SUBSCRIBE
Tech Journal Now
  • Home
  • News
  • AI
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Best Buy
  • Software
  • Games
  • More Articles
Reading: Death Stranding 2 devs thought ‘Brutal’ mode was hard enough, but pushed the game to ‘the upper limit’ with its new difficulty option on PC
Share
Tech Journal NowTech Journal Now
Font ResizerAa
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • AI
  • Best Buy
  • Games
  • Software
Search
  • Home
  • News
  • AI
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Best Buy
  • Software
  • Games
  • More Articles
Have an existing account? Sign In
Follow US
© Foxiz News Network. Ruby Design Company. All Rights Reserved.
Tech Journal Now > Games > Death Stranding 2 devs thought ‘Brutal’ mode was hard enough, but pushed the game to ‘the upper limit’ with its new difficulty option on PC
Games

Death Stranding 2 devs thought ‘Brutal’ mode was hard enough, but pushed the game to ‘the upper limit’ with its new difficulty option on PC

News Room
Last updated: March 21, 2026 12:38 am
News Room
Share
4 Min Read
SHARE

Death Stranding 2’s PC launch on Thursday may have been overshadowed just a bit by Crimson Desert, but as I wrote in my review, it’s a great game, whether you’re in it for the Hideo Kojima story or the delivery sim sandbox. Folks who especially love the latter, though, like PC Gamer’s Morgan Park, almost universally have the same complaint: it’s too easy. Though Death Stranding 2 lets you challenge yourself by making deliveries on foot, the vehicles, upgrades, and shared infrastructure from other players can trivialize making flawless deliveries.

For the PC release Kojima Productions added a new difficult option called “To the Wilder,” which was created specifically to address player feedback, the studio said in an interview with PC Gamer this week.

“To the Wilder as a design concept was a way for us to provide more difficult ways to play missions through harsh environments,” said lead level designer Hiroaki Yoshiike. “Originally we had the Brutal difficulty, which in our opinion was enough. But it turned out that some users thought we could’ve done more. So To the Wilder is basically the upper limit that we, as developers, could provide [for] an experience that’s a challenge as well as something we can enjoy. We think that it’s a way for you to experience the world of Death Stranding 2 in a very realistic way.”

Article continues below


You may like

Yoshiike said that the effect of Timefall, which gradually ages and destroys anything it touches, is “particularly pronounced” in To the Wilder, making resource management crucial—”almost a requirement.” He emphasized the need to plan out missions in advance and think about what tools will be best suited to the job and testing out combinations that may not have been important on lower difficulties.

“For players who have already beaten the game once, I’m sure there are times where they think ‘oh, I never use this item,'” he said. “But in To the Wilder those items can be key sometimes. So if they can give those a try, I think that will be particularly fun to test out.”

When Yoshiike told me that the developers had played through To the Wilder from start to finish and that there were “some items that [they] absolutely needed to unlock,” I asked for an example. Sorry, fellow porters—Kojima Productions wants you to learn the hard way.

“Some things were items that were used for deliveries, some were weapons, some were other items, but we don’t want to elaborate on what exactly they were. We want to have users figure that one out.”

Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

Yoshiike did offer one tip, though. The in-game social media, the Social Strand System, as well as the “Strand Agreements” you can make with other players online, are “particularly important” for easing your passage across this harsher version of Australia. So if you’re playing To the Wilder, make sure to visit that section of the menu and start strengthening those bonds with other porters.

Read the full article here

You Might Also Like

Lort devs reluctantly tweak the fantasy roguelike’s difficulty after players complain the Risk of Rain 2 successor is too hard: ‘You are meant to die and learn how to overcome the challenge’

I’m tired of running the same Fortnite loadout—both SMGs and snipers need a major buff

Slay the Spire 2 players leave over 9,000 negative Steam reviews in one day over a card nerf that hasn’t even gone live yet—but China’s Steam restrictions might bear some of the blame

Civilization 7 players can once again play as a single civilization in a massive overhaul update that’s ‘tentatively’ coming in Spring: ‘Together, these updates are similar in scope to an expansion’

A native port of the GameCube Animal Crossing has made its way to PC, which means all other cozy games are cancelled as nothing else matters

Share This Article
Facebook Twitter Email Print
Leave a comment Leave a comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

- Advertisement -
Ad image

Trending Stories

Games

Crimson Desert has the most diabolical lock and key system I’ve ever seen

March 21, 2026
Games

OpenTTD asks people to please stop being mad at Atari for forcing the game off Steam: ‘OpenTTD as a project retains its full independence,’ and you can still get it for free

March 21, 2026
Games

Silksong player tracks down a secret version of its act 1 boss and immediately discovers why Team Cherry probably cut it

March 20, 2026
Games

Crimson Desert dev says it ‘takes time’ to get used to the game’s notoriously clunky controls, but advises players to ‘think of it like riding a bike, it comes naturally after you learn it’

March 20, 2026
Software

Microsoft won’t force Copilot in everywhere after all – Computerworld

March 20, 2026
Games

Bungie admits Marathon’s weekend-heavy endgame means ‘there are likely some who cannot participate’

March 20, 2026

Always Stay Up to Date

Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!

Follow US on Social Media

Facebook Youtube Steam Twitch Unity

2024 © Prices.com LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Tech Journal Now

Quick Links

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • For Advertisers
  • Contact
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?