Death Stranding 2 makes me feel stupid for ever having enjoyed Death Stranding 1 (not Director's Cut) for its gameplay. It's clear that Kojima himself views the hiking, planning routes and managing cargo as nothing more than tedium or an annoyance that should be trivialised and/or optimised out of the game by way of overpowered gadgets. This was already evident in DS1DC where I assume due to lukewarm reception, he pussied out and added a bunch of overpowered gadgets like the jetpack super jump thing, and a highway leading up to weather station so you don't have to deal with the "pesky" gameplay anymore.
As if DS2 wasn't already vehicle centric enough (I'm pretty sure there is nowhere on the map that is not easily accessed by vehicles, even without any roads), he even gives you pic related halfway through the game which completely trivialises everything and makes ziplines look like a joke by comparison. Either Kojima really thinks like that, or his game design is informed by incredible insecurity. I mean BTs are basically a complete non factor in this game too. No matter where you encounter them, you can always just drive around them. Or just shoot them because they die in one shotgun shell and no other enemies aggro. Same with MULE camps, in Death Stranding 1 they'd constantly ping your cargo to keep you on the move, but that seems to be completely missing from the game so far. Also doesn't matter how loud your gun is because as long as you take out a bandit instantly, everyone else will act like they heard nothing. Also, the zones of the chiral network are set up in a way this time around that literally all critical infrastructure you'd need has already been set up before you even get a chance to do so yourself. I had to cross a river using a ladder a total of 1 time if we ignore the prologue.
It's like MGSV where at the start, lethal/non-lethal require different approaches and then halfway through he gives you a silenced non-lethal sniper and ruins it.