Death Stranding 2 is little over a month away from its release, and director Hideo Kojima hints that the team at Kojima Productions has taken a similar approach to fighting in the sequel as was previously taken with Konami's Metal Gear Solid 2.
Speaking to IGN in an interview, Kojima is asked what he was trying to accomplish with his upcoming sequel, to which he requests that he'd "like to ask you to think back to the beginning of Metal Gear Solid."
At the start of the 1998 stealth game, "no weapons appear at first, and you only acquire them after going up the elevator. Placing weapons at the very start will cause players to pick them up and start killing enemies, so we consciously decided to not do that."
However, Kojima continues, "that part turned out to be unpopular, with some people saying they couldn't get up the elevator," but the team ultimately "had to design Metal Gear Solid so that players learned how stealth works."
Things were a bit different when it came to Metal Gear Solid 2, where Konami "made it a little easier to use weapons and aim at specific parts using a POV angle, as many players were already aware of stealth games." This same idea, of acquainting players with a gameplay concept in the first game and then giving them a bit more freedom in the second, has apparently been applied to Death Stranding 2.
"It was the same for Death Stranding. There aren't many games about delivery, so we first had to get people accustomed to it first," Kojima explains. "For the sequel, we wanted to allow players that want to fight to do so more freely. Players can use weapons, and it's now easier to drive cars and motorcycles. For the story, the first game was about Sam and Cliff, but this time one of the main themes is Lou and what her existence means."
Elsewhere, Kojima has revealed that he already has "a concept for another sequel" in mind, but he is "not going to make it myself," so it sounds like the director won't be returning for Death Stranding 3 if it happens.
