Finally Appreciating my PS5 playing Death Stranding 2

I don’t really have a discerning eye when it comes to video games or console capabilities. I don’t really recognize better graphics or performance gain in any significant way, therefore I haven’t really been wowed by my PS5 vs. my PS4. I love my PS5 for sure, but I would still be perfectly happy to use my PS4 interchangeably.

However, I’ve started Death Stranding 2 this week, and for the first time I am noticing my PS5 for what it is. This game is absolutely gorgeous, I am blown away by the fidelity of the world! I can definitely tell that this game would be a less stunning experience on an older system. Everything is incredibly crisp, colorful, and just beautiful.

I didn’t play DS1 (just watched a bunch of story recaps on youtube), so maybe a lot of the things that I’m impressed by aren’t specific to DS2, but damn the mechanics of this game feel amazing on my PS5. The controller haptics are sooo satisfying. I can feel every hard fought step and clumsy fall in the controller haptics and it makes the movement experience of this game even more realistic than it already is.

The game started suuuper slow, but I’m just starting to get out of tutorial and into the story. I’m really looking forward to spending more time in this world.

Also, as an aside, I love the use of songs in this game. They give an extra significance and cinematic-ness to big moments. It's also clear that it's a bunch of artists that Kojima probably just really enjoys separate from the game, which is fun. I’ve been writing down the ones that I like! The song Caroline Polachek made for this game is absolutely gorgeous, of course.