When Death Stranding came out in 2019, it split players down the middle between those puzzled and frustrated by the sparsity of its design and the ones enamoured by the same pared-back approach to gameplay. Some, expecting a moody, action-adventure game about shooting ghostly creatures, saw Death Stranding as a “walking simulator”. Others knew better than to expect the expected and were left surprised by the game’s stubborn commitment to its identity.
Very few games have that: an identity. Most titles, even the great ones, are firmly rooted in genre substrates — a third-person action-adventure game, an RPG, a shooter. Others are offshoots — a Soulslike, a Roguelike, an immersive sim. But Death Stranding was its own thing. As its creator Hideo Kojima — auteur game designer, industry legend, film buff and the guy who made a bunch of espionage action games about the ethics of artificial intelligence, consequences of war and control of information that presciently predicted the future that we find ourselves living in today — argued: most games were centred around “the stick”, a tool to keep the bad stuff away; Death Stranding was designed around “the rope”, an instrument to bind us together.
And at its core, that was what the game was about: walking around desolate landscapes, making deliveries and connecting scattered colonies of people reeling from an apocalypse. Mere months after the launch of the game, Kojima’s prescience was once again at play as the world went into lockdown, sheltering itself from the Covid-19 pandemic, and Death Stranding’s themes found resonance with the new reality of living locked up at home, away from our friends, scared of an invisible threat outside.
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With Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, which releases this week on PS5, Kojima has doubled down on his uncompromising vision. Those hoping for DS 2 to embrace a more traditional video game design are likely to be left puzzled and frustrated again. Yes, the game is more open to guns and combat and features an expanded set of tools to facilitate that, so it might appeal a little more to people who like wielding “the stick”. But make no mistake, “rope” aficionados, Death Stranding 2 is still about a guy walking across a continent with an ungodly amount of cargo on his back. It’s the familiar gameplay loop from the first game — picking up orders, managing your inventory and trekking along the best path to your destination — expanded in scale and scope in every single aspect.
Simply put, Death Stranding 2 is bigger and better and bolder. It deepens the themes and ideas introduced in Death Stranding and poses new questions relevant and important to our living reality today. It is wilder, more confounding, less trusting of us as a people than its predecessor — it comes with the tagline “Should we have connected?”. Make what you will of that, but Kojima is clearly concerned with the consequences of a shared global society — of connecting people in a world desperate to tear itself apart. There are important, sombre reflections about the destruction of our environment and the cycles of conflict and violence, near-perfectly balanced by Kojima’s trademark extravagant, earnest and often goofy style that brings levity and humanity to otherworldly and incomprehensive horrors. One moment you’re taking crucial medical equipment and health supplies to a far-off colony of people cut off from resources; the next, you’re literally running to deliver a fresh, hot pizza to a guy living in the mountains in 30 minutes or less.
For all its strengths, Death Stranding 2 also comes with many of the same flaws of the first game. It goes overboard in providing players the tools to take on its many challenges — “You want your delivery runs to be faster? Here are 13 ways to do that.” It wraps its main story into multiple layers of thematic overtures and distractions, not all of which justify their indulgence. And then there are some familiar frustrations related to the gameplay that grate against the serenity of your surroundings in the game. But these missteps remain minor grievances in an otherwise audacious title that still promises — and delivers — an experience like no other in the medium, just like Death Stranding did nearly six years ago.
Death Stranding 2 is still a game about making deliveries above your weight limit
Photo Credit: Sony/ Kojima Productions (Screenshot – Manas Mitul)
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach begins again with Sam Porter Bridges, now living a quiet life with baby Lou after connecting North America in the first game, away from prying eyes of UCA. After a lifetime’s worth of loss, Sam has finally found peace, living with his adopted child in a tucked away shelter close to the Mexican border. But this familial bliss is short-lived. Fragile, who helped Sam in his expedition across the American continent in the first game, finds his hideout and asks him to connect Mexico to the chiral network. Sam takes on the job reluctantly and brings Mexico into the fold, but a horrific tragedy shatters the life he built for himself after the events of the first game. Devastated by a cruel loss and informed by a startling discovery, Sam is given a chance to begin again on another continent.
