"It's a complicated time for the games industry. With widespread layoffs, studio shutdowns, rising development costs and time, the threat of generative AI, and major acquisitions and buyouts, the games medium seems to be in a precarious place. Yet somehow, 2025 has been a landmark year, with studios - big and small, triple-A and indie - churning out some of the best games of this generation."
"And so, DS 2 attempts to untangle the new reality of today. The pandemic feels like it was a decade ago, and the world, while now out and about, seems more fissured and fractious than it was in the decade before. The first game explored the value of human connections in a post-apocalyptic world; Death Stranding 2 questions the worth of those connections in a world that seems obsessed with its own demise."
The games industry faces layoffs, studio closures, rising development costs and time, threats from generative AI, and major acquisitions. Despite this turmoil, 2025 produced a remarkable crop of titles from both triple-A and indie studios. Over a dozen games across PlayStation, PC, and mobile received coverage, with Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and Dispatch both earning 9/10 scores; Death Stranding 2 is identified as the standout. The original Death Stranding combined quiet, contemplative themes with pared-back delivery gameplay and gained renewed resonance during the Covid-19 pandemic. Death Stranding 2 revisits and sharpens those ideas, confronting a more fissured, fractious post-pandemic reality and questioning the worth of human connections while retaining delivery-focused mechanics with clearer intent.
Read at Gadgets 360
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