Walking in an emaciated world, beaten by the winds and offered to creatures as pathetic as dangerous, final traces of existence where everything, or almost, was deserted. Connect the few oases of life that survived the cataclysm, terribly isolated. The mission has never really changed: this is a link that Sam Porter Bridges is working to create.
What he carries on his shoulders are the last hopes of humanity.
Hope like a murmur
Embodied by actor Norman Reedus, Sam is like the world he travels. Almost a shadow, a man visibly marked by his history, by what he had to go through. Death Strandingfirst of the name, walked in his steps, to connect the men and the bases in which they found refuge, to cross paths with the cheated, maussades threats that become deceased when their body is not correctly treated. Going to meet men and women of good will, but also other incarnations, more dangerous, sometimes determined to end, definitively, with humanity. A world in which hope is a whisper that one goes from one package to another, fear in the stomach to see it fly away.
Death Stranding had ended with this note of hope, precisely, and on Sam’s dream of living a normal life alongside Lou, ex BB-28, fetus in a vegetative state which made it possible to detect the cheated and finally returned to a (almost) normal existence by his carrier. A dream come true, postulates Death Stranding IIat least until this hostile world ends up catching it. The key, a terrible drama, a new enemy, a new challenge, but the same job: we will have to connect the world again. Install this Chiral network, which is so much like the Internet, in new regions. Mexico, first, then Australia, vast, very large playground to explore.
The rope and the stick
Hideo Kojima’s approach in Death Stranding Based on a powerful intuition, that which the world of man is built somewhere between the rope and the stick. The analogy is highly symbolic in video games, more used to staging the confrontation than this link that unites us. Until the arrival of Sam Porter, in any case: his adventure, walking game In power enriched with multiple gameplay possibilities, is precisely to stretch strings from one community to another, and to show how tenuous, fragile this link is. Difficult to create, also, in a world plagued by multiple dangers, whether human, supernatural or simply natural. Rain, rise in waters, earthquakes, fires … the universe of Death Strandingdeeply organic, is a sublime trap where you are wary as much as you admire the landscapes traveled, of often breathtaking wild.
The first opus suffered, however, from the weaknesses inherent in the concept. Too empty, too lonely, too repetitive, Sam’s journey was rarely interspersed with scriptwriting elements capable of relaunching interest. We admit, we had ended up letting go, unconvinced of the playful relevance of such a long -term proposal. And it was with circumspection that we had taken over the controller for this new part, which seemed very similar to the original.
Death Stranding II is based on the same playful mechanics as its predecessor. Sam walks through hostile lands, and still has a large panel of accessories (ladders, ropes, vehicles, drivers of roads and airlines, etc.) to reach its destination with its cargo. The weight is, always, a real question: the bearer balance depends on it, but also the mobility of the machines used. On these terribly tormented lands, this is a point to never neglect. Armament is another aspect not to be underestimated. Bâton obliges, there are hostile forces to take into account. Sometimes to avoid them better, sometimes to face them. Again, this is equipment that will have to be transported.
Life, commitment
The strength of this new part is that it paradoxically makes the void more alive. More responsive, when the elements are unleashed. More dangerous, when the cheers, sometimes gigantic, or brigands, survivalists, sects that we are led to face. Further, allowing combat, avoidance, infiltration … further, musically speaking, based on the beautiful contributions of the French artist Woodkid. Above all, Death Stranding II feeds on a better posed story, more clearly told, taking advantage of the interpretation of experienced actors. The game of Léa Seydoux (fragile), Shioli Kutsuna (Rainy, brilliant character) and she Fanning (Tomorrow), in particular, brings a lot to this epic.
Singing in the rain
It is one of those magic encounters of which Death Stranding II has the secret. At the bend of a mission, it appears, jumping with feet attached in a puddle in a pouring rain. She is Rainy. She smiles under her umbrella. Gracious, light, it is a ray of sunshine between the drops, like a rainbow. A little moment of life in desolate lands.
Her story, we are not going to reveal it. She is sad, inevitably, but her destiny is not inevitable. Rainy, interpreted by Shioli Kutsuna, underlines an idea, that that nothing is ever decided, and that it is always possible to hope. A lesson in life in the heart of the wavy …
Imperfect, but so attractive
The community dimension of the game, which allows indirect interactions with other players, is certainly nebulous. The game interface also makes it tedious, once again, each exploration of the menus. The game retains some of the tares which he was grieved in 2019. However, difficult to remain insensitive before such a proposal, authentic, committed, both humanly and ecologically. It is for that for that, moreover, that Death Stranding II We like it as much: its history, caught up in the news of our world, has never been to this point child of its time …
In short
Death Stranding II, developed by Kojima Productions, edited by Sony Interactive Entertainment
We love:
– Visually, this game is often stunning.
– Action is not absent, but it is not at the heart of the experience. Here, we explore, we linger and we observe.
– The scenario is more held and better brought than in the first part. More catchy.
– The cast is solid and brings a lot to immersion.
– The soundtrack, carried by Woodkid and which grows over the hours, is a jewel of the genre. It is configurable from the menu.
– Death Stranding II Talk about the end of the world … but says a lot about our present. A sometimes strange game, often lit, but really relevant.
We like it less:
– The interface of the game remains too opaque and too dense. We get lost easily and it harms immersion.
– The multiple contributions of the community in the gaming experience blow hot and cold. We are sometimes delighted with a welcome boost, sometimes annoyed by the multiplication of validations (Likes) to be given in these desolate lands.
