u/murder_strand

Welp, finally finished the true ending of Saros and have to say I was very, very underwhelmed by the story, particularly in the context of Returnal (which I raved about here: https://nickmasercola.substack.com/p/in-my-restless-dreams-why-returnal)

And while it has a lot of problems, the game particularly struggled with it's large cast of characters, hitting the same wall a lot of similar stories have: everyone going crazy doesn't make them or the situation INTERESTING.

So I decided to break down the story's issues, and compare them both to Returnal and ANOTHER action-game that does a similar plot in a more compelling way to see where Saros went wrong.

Take a look and let me know if you agree: https://nickmasercola.substack.com/p/the-definition-of-insanity-saros

Been thinking about this for a while, but finally decided to put pen-to-paper (or at least, finger-to-keyboard).

I loved the first Death Stranding, and a major contributor was the horror-adjacent atmosphere that suffused the game, and, in my opinion, influenced the gameplay.

So when Death Stranding 2 removed most of it...yeah, let's just say it didn't work for me. And I particularly didn't like the large emphasis on combat and "clearing out" areas as actual missions.

More inside: https://nickmasercola.substack.com/p/a-brisk-hike-why-toning-down-the