Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is the second release from famed video game creator Hideo Kojima’s very own production company, Kojima Productions. I had a love/hate relationship with the original from 2019. I was hooked by the utterly unique gameplay, which centred around delivering packages across a barren and treacherous landscape, but wanted to scream with frustration every time a cutscene started. The story, writing and characters were so pretentious and nonsensical that it made me want to put the controller down and walk into a lake.
I did eventually finish it, with the feature-length series of cutscenes, credits and barely interactive sequences that made up the games’ finale only cementing the fact that Kojima was now my personal nemesis. Thankfully, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is a fantastic sequel, and one that seems to have addressed a lot of the criticisms aimed at the first.
Sam (Norman Reedus) has been living in Mexico with his defunct BB unit, who he named Lou at the end of the first game. Having succeeded in connecting up the United Cities of America, he left it all behind to return to a life off the Chiral Network. One day, his former colleague Fragile (Lea Seydoux) shows up, spurring Sam to begin a new journey, one that starts with bringing the scattered preppers and facilities of Mexico into the fold.
Mexico serves as a tutorial area of sorts, with the bulk of the game taking place in Australia, believe it or not. Before long, Sam has a Bioware-esque crew and ship to call home, the DHV Magellan (Deep-tar Hunting Vessel). The mission is to connect up Australia piece by piece, bringing each bunker and city into the network. Once you reach the prepper in a certain zone, you bring them online, and that area is then populated with buildings and tools left by other players. This is the loop of “Strand” games, as Kojima has dubbed them, your first trek through a new area is hard-won, with each kilometre being a puzzle in and of itself. Then, when you connect the local hub up, travelling through that zone becomes a lot easier thanks to the efforts of other players.
Everything matters when playing out your journey; bringing the right weapons and tools is essential. Whether you come up against Beach Things (BT’s), spirits of the dead stuck in our world, or regular human bandits, you will need to plan accordingly. If you have a lot of cargo strapped to Sam’s back, you will need to manually balance him out every time you change direction. Some cargo is particularly fragile, meaning even one slip up will degrade your order rank.
Bit by bit, you tame the whole continent. New characters, enemies, tools, weapons, vehicles, buildings and environmental hazards await around every corner. You start off chucking a ladder down to ford a rushing river, and end up laying roads and even monorail tracks to traverse great swathes of land with ease. The sense of progression is second to none, everything I loved about the first game is here, but even more satisfying.
Even better, the story and characters are far more engaging this time around. There were a few moments early on that had me concerned, but that soon dissipated. Sam’s crew are endearing and intriguing, and Sam’s nemesis Higgs (Troy Baker having the time of his life) is actually a compelling villain this time around. Everything is still just as bizarre, absurd, surreal and ridiculous as the original, this remains a Kojima production after all, but it’s presented in a way that welcomes players in on the joke, rather than feeling completely self-indulgent.
In addition to a much improved main story, there are a number of intriguing side quests this time around. From helping to set up a Pizza Chef to digging hot springs with unique restorative properties, there are a lot of fun and surprising distractions to uncover, often with unique scenes or rewards too. In this way, Death Stranding 2 avoids the bloat and tedium of other open world games, as every tangent feels more than worth exploring.
There are only a couple of things I would point to as disappointments or frustrations. First are the new environmental hazards. In pre-release trailers, we saw landslides and flash floods, both of which are in the game but may as well not be. The one impressive landslide happens during a scripted moment in the prologue, and is not a regular occurrence after that. Flash floods are the same, the rivers do increase in width when it rains, but I only ever saw a literal flash flood once. Then there are the bushfires. There is one main story mission that requires you to move through an area on fire, but after that, they pretty much never come up in any meaningful way again.
Each of these events are presented (in trailers and within the game itself) as new dynamic hazards you’ll need to contend with, but they fall way short of this promise. Sandstorms are the one weather event that will actually keep appearing throughout your play through, are visually impressive, and have a direct impact on how you plan out your journey. It’s a shame the same can’t be said for the others.
Boss fights are another weak point, especially early on. These encounters are with giant BT’s who conjure up pools of sticky tar in their vicinity. This means you have to trudge through movement-impairing goop while trying to avoid their enormous tentacles, which is just annoying. Later on, it becomes less of an issue as you have more powerful tools and weapons at your disposal. However, this just makes the fights less dangerous, not necessarily more fun.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is a wonderful sequel that improves on everything that made the first game so compelling, while levelling out some of Kojima’s more egregious indulgences. Sam’s crew remain weird as hell, but manage to be likeable at the same time. The antagonist Higgs is as hammy as he ever was, but in a way that feels pertinent to the story being told. Gameplay wise the loop of taming the landscape, completing deliveries and unlocking improved weapons, gear and tools is just sublime. It took almost six years, but Kojima I’m happy to announce you’re officially no longer my personal nemesis.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach was reviewed on PS5 with a code provided by Sony.
Rating: 9/10