Highlights
- Death Stranding 2 should focus more on showing the story rather than telling it through exposition-heavy storytelling.
- Pulling away from the perspective character would allow for a better exploration of key moments and characters in the Death Stranding storyline.
- The use of recovered journals and letters can provide more interesting insights into minor characters and can be a successful storytelling method.
The atmosphere and world of the original Death Stranding are one of the game's most prominent features, but the exposition-heavy storytelling could be improved on in Death Stranding 2. With a new storyline that hopefully doesn't take so much emphasis on revealing the secrets of the past, the more in-the-moment storyline and the outlook to the future have more opportunities for the Death Stranding story to be shown rather than being told.
One of the biggest improvements that the series could benefit from to enhance both the original and Death Stranding 2 is by revisiting Amelie's long monologue on the beach. However, this is only one of many moments that would be better to be seen, by pulling perspective away from Sam in order to better flesh out these key moments in the Death Stranding storyline and lore.
Pulling the Perspective Away in Death Stranding 2
A great example of when the original Death Stranding showed the story in one of its most compelling cutscenes is when the players are shown the flashback of how Fragile got drenched in Timefall. The cutscene not only focuses on Fragile and her struggles, but the rest of it shows players exactly how powerful the secondary Death Stranding antagonist Higgs is. This scene also shows where Fragile stands morally, having willingly run through Timefall in order to save South Knot City at the sacrifice of her own body, even if she admits to regretting the decision later.
This is exactly the type of thing that Death Stranding 2 themes need more of, by pulling away from the perspective character in order to tell other stories firsthand. The same can be said for the moments that Deadman is shown to be exploring the nightmares without Sam, as well as the clips of backstory that are given from the perspectives of Mama and Heartman. However, even those examples have their own moments where a character monologs their backstory for a while, telling Sam about their past as the player is forced to sit there and listen along.
With how many characters have complex backstories that the player is supposed to follow, these flashback scenes are a much better way to relay the information than with a handful of lines. Considering that Kojima Productions has already shown that the developer is more than capable of this, the problem might just be the scope of the larger Death Stranding world. With such a huge cast of characters in Death Stranding 2, giving every single one of them fully realized flashbacks would be expensive and might pad out the runtime. Instead, maybe a different type of perspective swap could help tell the stories of these characters.
More Recovered Journals and Letters, and Less Direct Reports to Sam
Another way that Death Stranding excelled at storytelling was through the messages and journal entries that could be sent to Sam or recovered through data drives. One of the more impressive of these stories told through text is the journaling received from Lucy Strand, Sam's first wife who died while pregnant with their child. Over the course of her notes on Sam and private journal entries, the player can discover what actually happened to Lucy and gets a few hints that the BB players cart around during Death Stranding, Lou, could actually be their baby.
Even though these aren't as exciting as Kojima Productions' iconic cinematic cutscenes, they can still be a much more interesting way of getting to understand the more minor characters that don't have a huge impact on the main story. At the very least, these journals are much more interesting than getting an email from the Chiral Artist expositing about her rocky relationship with the Junk Dealer. So, this could be a way for Death Stranding 2 to answer some questions in a way that had already been successful in the previous game.
Death Stranding 2 is currently in development by Kojima Productions.