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Subscribe to the world's #1 PC gaming mag Try a single issue or save on a subscription Issues delivered straight to your door or device From£35.99View Essential Hardware PC Gaming Show Dune: Awakening Recommended reading Death Stranding 2 cements Hideo Kojima's legacy as a PC game designer still living in the console world 11 little Death Stranding 2 improvements that made me say 'hell yeah' Death Stranding 2 reviewers say it's a sequel that's 'more Metal Gear Solid than ever,' but it's 'still beautifully odd' Death Stranding 2 sounds like everything I hoped it'd be Hideo Kojima says most Death Stranding playtesters told him 'it was a terrible game,' and he's a little bummed Death Stranding 2 is testing way better Hideo Kojima says Death Stranding 2 has so much tactical espionage action that even his own staff 'worried it was getting a little Metal Gear-ish' Hideo Kojima confirms an easy mode for Death Stranding 2, which'll allow players to skip boss battles and let them read about it instead Death Stranding 2 Death Stranding 2 is too damn easy Morgan Park 1 July 2025 I blame the Chiral Network. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Kojima Productions) Last night, I set off on my longest delivery yet in Death Stranding 2. I was to cross the entire chunk of Australia I'd discovered so far, weaving past bandit camps, over rivers, and through BT areas while transporting 200kg of… who can remember, maybe baked beans. I meticulously charted a route with the expectation that, at some point, I'd have to ditch the truck in some craggy rocks, either because the battery died, wheels got stuck, or BTs showed up. So I packed extra ladders and ropes, strapped on a new pair of boots, printed a shotgun and grenades, then set off. No bandits took note of my existence, the BTs never showed, and it turns out craggy rocks are no match for Drawbridge suspension technology. I never left the truck. The whole trip took less than five minutes. Related Articles Death Stranding 2 cements Hideo Kojima's legacy as a PC game designer still living in the console world 11 little Death Stranding 2 improvements that made me say 'hell yeah' Death Stranding 2 reviewers say it's a sequel that's 'more Metal Gear Solid than ever,' but it's 'still beautifully odd' I've had way too many deliveries like that over the last 20 hours. I'm afraid Death Stranding 2 is too easy, which is a shame, because so was the original. It was a major flaw of one of my favorite games of the previous decade, and while the sequel is a step up in many ways, difficulty remains flat. Whenever it releases on PC (I'm playing on PS5 because we don't have a PC release date yet, but it's expected), I hope this changes. I blame several things, but most of all, I blame the Chiral Network. Should I have connected? Hooking up a new region of Australia to the internet should be exciting, but I dread it, because as soon as I make the connection, I know I'll never need another tool there ever again. Thanks to the generosity of porters in alternate realities, all pathfinding worries are taken care of. Pre-placed ladders or ropes drape over every mountain face. Green footsteps of past porters reveal the best paths up a hill or through rocks. Watchtowers dot the perimeter of every bandit camp, just in case I need a backup observation tool for the magical marionette puppet on my belt. I love building highways, but I don't really like driving on them. (Image credit: Kojima Productions) And the generators—god, I've started to hate generators. Every time I'm wheeling across the desert thinking, "Hey, my bike battery is almost half dead, I might have to improvise here," boom—a convenient generator built by some guy named delta-jim774 saves me from the horrors of making an interesting decision. The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. It's all too much. It's one thing to lend a helping hand, but it's another when that help is so readily available that I feel like everyone else is playing Death Stranding for me. I'm seriously considering severing my personal connection to the Chrial Network (my PS5's ethernet cord) to get rid of community assists altogether, but then I'd lose out on everything I love about Death Stranding's indirect co-op, like leaving little messages through signs, sending players requested tools, and peeing on the same mushroom that someone else peed on. But honestly, help is the last thing I need in Death Stranding 2. Kojima has once again taken core systems that force me to constantly make meaningful choices—stamina, weight, balance, exhaustion, elevation, pathfinding—and undermined them with a reward structure that chips away at the challenge the more you play. Old habits die hard The people of Australia are handing out gadgets and weapons faster than I can use them. Many are fun to play with, like the tranq rifle, combat boots, and hologram grenades, but lots of them are just straight boring upgrades designed to trivialize the stuff I come to Death Stranding for, like an anti-grav generator for Sam's backpack that makes it nearly impossible for him to lose his balance (there goes that core mechanic). That's on top of leg skeletons, which also make balance a non-issue while adding 100kg to Sam's cargo limit. New to Death Stranding 2 is a skill tree with further upgrades that come with zero tradeoff—I keep avoiding the one that threatens to automatically save Sam from falling on his ass. It's already hard enough to screw up an order, so if I'm tripping into a faceplant, I probably deserve