Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
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Death Stranding 2 is now out and, like the original, there’s a lot more hiding beneath the surface than you might initially think. True, you’ll still be hauling cargo between cities. True, you’ll still be facing oil ghosts that want to eat you and then explode. But this is a Hideo Kojima game, which means there are always going to be mysterious people to meet and new gear to unlock. If you’re not intentionally doing a little exploring and extra homework for settlers, you’re going to miss a whole lot of fun bits.
To be fair, the game does a good job of explaining a lot of the absolute basics. In fact, I’d argue that it’s better than the first game at introducing players to the mechanics by taking its time rather than trying to get as much lore as possible introduced in one giant chunk. It took me a couple hours before I actually had to face down some BTs in the game itself, and the wait made it seem far more frightening than the opening of the first Death Stranding.
That said, Death Stranding 2 is a massive game. It’s possible you’ll learn all many of its secrets along the way. But to help you get your journey started, here are five things that Death Stranding 2 doesn’t tell you.
Why Are Likes So Important?
This is more for people who might’ve skipped the first Death Stranding.
Like its predecessor, Death Stranding 2 has a quasi-social media ‘Likes’ system. These likes come from things such as completing deliveries, finishing side quests, and even just planting a friendly sign in the ground for other porters. If you’re not paying attention, these Likes can appear to be little more than an aesthetic award, a high score of sorts that you can happily watch go up as you build structures that other players use.
However, Likes in Death Stranding 2 are actually a vital resource that improve your character stats. It’s easy to miss this detail if you’re clicking through everything after completing a delivery. And, not for nothing, completing deliveries and boosting your Likes with individual facilities can lead to new, better equipment, too. It seems simple, but building towers and rainfall protection structures can make you pretty popular out there in the wilderness. And that popularity does have an impact!
What’s The Oldest Age A Person Can Ever Reach?
Another question Death Stranding 2 doesn’t answer is how old the oldest person could ever live to be. Think about it. Like, there has to be a limit, right? If someone was completely free of all disease and at perfectly well, I imagine there still has to be a ceiling we’ll eventually hit. I know there are billionaires who are saying they’re going to live forever by gaming out their body’s biological functions. So far no dice, but what can you do?
Plus, you know that if someone figures out how to live forever, they’re not sharing that secret with anyone for free. And you can forget about uploading your consciousness to a computer: you’ll be dead and a copy of you will be alive, not a contiguous being that has simply transitioned states. Plus, that copy will probably live in extreme torment because the technology, if it happens, will take decades to perfect.
But Death Stranding still doesn’t tell us how old someone can reach! It doesn’t even get close to addressing it. We’re going to keep pushing that number up and up in real life, I’m sure. But if you’re going into this game hoping that the tutorial will give you a decent concept of the extreme limits of human endurance and mortality, you might be disappointed.
Why Wasn’t The Movie Mystery Men More Of A Hit?
Death Stranding and Death Stranding 2 ask a lot of questions about the nature of human connections, and they’re both games with some heavy pop-culture influences. Which makes it surprising that Hideo Kojima doesn’t once address why the 1999 movie Mystery Men wasn’t more of a hit. If anything, it was considered a pretty embarrassing bomb at the time. History has been kind to it, and it’s more appreciated now than when it was released, but you gotta understand that the pieces were there: Ben Stiller leading a hit cast with superhero fun!
You could argue that the movie was both too late and too early — coming two years after Batman & Robin seemed to put the genre to rest and three years before Spider-Man revived it. But you could also argue that it heavily featured the Smash Mouth song All Star years before Shrek, and therefore should get more credit for introducing us to one of the best songs of the 20th century.
And whether or not it was a great time for superhero movies, you have to admit that the story of a ragtag group of friends overcoming the doubters to save the world is the type of story we can all enjoy at any age. Geoffrey Rush’s Casanova Frankenstein is a great villain, too, so it’s a shame that Death Stranding 2 completely ignores it.
Why Isn’t Smash Mouth In Death Stranding 2?
Hideo Kojima has never been ashamed to admit he’s a huge music fan. And Death Stranding 2 includes literally dozens of songs. They’re dramatic. They’re inspiring. They’re beautiful. But none of them are by Smash Mouth. Not one Smash Mouth song in Death Stranding 2. They don’t mention Smash Mouth. They don’t include any songs from Mystery Men or even Shrek. No I’m A Believer either. A lot of sad songs by mournful people, which is fine. That’s good. It’s really good that there are sad songs by mournful people! Don’t send me to the cornfield!
But I wish Death Stranding 2 told us why there wasn’t going to be any Smash Mouth. Has the collapse of society into isolated city-states also meant the loss of all our fun summer beach music? Who else got erased? They’re not talking. Nowhere in the game is it discussed as far as I can tell, although I’ve yet to Platinum it. I also want to mention that, while trekking across a bleak landscape, Walkin’ On The Sun would be a perfect needle drop.
What I Should Do With The Rest Of My Life?
I’m really at a loss here. I thought things were going well, but Death Stranding 2 is giving menothingon a life path. I’ve put in a lot of hours and I still wake up afraid and fall asleep ashamed. It’s like the last twenty years of my life have meant nothing and all I’ve accomplished is kicking a very grim ball down a very dark field. Again, I still haven’t found everything in the game, so maybe I’ll get to a part where a character looks at the screen and says I’ve done a good job with my existence. It honestly wouldn’t be that much different than the Psycho Mantis scene inMetal Gear Solidif it tells meCastlevaniais good.
