Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Review - A Refined Masterpiece

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Back in 2019, Death Stranding became one of the most divisive games of the year. It was unlike anything we had seen before. Doing deliveries with a baby strapped to your chest and fighting floating creatures with blood-infused grenades. It just couldn’t get any stranger. Yet, it gave us something that we no longer see in the gaming landscape: originality. Now, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach takes everything that worked for its predecessor and refines it while also adding a massive amount of new systems to make a masterpiece. As a fan of Kojima’s work throughout the ages, this is the most Kojima game ever, and a perfect one at that.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach still keeps many of its predecessor’s systems. You do deliveries in the same way. The weirdness is there, or rather, it’s even grander this time. The visuals are the best in the market, truly showcasing that the PS5 has a lot of horsepower behind it. And the narrative, which reaches the highest levels of bizarreness, is fantastic. Yes, I have a few gripes about the pacing of the game’s final and minor complaints regarding some menus. But they weren’t big enough to deter me from enjoying this work of art.

The Man Who Connects

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach begins shortly after the events of the first game. If you haven’t played it, here’s a quick spoiler warning for the Death Stranding‘s ending and the sequel’s first hours.

Sam and Lou are living off the grid. The days of porters in the UCA are over, as an automated system has taken over. Independent organizations have taken the tasks of delivering cargo to other continents, which is where Fragile and Drawbridge come into play. Instead of connecting just one continent, Drawbridge wants to bring what remains of Mexico and Australia into the chiral network. Who’s the man for the job? Sam Porter Bridges. So, after a bit of convincing, Sam decides to take one last job.

Unfortunately, things don’t go as planned. A new mysterious enemy rises to ruin Sam’s life and lead him down a path of isolation, depression, and grief. To help him, Fragile recruits him to join Drawbridge and complete the initial mission: connecting all of Australia. As plot points go, that’s as far as I’ll go for two reasons. One, going into details about characters or story arcs would spoil many surprises. Two, I would need thousands of words to explain it all, and that’s not what I’ll do here. However, I’ll go into the broader aspects of the narrative.

Compared to the first game, understanding the plot of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach was much easier. It might be because I played the first game five times or because I’m a Kojima game veteran who knows what to expect. But even without that, the story is easier to digest. There are still many new terms to be familiar with. Still, the plot is easier to follow, and the addition of the Corpus, an encyclopedia of sorts recording every term, character, and mechanic, makes everything better for players.

Another aspect that makes this story stand out is its strong focus on its characters. Most of which accompany you throughout this multicontinental journey. In the first game, I always wished Sam had more interactions with the fantastic cast of characters. Yet, a few didn’t have enough screen time, and we saw most of that through the chiral holograms in the facilities. Here, everyone is inside the DHV Magellan. You see them in the corridors before going to the shower, or you talk to them after a few orders. It feels as if Sam finally has a crew that is there to back him up.

Additionally, each character’s arc is superb. While not all returned for the sequel, the new ones are equally memorable, if not more. Kojima keeps telling compelling character stories in just a few cutscenes that make you feel attached to these post-apocalyptic survivors. Of course, the acting of those behind the character helps a lot. But the overall development is at its prime here, and one of the best I’ve seen from any Kojima game.

Furthermore, Sam remains one of gaming’s best protagonists, which is strange because he doesn’t feel like one. He isn’t a man of many words or someone looking to save the world as soon as he wakes up in the morning. He’s the hero he never wanted to be, but everyone needed him. And it’s even more evident in the sequel. Sam goes through many things in this game that are relatable to many people. You will laugh, cry, and suffer alongside him, but that just shows how well-written Sam is.

However, there’s one minor gripe I have about the narrative. During the first 30 hours, or 40, depending on how long it takes you, the story has excellent pacing. It is full of intrigue, mysterious flashback sequences, and emotional interactions that build up the narrative perfectly. However, the final act feels like an overwhelming wave of information and discoveries. Some plot twists could have been handled more effectively, and some revelations, although obvious, felt anticlimactic after waiting too long for them. Still, it’s something minor that doesn’t ruin the already amazing experience. Still, I wish the pacing leading up to the ending could have been handled better.