He’s told of a mysterious structure, a plate gate, that connects Mexico to Australia and is asked to connect the country to the chiral network, as well. Sunken in his grief, Sam agrees to take on the assignment and joins Fragile and couple of new allies on the DHV Magellan, a colossal Metal Gear-style ship that travels through the tar and serves as the base of operations in the game. Fragile is now heading up Drawbridge, a new civilian logistics outfit working to expand the chiral network outside the borders of the UCA. After an intense introduction section set in Mexico, Death Stranding 2 shifts up a gear to reveal its true act: the vast, untamed wilderness of Australia.
A Plate Gate connects two continents
Photo Credit: Sony/ Kojima Productions
As Sam, you begin your journey on a new continent working for Drawbridge to connect fractured pockets of civilisation. But things aren’t, of course, straightforward. Sam learns that there’s much he doesn’t know about Lou, so he pushes forward with his quest, with new revelations, new allies and a few old foes waiting on his path ahead. Alongside the central pillar of Sam’s story, DS 2 also weaves two alternative narratives — one about strange visions that Sam’s been having and other about the ghostly realm of the dead that reflects various natural disasters from the world of the living, featuring a mysterious military figure, Niel Vana (played by actor Luca Marinelli, a new addition to the cast this time around). There are several other flashbacks and surreal sequences that connect the dots of the larger picture. These disparate narrative threads come together in true Kojima fashion, through astonishing imagery, evocative music and confounding lore to form the unique fabric of DS 2.
And as with other games made by the Metal Gear Solid creator, Death Stranding 2’s story is a sum of its themes and ideas. The big picture, while stunning to behold and often hard to grasp, is not as compelling as what the picture makes the beholder feel. You’re walking around in a dead world, surrounded by dead things, where time is rain and the afterlife is a beach. What does that make you feel? Death Stranding 2 is solemn, sad and silly, and it’s self-aware enough to allow all those parts to exist together in equal visibility.
Death Stranding tells a more personal story about Sam and Lou
Photo Credit: Sony/ Kojima Productions (Screenshot – Manas Mitul)
Just like its predecessor, Death Stranding 2 often belabours the point and flirts with corny sermonising. It also gets stuck in overlapping narratives that often don’t bring meaningful context to the central story. But unlike the first game, it doesn’t drag its feet or dance around its arguments, diving headfirst into the thick of it all instead. And so, the sequel, while much longer than Death Stranding, is paced far better, with its story expanding to compelling crescendos towards the end of each episode. It’s also less esoteric and more emotionally charged, as it is after all telling a more personal story of loss.
Kojima also writes with an unassuming earnestness that presents some of the game’s more complex, high-brow themes in accessible and familiar forms instead of smearing them on you. The invite to swim in the deep end of what he’s trying to say with images, words, music and ultimately gameplay is always open, but the surface of those ideas is seductive in its own right, too. Consequently, Death Stranding 2 becomes an experience unique to each player and their curiosity.
Luca Marinelli plays the mysterious Neil Vana
Photo Credit: Sony/ Kojima Productions (Screenshot – Manas Mitul)
And then there’s a different story told through the game’s unique communal gameplay. It’s a game about making deliveries that also expands into a little more traditional action-adventure territory with enemy encounters involving shooting, stealth and tactical preparation. There are several larger boss fights where combat is the only way forward, but you can largely push through the game without taking on enemies, both living and dead ones. Every mission begins at a delivery terminal, where you pick up a new order to deliver to a shelter and bring it under the range of the chiral network, which allows you to build structures and access structures built by other players online.
There’s a neat little inventory and cargo management sim tucked away within the process of taking on an order. Looking at the map and assessing the terrain you’ll likely cross to get to your destination and the foes you’ll likely encounter on the way helps you decide the equipment you’ll carry along with your designated cargo. You don’t want to be ill-equipped for a treacherous journey, but you also don’t want to be carrying a heavy load on a long trek. I really enjoyed planning the route for each order, too, especially for the long-haul ones. You try to trace a path of least resistance to your destination, crossing over rivers, going around mountains and avoiding an enemy camp. But often, you must take the challenges head-on: deploy a ladder across the raging waters, rappel down a cliffside using a climbing anchor, or pack a tranquiliser sniper to clear a hostile camp from far.
