be

It should speak to an already stacked year for games that we're just over a month away from Death Stranding 2, and yet it feels like this major PlayStation (timed) exclusive is flying under the radar. Maybe that has more to do with the divisive response to Kojima's first apocalyptic mailman simulator—Death Stranding was the sort of game you either kinda hated or totally clicked with (and gave a Game of the Year award).

I was among the latter, sinking hundreds of hours into road projects and harrowing box rescues across multiple playthroughs, so I'm relieved to hear Death Stranding 2 is shaping up nicely. That's according to a handful of outlets that attended a four-day "Death Stranding boot camp," as several writers referred to it, at Kojima Productions HQ.

Attendees played an unbelievable 30 hours of Death Stranding 2, which shatters the record for longest preview build I've ever heard of. If there is such a thing as too much preview access, Kojima is knocking at its door. There's also a bunch of new gameplay to comb over, but it looks like nobody got to share their own capture, so all previews utilize the same 5-10 minutes of Sony-supplied footage. Below you'll find my big takeaways after combing over a handful of videos and writeups, as well as a handy roundup of everyone's coverage to go enjoy yourself.

We don't know when Death Stranding 2 will come to PC, but I hope it's quicker than Sony's frequent year-or-two-later turnaround.

Video

• Eurogamer: 8 Things You Need To Know About Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
• IGN: We Played Death Stranding 2 for 30 Hours
• Game Informer: Death Stranding 2 Impressions: The Makings of a Perfect Sequel
• SkillUp: I spent 4 days playing Death Stranding 2…

Words

• VGC: How Hideo Kojima is evolving Death Stranding 2’s formula with a bold Australian frontier
• Press Start: Death Stranding 2: On The Beach Hands-On Preview – Successful Delivery
• Gamespot: I Played 30 Hours of Death Stranding 2 And I Can't Wait To Do It All Again

Everyone's saying it's more like Metal Gear

If you chopped up all these previews and fed them to a word cloud, "Metal Gear" would probably be the biggest bubble. That's because everyone was surprised to discover how many more stealth and combat options Death Stranding 2 supports. There are bandit camps spread throughout the sequel's maps, as well as more missions that ask you to infiltrate them.

Were this the first game, the prospect of forced stealth encounters would sound like a real drag, but it looks like Sam's dynamic with these bandits is different from the package-stealing MULEs of America. In the gameplay clips shared, it appears enemy camps no longer have those cargo-detecting tripwires that would instantly reveal Sam's location.

By all accounts, DS2's bandit camps are closer to Metal Gear Solid 5 bases: Compounds that can be approached from any direction, reward scouting, and accommodate aggressive or passive playstyles. That's really encouraging, as is the word that the little stop motion puppet on Sam's hip can scout the area like an Assassin's Creed eagle. My number one complaint about the original Death Stranding (besides its terribly paced story) was its small variety of goals. I love delivering packages, but I'm even more excited to take off Sam's backpack (another new feature) for some Solid Snake-y side gigs.

Turns out Death Stranding 2 is mostly set in Australia

As far as I know, Kojima Productions hasn't mentioned this before yesterday's wave of previews. We'd only heard that Death Stranding 2 goes to Mexico, but apparently, the majority of the story takes place in Australia.

Not that the location of Death Stranding's maps truly matters—Kojima's rendition of the United States looked way more Nordic than American, and as Australian YouTuber SkillUp noted in his hands-on, Kojima's gone ahead and plopped a snow-capped mountain in the center of his arid homeland. So there's definitely a Mexico and Australia map—maybe there's a third?

BTs aren't the threat they used to be

I'm mixed on this one. One of the more thrilling (and sometimes frustrating) moments of the first Death Stranding was holding Sam's breath as he snuck by invisible BTs. Are you too close? Should you stop moving completely to get a quick glimpse? Is it time to just run?

I doubt I'll be asking myself those questions in Death Stranding 2, if our brief look at BTs is anything to go by. BTs are no longer invisible, now shaded blue, which multiple previewers noted made the beach ghosts much easier to deal with. Also there's a blood boomerang, because Australia.

Folks agree Death Stranding 2 gets to the good stuff quicker

Improved pacing came up a lot. I didn't have a problem with the first game's lackadaisical opening hours, but it's true that Death Stranding's best qualities don't bloom until you get to that second map and gain access to vehicles and road building. It sounds like DS2 ramps up much quicker to that point, with Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale saying he was accepting his first delivery by the 20-minute mark.

9 little details that excited this 200-hour Death Stranding sicko

1. Eurogamer noted Sam has camouflage options that enhance his sneakiness in the right terrain
2. Sam now has a skill tree that improved his attributes over time
3. You can shoot guns while driving some vehicles
4. Trucks can be customized with attachments, like an arm that scoops up lost cargo for an auto turret that targets bandits
5. There's a day/night cycle!
6. The otter hat that lets Sam peacefully float down rivers is back
7. Sam can link two ladders together to make one mega ladder
8. Roads and ziplines return, but Sam can also build a network of monorails that transport raw materials (and Sam) from mines to facilities
9. A new in-game glossary lets players point at a thing and read about its place in the world of Death Stranding, which sounds like a decent replacement for Sam's overstuffed email inbox