A Multicontinental Order

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach takes place in fictional representations of Mexico and Australia. The former serves as a small yet memorable tutorial-like zone, and the latter occupies most of the game. In terms of the gameplay loop, it doesn’t change much from Death Stranding. You still arrive at a facility, select an order, organize your cargo, and hike, ride, climb, or dash to reach the location. However, the alluring part of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is the freedom of how you approach each order.

As soon as the game begins, everything feels like a puzzle. And I’m just not talking about the part of organizing your cargo in Sam’s never-bending backpack or back, for that matter. Getting from point A to point B is the actual challenge. Will you pass through a bandit camp? If yes, bring guns or approach it stealthily. Does it look like it might rain? Then, prepare some anti-BT weapons. Preparation is just one piece of the puzzle, and the rest starts assembling as you take your steps into this sci-fi BT and bandit-riddled world.

What surprised me was how refined everything felt. I will go into detail about each system later, but in general, everything felt so smooth. When I played Death Stranding for the first time, it was refreshing to see such different and original gameplay. However, it was quite experimental. It worked for me, but it didn’t work for some. Yet, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach makes everything way more approachable. Combat is smoother, organizing cargo is better, you get access to vehicles after the tutorial, and you have all the player agency to make the game as easy or as challenging as you want it to be.

While I tried my best to avoid comparisons, I couldn’t help but feel that Death Stranding 2: On the Beach played like an improved version of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain while also keeping the Death Stranding DNA at the top at all times. It is an excellent blend of Kojima’s experimental game design and everything he learned from creating the best stealth series in the gaming world.

A Porter’s Arsenal

To make deliveries, Sam has all the arsenal we saw in the first game and then much more. At first, you can only carry cargo on your back. You start managing Sam’s balance as he piles up container after container. After connecting with other preppers, which works exactly as in the first game, you unlock your first motorcycle and can carry a few more things. But what if the terrain is too rough for a vehicle? Whip out a floating carrier that you can attach to your waist to haul it around the map.

If I tried to list every item you get in the game here, I’d never end. Sam’s arsenal is 10 times bigger than in Death Stranding. It was so great to see how every prepper unlocked something new that would help you in a specific area. Take the Data Scientist, for example. When you approach her location, there are many dog-like mines that follow you around and explore. At first, I had no idea how to avoid them. The only way was to destroy them with an electric weapon. However, once I connected with the Data Scientist, she gave me a suit that concealed Sam from those mines. The same happens with almost all characters you meet, and connecting the continent is a literal reward that goes beyond the narrative implications.

Yet, if you’re not a fan of doing on-foot deliveries, vehicles don’t take long to appear. While you won’t have many roads at first, you can restore them to create paths between major locations. By the end of the game, you’ll have your porter-made highway that makes difficult deliveries a thing of the past. In my case, I took my time to build as many roads as possible. Once I had most of them, I was able to take a large number of orders and do a transcontinental journey, visiting almost every character on the map—it felt great. There’s nothing like retracing your footsteps and seeing how much your actions can affect the game’s world, and not only yours but that of others.

Beyond that, Kojima vastly improved customization options. While you could change many things in the first game, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach lets you customize Sam to a T, and with purpose at that.

Let’s say you want to infiltrate an enemy camp at night. There’s a specific suit that makes it harder to be noticed when it’s dark. Are you afraid of BTs? There is one suit with a fantastic homage tied to it that makes some BTs ignore Sam. And that’s just me talking about the suits. You can customize your backpack with gameplay-altering components. If you want more ammo, you can build an ammo pouch and put it on your backpack, akin to the Resident Evil 4 inventory. The same happens with vehicles. There are components that automatically shoot enemies, collect cargo, or decrease your fall damage when driving.