It’s important to prepare for the conditions you’ll face in your journey
Photo Credit: Sony/ Kojima Productions (Screenshot – Manas Mitul)
Each main order comes with an escalation of challenges and tools provided to overcome them. As you slowly establish the chiral network across a region, you’re able to construct larger structures: bridges, watchtowers, timefall shelters, generators, and ziplines that make the trek faster and safer. Once a shelter and its surrounding area is connected to the network, you’re also able to see and utilise structurers built by other players in your server. The Social Strand System, as the game calls its distinct co-operative online experience, is not just foundational to Death Stranding 2’s gameplay — it lives at the emotional core of the game.
Silently, invisibly working alongside other porters to bring the world back from the dark is an experience like no other in the medium. It’s a deeply charitable and rewarding act of labour that takes the idea of player messages from Dark Souls and runs with it. Every ladder you lay down, every anchor you dig in, every bridge you build is helping a whole bunch of other players, all of them strangers going through the same experience as you. And when you encounter a structure built by them or a tool discarded to aid other porters, you’re filled with gratitude. Over time, as you see regions transform with structures, paved roads and an active monorail system, you can’t help but feel like a colony of ants, working away tirelessly to make things easier for everyone.
Structures built by other players make your travels easier
Photo Credit: Sony/ Kojima Productions (Screenshot – Manas Mitul)
This unsigned communal contract is also tied to an ingenious system that reflects modern social media, where you ‘like’ the structures left behind by other players and receive ‘likes’ for your constructions in return, creating a kinship of sorts — a strand that binds two players together. But unlike social media, the exchange never feels transactional. It’s driven by the shared experience of hardship and a collective effort to make it easier for yourself and those who follow in your path. The Social Strand System underpinned the distinct gameplay loop in Death Stranding, and it anchors your efforts in the sequel, as well, telling you that you’re not alone in saving the world.
You slowly spread the network across multiple shelters in a region before journeying to connect the main regional station, which usually culminates in a stunning boss encounter or narrative sequence that unravels the threads of the larger story. Death Stranding 2 excels in marking your slow and deliberate crawl towards completing a region with a climactic flourish that rewards your efforts and resets the board for the next region. And then, you begin again. You experience otherworldly horrors or see inexplicable phenomena, but amidst your confusion you hold on to the clarity of the next order. After all, you’re just the guy who makes deliveries.
Death Stranding 2 features visually striking boss encounters
Photo Credit: Sony/ Kojima Productions (Screenshot – Manas Mitul)
But there is a downside to your growing tool set and the widening scope of… let’s call it public infrastructure. Over time, you accumulate a deep repository of instruments and conveniences that invariably help you on your journey, but also end up somewhat diluting the essence of the game and overwhelming you with excess technology. There are positive aspects to this upgrade process. For instance, you walk a route the first time and later you can contribute to establish paved roads, a monorail system and a network of ziplines to quickly traverse that distance. It’s extremely helpful and shortens your journey time on repeated delivery runs on a route.
But then there are some upgrades that feel wholly unnecessary. At some point in the game, I found myself questioning why exactly did I have access to three different contraptions to facilitate one thing: fast travel. This perhaps could be a commentary on our deepening dependence on technology in real life, but it takes something away from a game essentially about quietly hiking across beautiful environments.
Death Stranding 2 also expands on its predecessor’s light approach to action gameplay. There are more enemy encounters, more types of enemies and more weapons to take them on, alongside a broader set of mechanics for hand-to-hand combat. There are more types of BTs, ghostly creatures that are essentially stranded souls of dead people stuck in the world of the living, too, each requiring slightly different tactics to take on. Watchers can see you, but Gazers sense your presence through sound. You get a new Blood Boomerang this time, that’s particularly effective against BTs and require Sam’s blood to function.
