When I realized that the game is unique. I didn't really know what I was getting into and couldn't quite make sense of many gameplay aspects. On one hand, the story is dark and serious, dealing with isolation and extinction. On the other hand, there's just typical Kojima nonsense that creates a stark contrast to what seems like a high-gloss apocalyptic epic.
And then later again, when you gradually unlock your own playstyle. The game gives you far more tools and options than you actually need. Many of them you don't "need," but you can use them to experiment or adapt your style.
I enjoyed the first game, but once I finished it, I'd had enough. Completely different with the second one. I've been playing it for 60 hours now and I'm only a little over halfway through. For me, it just improves on everything.
This game is so weird, aside from the obvious. It starts off so serious, emotionally presented, and from the very first minute you're invested and feel the story. But hour after hour, it just dives into the most ridiculous stuff. There's always something new, always another layer of "WTF." And the crazy part is: this is not a criticism.
One thing I often criticized in H:FW, for example, was that story-wise there shouldn't be anything more important than pursuing the main plot objective, as the dialogues and canon suggest. But the gameplay loop doesn't match this at all because you keep getting distracted by nonsense that should be completely irrelevant if the world is supposedly ending.
DS2 surprisingly manages a balance I never thought possible. The world, the story, everything looks so huge, polished, and professionally staged at first glance that you'd expect a deep, serious, maybe even crushing adventure. But instead, the whole game is infused with absurdities you couldn't even make up. In this world, anything is possible. Nobody seems surprised by the most ridiculous things, and everyone has their place: living 12fps pocket-sized dolls, 2D sprite residents, a constantly vomiting scientist, completely over-the-top characters (I'm just saying: electric guitar combat cutscene), hyper-specific weapons, or wild gear.
And it's precisely this inconsistency that somehow makes the experience consistent and believable. The game doesn't ask me to take it seriously, even though it seems like it at first. Instead, it creates this completely weird, unique universe where thrilling story, insane set pieces (both meticulous and over-the-top), and heaps of absurdity coexist perfectly, and for me, it works.
Almost all NPCs, except for the antagonist, are supportive. They speak kindly, radiate calm, stay positive, encourage you, praise you, and give compliments. It's almost cheesy. But that's exactly what, besides the story-driven campaign, also makes DS2 feel like a relaxation game for me. I can just spend an hour or two in the evening driving through the gorgeous world, delivering packages, seeing what structures other players built, feeling happy when mine help others, gathering resources, crafting, and tending to the "daily life" side of it.
There's just no room for negativity in this game. Sure, the story needs a bit of drama, but even the enemies feel like they could become friends at any moment and end up crying in each other's arms in one cutscene, only to skip off hand in hand into the sunset in the next. Like I said: in a silly way, anything just seems possible here.
In my opinion, you can skip the first game if it doesn't click with you but you still want to play the second one. If you watch a summary or one of those cutscene movies on YouTube (7 hours lol), you'll be well-informed enough to understand the in-game context smoothly without having to look things up in the Korpus (basically the in-game wiki).