If that wasn’t enough, there are more things you can unlock as you progress through the story. There is one specific hood that stores water to restore Sam’s stamina, and it can even gather more water during Timefall. Yes, that is how wild the level of customization options is in the game. Ultimately, it all helps to increase the player agency part. While I stuck to roads most of the time, there are porters who will prefer to do good old-fashioned on-foot deliveries, and the game gives you everything to do so. When it comes to sandbox maps, Kojima has raised the bar and made not one but two delivery playgrounds that you can tackle however you see fit.

An Ever-Changing World

One of the most significant selling points of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is its map, or rather maps. While you’ll spend most of your time in Australia, Mexico works exactly the same. You can build structures, bridges, and other helpful things to make Sam’s deliveries easier to complete. However, there are so many moving layers, quite literally, that affect how every order unfolds.

For once, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach now features natural disasters. When doing an order, a river might flood, making crossing it impossible. In other scenarios, an earthquake might occur, and it will create landslides that will block your path or, worse, hurt you. In the first game, my biggest worry was facing BTs and hiding from the rain. Here, these were my worries, too, but I also had to watch out for an avalanche coming my way, which happened more than once. During one delivery, a rock rolled down a hill, and it hit the cargo I had in my carrier—it was terrific. Yes, my cargo broke, but now I knew how I could prepare myself for the next attempt.

Fortunately, you’re not alone in this journey. Death Stranding‘s asynchronous multiplayer mode returns. Whenever you place a structure or bridge or leave a car in the open, other players can use it. In turn, you can use theirs, too. Of course, this only happens after you connect an area to the chiral network. This has always been one of my favorite multiplayer modes ever. While traveling, you’re leaving your grain of sand in the shape of a postbox, a ladder, or a Timefall Shelter. But then, you’ll also see players who placed their structures in a way to help you.

The connection with other porters feels even better now, thanks to the return of the many signs you can put up to encourage others, but also with the new Aid Requests. At any moment, you can ask other players for help, and they will do the same. You’ll often encounter players asking for weapons and materials, or even asking you to help them with delivering cargo. Even if you will never meet a player, it feels like you’ve made an everlasting connection with someone. Of course, this is a rewarding experience, as you’ll always see a notification of the likes other porters have given you, which just shows how impactful your playthrough can be to others.

There are a few games that give you this sensation. Yes, winning a match in a multiplayer game is fantastic. Finishing a raid on day one is always great. But you’re not really helping others; you’re helping yourself, and that’s fine. Here, however, you can actually see when other players used the road you restored or thanked you for the vehicle you placed strategically for tired porters to use. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach features the best multiplayer mode ever made, which, ironically, doesn’t require players to chat, talk, or even see each other.

Tactical Delivery Action

Deliveries and road restoration aside, the combat is another highlight and my favorite part of this sequel. To be frank, I never really enjoyed the combat of Death Stranding. Even with the Director’s Cut additions, I always avoided it if possible. In Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, the opposite happened. If I had the opportunity to raid an enemy camp, you bet your chiral crystals that I took it, and it was the best thing in this game.

Sam retains most of his moves from the first game, but the delivery arsenal isn’t the one with upgrades. There are just so many weapons this time. From silenced assault rifles to a shock pistol and even grenades that summon BT holograms, all of these items are there to tailor your approach to combat however you see fit.

I’ve always been a fan of stealth games. Naturally, I always looked for the easiest way to sneak into an enemy’s base. During my first hours, I tied people with my strand, hid inside holographic rocks, or shocked enemies from afar with my pistol. I felt as if I was playing another tactical espionage action game again. However, I kept unlocking new weapons and gadgets and decided to go the loud route, and guess what? I had even more fun.