BT encounters are chilling and tense
Photo Credit: Sony/ Kojima Productions
Sam has access to a bigger arsenal this time around, consisting of non-lethal guns, grenades and deployable mines that turn into a mech dog and chase down human targets like bandits and armed survivalists. There’s also a formidable new type of mechanical enemies, called Ghost Mechs, that seem to be powered by a mysterious new technology. Adorned in red metal, these Ghost Mechs serve Higgs, a returning villain from the first game. Shooting mechanics largely remain the same as they were in Death Stranding, but there’s a more tactical bend to encounters.
Approaching a large bandit camp with a set of stealth tools and weapons can evoke the feeling of scouting a camp in Metal Gear Solid 5 and deciding if you’re going to take everyone out or sneak your way to your objective. Just like Kojima promised, most of these encounters are optional and you can utilise your tools to silently get in and get out. And while triggering open combat is rarely very challenging or deadly, it’s always best to keep a quiet profile.
Death Stranding’s combat is more tactical and fluid
Photo Credit: Sony/ Kojima Productions (Screenshot – Manas Mitul)
When not making deliveries and taking on BTs, you get some downtime at the DHV Magellan, your mobile Drawbridge HQ where you take a breather, interact with crew members both new and old and uncover new bits of the story. Fragile, played by actor Lea Seydoux, is back, heading the operation; then there’s Tarman, played by film director George Miller, a geophysicist who pilots the massive ship; Dollman, whose soul resides in a doll, accompanies Sam on his deliveries; Rainy, who has timefall powers; and Tomorrow, played by Elle Fanning, a mysterious young woman from the world of the dead with startling abilties connected to the beach.
All cast members fulfil their roles well and Norman Reedus as Sam is the perfect taciturn observer to events as they unfold — a vessel for players to pour themselves into. The game’s most enjoyable and assured performance comes from the returning Troy Baker as the antagonist Higgs. The terrorist takes on a new avatar in DS 2, juggling whimsical antics and pure evil with menacing ease. While Higgs’ presence is minimal, whenever he does show up, it’s a moment you put the controller down to watch him grab the scene and make it dance to his tune.
The DHV Magellan becomes becomes your base of operations
Photo Credit: Sony/ Kojima Productions (Screenshot – Manas Mitul)
Death Stranding 2 tells its overlapping story through these characters and the distinct social experience of its gameplay. But a picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words. And my word is that true for the game. DS 2 is a visual treat. Its evocative natural environments stir you as make your way across bleak and beautiful landscapes. Just look at the screenshots included! These were all taken on the way to fulfilling a delivery when I had to stop and soak in the vista. Trekking through quiet mountains, exploring the desert on your tri-cruiser and walking alongside a river is a moving experience that informs the apocalyptic setting of the game.
The world of Death Stranding 2 also reflects the devastation of our natural world through forest fires, earthquakes, floods, and endless cycles of conflict. It argues that there are in fact some who do want to watch the world burn. But the game is also constantly serving you reminders that the world is worth saving. It is beautiful and bountiful, and it requires collective action if it must be saved. Death Stranding 2 harbours a conservationist spirit. You can even rescue wild animals unique to the Australian wilderness — kangaroos, possums, emus, Tasmanian devils and koalas — and deliver them to an animal shelter. In its own way, Death Stranding delivers an ode to a dying planet.
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The visuals in Death Stranding 2 tell a story, too
Photo Credit: Sony/ Kojima Productions (Screenshot – Manas Mitul)
Hideo Kojima has said that he rewrote the script of the sequel from scratch when he experienced the Covid-19 pandemic and saw themes of Death Stranding reflected in the real world. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is clearly a response to that collective trauma. It is charged with messages and warnings relevant to our real world, even as it weaves science fiction about stranded souls and sheltered lives.
Just like the first game, DS 2 is flawed, convoluted and overripe. It often works against itself, both narratively and mechanically — the story is often too enamoured with its own high concept and the gameplay is not without jank and technical issues. But there’s a genuine creative argument driving every aspect of the game, that might not convince everyone, but it’s enough to make you curious. It’s enough to make you look and engage with ridiculous ideas. They’re far less ridiculous than our reality.