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

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 | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these Action Death Stranding 2 review: Catharsis in the age of the algorithm Action Kojima makes Death Stranding 2 PC port official in new trailer, and it’s coming pretty darn soon Action Death Stranding 2 guide Action Death Stranding 2 system requirements are good news for gamers trapped between aging PCs and skyrocketing hardware prices, and there’s even a ‘portable preset’ for playing on handhelds Action Here are the Death Stranding 2 PC unlock times in your timezone RPG ‘No matter what we changed, somebody was going to get mad:’ After hearing what an Obsidian dev went through to get RPG difficulty right, I get why nobody’s ever gotten RPG difficulty right RPG 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’ Roguelike 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’ Action ‘We’ve never considered adding difficulty settings to the Nioh series’, says Nioh 3 game director, who gives players different ways to tackle challenges instead Action 13-year-old Decima engine allows Death Stranding team to ‘accomplish many things that would be difficult to achieve elsewhere’ Action Crimson Desert launches to 239,000 players on Steam but ‘Mixed’ reviews, and it’s mostly because of how dense and cryptic the whole thing is Action Hideo Kojima posts a cryptic message about ‘editing’ something and an awful lot of people are convinced it means Death Stranding 2 for PC will be announced later this week Action If there’s one thing I’ve learned playing Crimson Desert for 75 hours, it’s that you should absolutely treat this game as a slow burn Action Crimson Desert’s bafflingly convoluted controls are already frustrating players: ‘That’s basic f*cking video game functionality’ Action Steam build of Death Stranding 2 leaks two days ahead of launch Popular PC Gamer ClipsCrimson DesertMarathonBest PC gearGDCQuizzes Games Action Death Stranding 2 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 By Wes Fenlon published 21 March 2026 Some players complained that Death Stranding 2 was too easy. The new “To the Wilder” difficulty is Kojima Productions’ answer. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Kojima Productions) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter PC Gamer Get the PC Gamer Newsletter Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday GamesRadar+ Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you’re going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Signup + Every Thursday GTA 6 O’clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O’clock experts. Signup + Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what’s on the horizon. Signup + Every Thursday The Setup Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more. Signup + Every Wednesday Switch 2 Spotlight Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo’s new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play. Signup + Every Saturday The Watchlist Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we’ve got you covered. Signup + Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter 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 Death Stranding 2 review: Catharsis in the age of the algorithm Kojima makes Death Stranding 2 PC port official in new trailer, and it’s coming pretty darn soon Death Stranding 2 guide Yoshiike said t