The weapon lineup is fantastic and ranges from machine guns to shotguns with grenade launchers and a plethora of silenced guns. But if you want to go even wilder, you can throw grenades at enemies, snipe them from afar, or equip one of Sam’s new gloves that let you send a wave of electricity at them, turning Sam into a Sith Lord of sorts. There are endless ways to take down enemy camps, and fortunately, there’s a lot of enemy variety, too.

When you start your journey, you’ll encounter weak bandits that are easy to take down with a single shot or a melee combo. But as you progress, you’ll see armored enemies, some that teleport behind you, and some that spawn exploding foes when they die. Adapting to these situations is pretty engaging and always makes you think outside of the box.

I will say that combat shines even more at higher difficulties, and it was only when I switched to Brutal that I used all of my gadgets. Playing on normal was fine, but I could go Rambo on all enemies most of the time and pass all orders with flying colors. So, if you really want to see the depth of Sam’s fighting prowess, bumping up the difficulty is the best way to go.

Human and not-so-human enemies aside, BTs still present a considerable threat. While it is easier to take them down now, there are new types of BTs that are pretty scary. There’s one that can summon more BTs if it spots you, and a few that are almost unkillable, forcing you to go into stealth mode to make it out alive. While I felt there were fewer BT zones this time, the ones that appeared led to nail-biting moments and something that felt strangely refreshing after fighting humans for so many hours.

My other small complaint pertains to the skill system. I liked how all increased after doing certain actions. Do you want to be better with handguns? Then use handguns. However, the APAS system, which is essentially a skill tree, felt underwhelming. Some skills were great to unlock. A few even made combat and deliveries easier. However, I forgot about it most of the time because it never felt necessary to progress.

The First Next-Gen Visuals

Time and again, we’ve talked about the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S never felt like next-gen consoles. There were a few titles that used the power of these platforms, but most of the time, it felt like developers stagnated this generation. That’s what I thought before playing Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. Kojima and his tech wizards used the Decima engine to really show us the power of the PS5, and let me tell you, it is definetely a next-gen console. Ironically, it feels like one year after its release, and all thanks to this sequel.

You’ve all seen the trailers, but the surprising part is playing it at 1440p and 60 FPS. I have a launch-day PS5, and I never saw a single frame drop or any graphical issues. The PS5 Pro version is going to look even better, but I’m still wrapping my head around the fact that the PS5 has all this power behind it. Of course, this is thanks to the developers who put their hands into the deepest corners of the platform to make the most of it. Still, I never thought I’d see such realistic graphics without evoking an uncanny valley in this console generation.

Characters aside, the environment looks perfect. The initial sequence threw me off because I thought it was all pre-rendered or shots of real-life landscapes. But no. It was the Decima engine working at full strength on a five-year-old console. And beyond the looks, the way the terrain and its effects work in real-time is equally surprising.

While I love my PS5, I must admit that this generation initially felt underwhelming. We’ve seen games losing quality in performance mode, and some lose performance in quality mode. But Death Stranding 2: On the Beach doesn’t have these issues. It is a technical marvel, and the one reason I can say that I don’t regret buying my PS5 on day one.

Kojima’s Magnum Opus

As someone who’s been a fan of Hideo Kojima’s works for many years, this is his magnum opus. It is the culmination of years of experimentation with gameplay systems and narrative elements, taking the gaming landscape to unique new levels. Even if it has a few hiccups here and there in the plot, they are so minor that they don’t really stain the strangely beautiful world Kojima has created.

Just like in 2019, I don’t think I’ve ever played or will play anything remotely close to Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, and that is something I’m thankful for. In a world full of games that share the same DNA, Death Stranding is a refreshing series that has fulfilled its last order. While I would love to see a third entry, if this is the end, it is one that wraps itself with a ribbon and presents itself as a unique, engaging, and memorable gaming experience, and one that we can only experience once every decade.

Review copy provided by the Publisher.

Death Stranding

10 Remarkable!

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is Kojima's best work to date. It brings an engaging gameplay loop that encourages player experimentation at every turn. Furthermore, it shows the true power of the PS5, making it the best game of this console generation.