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Death Stranding 2 porter commits to an "agonizing" journey, slowly shuffling over a snowy mountain and ignoring all helpful tools on offer, purely for the love of the game: "I prefer this vibe"

News
By Scott McCrae published 9 July 2025

Couldn't be me, but I respect it

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Death Stranding 2 Sam running through the desert near a derelict city
(Image credit: Sony)
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A Death Stranding 2 player is shirking all the benefits of the chiral network and is instead going au-naturale in Australia during their playthrough.

A common complaint faced by Death Stranding 2 is that some of the upgrades Sam receives during his journey make the game somewhat trivial when it comes to difficulty. Monorails can transport mass amounts of cargo across wide stretches of land (although some choose to use two trucks), you can get exoskeletons and wheel upgrades for your vehicles that make terrain easier to navigate, and the coffin board takes on pretty much everything with ease.

As someone who liked to use my exoskeletons to walk through the majority of my deliveries, my response to that complaint is "don't use them then," but a player on Reddit has taken that to the next level.

You may like
  • lea seydoux as fragile smoking a cigarette Hideo Kojima says Death Stranding 2 is easier because of two "major drop-off points" that stopped fans reaching the end
  • Dollman rides on Fragile's shoulder in a Death Stranding 2 screenshot with GamesRadar+'s best of 2025 logo Death Stranding 2 is the purest expression of "a Hideo Kojima game" yet, and it's got nothing to do with the long cutscenes or esoteric plot
  • Sam Porter Bridges flexes for the camera in Death Stranding 2 Hideo Kojima shares "pre‑COVID" look at Death Stranding 2, before it "was revised" to change Sam's business casual look
deathstranding from r/DeathStranding/comments/1ltx8tr/even_though_i_spent_an_agonizing_30_minutes_like

The user shares a clip of Sam doing the Death Stranding equivalent of that "no headphones or entertainment on the flight" trend from last year. No exoskeleton, no vehicles, nothing but the mountains and your legs. Naturally walking at a steep angle without any help has Sam stumbling about slowly, as opposed to using the Bokka skeleton which helps out massively in snowy traversal.

The user says "even though I spent an agonizing 30 minutes like this, I prefer this vibe over using vehicles / exoskeletons for everything." While I couldn't imagine doing it like that, I did like taking it slow during my playthrough. Especially whenever one of the curated music moments appeared, it didn't feel right to surf on a coffin at full speed and miss half of the song.

While you're here, be sure to take a look at our Death Stranding 2 review, as well as our Death Stranding 2 ending explained guide if you're still a bit confused after finishing the game.

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TOPICS
Hideo Kojima
CATEGORIES
PS5 Platforms PlayStation
Scott McCrae
Scott McCrae
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Scott has been freelancing for over three years across a number of different gaming publications, first appearing on GamesRadar+ in 2024. He has also written for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, VG247, Play, TechRadar, and others. He's typically rambling about Metal Gear Solid, God Hand, or any other PS2-era titles that rarely (if ever) get sequels.

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