Death Stranding 2 - Everything from the first, but better (Initial Thoughts).

By Sam Coles:  

Death Stranding 2 is a game that most wouldn’t expect to exist, and what I mean by that is that the first game was such a polarising game with its reception where some loved it while others took a distain for it. However, as the years went by and everyone went through lockdowns during the pandemic, a lot of people warmed up to the game and its concepts of isolation and reconnection where we have a sequel in 2025, a sequel I love!  

This game takes place 11 months after the events of the first game, where we see Sam Porter Bridges lying low in Mexico after he goes off the radar from the UCA to spend the rest of his days with daughter Lou. However, Fragile tracks him down to get him to help to connect Mexico with the Chiral network where Sam reluctantly agrees to do as it is in his nature. He connects the network in Mexico, but things take turn for the worse (I won’t spoil) where he becomes jaded and becomes embittered and drunk for 3 months. It is an engaging story immediately, Norman Reedus again does an excellent performance as Sam, as well as the supporting cast doing an excellent job.  

Gameplay wise the game is very similar to the first game, and that is not a bad thing as it fixes and tweaks all the problems and laborious aspects of the original. For one the controls feel tighter with traversal especially, you still have to maintain balance with Sam as he walks when on certain terrain, but it feels more manageable in this game. The menus have been streamlined too, the look less cluttered compared to the first game where you don’t have to hold buttons down anymore to accept the most basic options. I know it sounds trivial, but it cuts down on the nonsense when navigating the menus.  

Combat has been given an added boost and is introduced much earlier this time, within the first hour you have a gun in your hands compared to the first. You can scope out enemy camps and compounds, where it gives me Metal Gear Solid V vibes, as your approach is completely up to you. Gunplay feels tighter and less floaty compared to the first game, you really feel the impact of the weapons coupled with the better stealth options on offer in this instalment. You get access to an assortment of weapons, from assault rifles, pistols, shotguns, grenade launchers and more. Plus, dealing with BTs (Beach Things) is much better in this game as you can see them easily and is less of a guessing game when you want to deal with them lethally. The BT encounters in general are more engaging, they don’t feel like a chore, and you want to engage in combat with them more.  

Visually this game is fantastic, this really showcases what the PlayStation 5 can do and that sounds like a stupid statement to say as we are 5 years into the generation. However, games haven’t really pushed the hardware to its limits, as this is the first game I have looked at and said, “this can’t possibly run on a PS4”. What stood out to me immediately are the landscapes, these are easily the most realistic landscapes I have seen video games so far. It is very impressive what Kojima has produced with these areas, you can see every little detail on each rock, the foliage looks lush as you go through the forests of Australia and much, much more.

The same goes for the character models, they are very realistic, and they look like their real-life counterparts. Not to say the first game’s character models didn’t look good, but the second game is a massive step up as it captures all the blemishes, subtle twitches and the eye movement is unmatched, and I feel is something a lot of games don’t quite get right. Graphically the game looks fantastic, while it ran at a buttery smooth 60 frames per second when I was running it in performance mode.  
 
Overall, I have enjoyed my time with Death Stranding 2 so far, it fixes all the problems and more laborious aspects of the original to make a great sequel. I can’t wait to journey further into this game.  

Doom: The Dark Ages - Time to get Medieval on their A***

By Sam Coles: 

It has been nearly 10 years since the Doom series got the reboot treatment, all the way back in 2016 we got aptly titled Doom as it was a fresh start for the series. Doom (2016) had a very troublesome development cycle, as originally it started its cycle in 2008 and was resembling something akin to Call of Duty as that was the popular flavour in the gaming kitchen at the time. However, they scrapped it and went back to the drawing board and decided to go back to what made Doom..... well Doom! We got the first instalment in 2016 in the reboot franchise, then the brutally insane experience that was Doom Eternal 2020 where we finally land with Doom: The Dark Ages here in 2025.   

Doom: The Dark Ages takes place in the titular era, where everything takes on a medieval aesthetic. You once again play as the Doom Slayer, where this time he is controlled by higher powers and is used as a nuclear bomb option for the human race, when the demon problem gets out of control. The Doom Slayer starts to become sentient and breaks away from their control, to then help the humans in the form of the Sentinels. The story holds you with some genuinely intriguing moments that fill us in more about the Slayer, where he becomes more human in this game but still talks in one-word responses, but he is more aware of the situation.   

The gameplay is where most players go for, and id Software have once again shaken up the Doom formula. As the title suggests, this game takes place during the Dark Ages so there is more emphasis on melee combat in this game. However, that doesn’t mean that gunplay is absent far from it as it still takes centre stage, but the melee combat is there to complement the gunplay. You still have your usual assortments of shotguns and machine guns, but they have been given a medieval aesthetic to fit the game’s overall tone and atmosphere. The super shotgun still kicks like a mule and is great for crowd control, but then you have the Skull Crusher which is about as metal as it sounds where a human skull is used as ammunition and fires out in a buckshot style spread.  

The combination of the gunplay and melee system works so well, where you charge straight in with your shield, bounce it off enemies like Captain America as you tear enemies apart with the super shotgun. You get into a rhythm, where it turns into a ballet of violence where you are waltzing with the enemies where you turn them inside out when you spin them around.

Not only that, there is a parry system where you can defend yourself against enemy projectiles. How this works is that you have a shield and you can only block normal attacks for so long until it breaks for a temporary period, however if the the attacks are green you can get a parry in send it back to the enemy. This is a great addition as you are not left completely defenceless in an open field and you can block attacks instead just tanking damage.

This game is great if you want to tailor make your own experience in terms of difficulty, so if you are finding it too difficult you can turn down the difficulty, but it doesn’t stop there you can adjust sliders of each gameplay mechanic making the experience your own. The same goes for those who are finding the game too easy, you can change the sliders in the other direction if you are feeling particularly sadistic and want turn everything up to eleven if Nightmare difficulty isn’t scratching that itch. It is great to have settings like these as it pleases both those who want to play the game for fun, and those who love a challenge in an FPS game it just shows how balanced the game is.  

Visually the game looks amazing, this is the first game using id Tech 8 engine and it is a massive step up from Doom Eternal. It looks dark and brooding compared to the last game with its more colourful aesthetic, but it has lots of detail with medieval inspired demons with chains hanging off them, to them wielding the appropriate weapons from that period with a science fiction twist. Framerate wise it ran great, I played this on the Xbox Series S and it was buttery smooth with performance. I know the Series S gets a lot of ire from the community, but it is a beefy machine when you have a developer who know what they are doing with the hardware.  

Overall Doom The Dark Ages is another fantastic instalment in the Doom reboot series of games, the change of the setting and combat mechanics is enough to keep players invested for the 10-12 hours it took me to finish it! A great game and a must play, especially if you have Xbox Game Pass!