it. I'm maybe halfway through DS2, and the gadgets are already getting delightfully weird and overpowered. (Image credit: Kojima Productions) It's the double-edged sword of Kojima's love of the arsenal: Since the Metal Gear days, the man has been showering his fans with neat gadgets and doo-dads that are fun to play with, but he never makes things hard enough that we need them. It's a "too many solutions, not enough problems" dilemma that began with the tranq pistol—the default weapon of Metal Gear Solids 2, 3, 4, and 5 that outclasses everything else in those games—and lives on in Death Stranding 2 in the form of vehicles with huge batteries that Sam has constant access to, a world that automatically populates itself with shortcuts, and also a literal tranq pistol unlockable early on. The good news is that I can choose not to craft the overpowered stuff. I can selectively ignore the battle skeleton, pretend that battery boosters don't exist, "forget" to bring container repair spray, and make up a thin excuse for why a delivery must be completed on foot when I could get it done in a tenth of the time on a motorcycle. Death Stranding gives me room to decide what fun is, which is better than the alternative of all upgrades being mandatory and permanent. (Image credit: Kojima Productions) But I don't want every bit of friction to be headcanon. What I want is a Death Stranding 2 that meets me where I'm at—a way to play that pushes me to conserve resources, think long and hard about routes, and makes BTs truly terrifying. I want a Death Stranding 2 hardcore mode. Before you ask: Yes, I'm already playing on the highest Brutal difficulty, but it's barely different from Normal. My theoretical hardcore mode could have more specific limitations. What if Sam could only build a handful of structures at a time? What if the timefall destroyed ladders in a matter of hours, not days, and what if ropes could snap? What if guns couldn't be printed, only stolen from enemy camps, and what if that led to Sam relying on his surprisingly deep melee moveset more often? Mileage would vary on those roadblocks, but these sorts of modifiers could go a long way towards sustaining the crunchy, manual action of DS2's opening hours—when you're just a guy with ropes hiking through an unforgiving apocalypse. Maybe something to throw on the whiteboard for the inevitable Death Stranding 2: Director's Cut, just in time to enjoy it on PC. 2025 games: This year's upcoming releases Best PC games: Our all-time favorites Free PC games: Freebie fest Best FPS games: Finest gunplay Best RPGs: Grand adventures Best co-op games: Better together Morgan Park Social Links Navigation Staff Writer Morgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn't pay him. He's very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he'll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don't, though. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name. Death Stranding 2 cements Hideo Kojima's legacy as a PC game designer still living in the console world 11 little Death Stranding 2 improvements that made me say 'hell yeah' Death Stranding 2 reviewers say it's a sequel that's 'more Metal Gear Solid than ever,' but it's 'still beautifully odd' Death Stranding 2 sounds like everything I hoped it'd be Hideo Kojima says most Death Stranding playtesters told him 'it was a terrible game,' and he's a little bummed Death Stranding 2 is testing way better Hideo Kojima says Death Stranding 2 has so much tactical espionage action that even his own staff 'worried it was getting a little Metal Gear-ish' Latest in Action 'Give me more of that': Monster Hunter Wilds players have discovered its returning monsters got hands, and they're thrilled to be getting clobbered Death Stranding 2's ending explained (to the extent humanly possible) PSA: Death Stranding 2 tells you exactly what gear every character unlocks How to forge Clerk Vambraces in Monster Hunter Wilds How to unlock Lagiacrus in Monster Hunter Wilds Ubisoft can't button its yap about the not-so-secret Black Flag remake—now Edward Kenway's voice actor is telling AC4 fans 'You might have to beat it again' Latest in Features I'm diagnosing survivors of a zombie apocalypse and only occasionally mistaking cold symptoms for the zombie plague in this military base management sim I played Elden Ring Nightreign for goofy co-op shenanigans, but wound up punched in my feelings by the Revenant's remembrance questline My best friend is a gaming mouse: An ode to the finest rodent around, the Logitech G Pro X Superlight Fortnite's newest mode is a frantic dopamine machine that lives up to the hype—and I hope it's a new-player gateway to more considered battle royales Resident Evil Requiem: all the key details on RE9's return to Raccoon City Fanatical has a load of summer bundles on, so I've picked out the games that deserve your attention HARDWARE BUYING GUIDES LATEST GAME REVIEWS Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads Best graphics card for laptops in 2025: the mobile GPUs I'd want in my next gaming laptop Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most Best 14-inch gaming laptop in 2025: The top compact gaming laptops I've held in these hands Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I've tested Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 review Razer Joro & Basilisk Mobile review Glorious Model O Eternal review LaCie Rugged Pro 5 SSD review Seagate Ultra Compact review PC Gamer is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. 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