Review - Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

"Death can't tear us apart"

June 26, 2025 - Sony Interactive Entertainment / Kojima Productions

Action Adventure - Hideo Kojima

PS5

Almost a year after connecting America, Sam Porter Bridges goes on another continent-crossing mission to connect Australia to the Chiral Network after a tragic set of events.

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Characters, World, and Presentation

Death Stranding is one of the more confusing worlds and stories told in video games, so if you really want to understand fully, I suggest checking out whatever YouTube videos you can on it. The simplest explanation I can give you is that our main protagonist, Sam Porter Bridges, set out to connect the United States on a network to be able to communicate with others, similar to the internet, in a dystopian world where the dead can cross over and create issues with us. Sam eventually learns that his adopted sister, Amelie, is an extinction entity that will set off the final stranding, and mankind will go extinct. However, she seals her beach away after Sam defeats Higgs Monaghan, a cultist obsessed with setting off the last stranding, and Sam takes a chance to free his BB, bridge baby that helps connect to the other side, who he names Louise (or Lou for short) and in a pretty emotional finish Sam and Lou walk away to start a new life. Now there’s much more in that summary of what happened, but you can look it up elsewhere if you need to catch up. Along the journey, Sam also connected with others like Fragile, a woman with a past with Higgs, and allies such as Deadman, Die-Hard Man, Lockne, Heartman, and more.

In this sequel, we start eleven months after Sam and Lou walked off at the end of the previous game. Now, Sam is raising Lou and seems to be done as a porter. However, Fragile shows up at his doorstep with a proposition to help connect Mexico. After you connect Mexico, a turn of events happens that sets you off to a whole new adventure to connect Australia, as Sam looks to deal with his grief. As he sets out on this new journey, Sam once again connects with allies, some old and some new, and must deal with the shocking return of Higgs, who looks to supply the land down under with guns and weapons to establish a violent world.

The world of DS2 mainly takes place in Australia, and the landscapes look so darn good, from details in the textures to environmental hazards playing out to the snowcaps in the mountains and so on. This is a gorgeous game that uses the Decima engine to its limits. If you choose to walk most of the time during your deliveries, you’ll at least have several chances just to stop and look around. As expected, it looks even better at night when you look up at the stars and the unique look the sky has.

The characters are memorable as you can get, as expected for a Kojima game. Sam continues to have his silent and withdrawn personality, played perfectly by Norman Reedus. Fragile, played by Lea Seydoux, returns more confident than in the first game, with the trauma Higgs put her through behind her, but she’s now dealing with a new trauma. She has these cool gloves that act like another pair of hands, and the way Kojima uses them is one of those small, but excellent touches to the personality of the game. Tarman, which uses the likeness of famed director George Miller, drives the DHV Magellan, a ship that can use tar currents to travel the continent and has a tragic backstory with his son, who may actually be his cat (again, Kojima). Rainy is a pregnant young woman who can use rain to heal the land and people, and I like her backstory and arc. Dollman is the standout of the group, a doll possessed by a man who acts as a guide through the world, similar to Mimir from God of War. He moves around in a stop motion animation, and there are a lot of little secrets and funny easter eggs regarding him. Lastly, we have Tomorrow, played by Elle Fanning, a mysterious woman who possesses insane power and is trying to fit in with the crew. There are others as well, like the returning Heartman, and appearances from Deadman, quick mentions of Margaret Qualley’s Lockne, and Lindsay Wagner’s Amelie.

The MVP of the whole cast, however, is none other than Troy Baker’s Higgs. Higgs is back, and Kojima took what I feel is one of the best modern villains in gaming and decided to turn it up all the way to one hundred. While he’s always been eccentric, Higgs is more of a troll in this one. His personality feels like a mixture of Heath Ledger’s Joker, Javier Bardem’s Silva from Skyfall, and the Higgs from the previous game, all in one. Every time he’s on the screen, he steals the show. Troy is already one of the best performers in video games, but this may just be his best performance yet. You can feel the character’s motivations and pure sadistic evil with every move he makes. There is a brief moment where you can understand why Higgs has gone even crazier, but make no mistake, this isn’t a gray shades villain, he is evil, and I love it. In a world of elite villains that will stand the test of time, such as Bowser, Ganon, Sephiroth, GLaDOS, the Reapers, and now I would argue we can add Higgs to this catalog. He becomes one of the best villains I’ve seen in any video game.

The story of Death Stranding 2 does take time to get going, but specifically the last 35 to 40 percent of the game, it gets going quickly. There’s a theme I quickly found that revolves around human connection that reminds me of the questions we ask ourselves as we become increasingly involved with social media. The game’s slogan, “Should we have connected?” makes me think of the debate over whether social media is a net positive or negative. Death Stranding 2 tackles that in its own way, as loneliness and grief play a significant role. The gameplay tends to have you alone and there is an interesting struggle feeling alone but you have all these people that you’re connecting. I don’t want to spoil it, but there is a subplot near the end that seems to hint at the debate of human vs AI, and questions whether we keep going with new technologies. If you know what to look for, you can see Kojima telling us that, in the end, human connection and expression are the key. This is a very emotional story by the end. As a father, I teared up and felt the impact of the ending. I’ve teared up in a small handful of games, and this one had me tearing up three times pretty good. I still tear up when I watch the ending. This is one of the best finales, from the final boss fight to the credits, that I’ve played.

Gameplay, Design, and Sound

Death Stranding was known for its polarizing gameplay; oftentimes, people joked, calling it a walking or UPS simulator. Now, it's time to admit something: my experience with Death Stranding was watching a Let’s Play. I never got a chance to play it, but from what I saw on screen, the concept was interesting and the story hooked me. So this was my first time playing the main gameplay loop of the game myself, and I was worried it wouldn’t feel the same as watching it. Well, I can report that I dug it right away. There’s a vibe to the walks that I felt almost immediately, especially when we get needle drop moments with the music. More so, the game adds several new ways to make deliveries faster for those who don’t like walking to make deliveries. Vehicles and new ways to transport your cargo pop up much quicker than in the first game, and I think this will help draw people in who weren’t crazy about the gameplay loop in the previous title. There’s still plenty to watch out for, such as the environmental hazards and armed enemies, but it’s a more accessible experience.

The MVP of the gameplay loop for me is the social media-like systems in place. So you’re connected to a server when you play online, and other players can lay down ladders, climbing tools, weapons, and even help lay down roads to help you in your journey. You can “like” these findings, and others will see it. This is something I loved about the game. Every time I saw something others did, I would “like” it, knowing it would help them. I would see a bridge in the right place, and it was like I was getting help. This is the human connection aspect of the themes in the games. As they say several times, you’re never alone. You may feel alone, but others are setting up ways to help you, even if they're strangers.

Not everyone is going to help, however, as combat is a bigger part of this one compared to the first game. This time around, combat feels really nice, and I found myself excited when I took on a mission dealing with it. Between armed groups, ghost mechs, and BTs, you’ll have to stay on your toes. The ghost mechs are the most fun to fight, but can pack a punch if you’re not careful. BTs are easier to deal with compared to the first because you have ways to deal with them quicker, but you can get savaged by them pretty quickly if you get too cocky. Luckily, you can bypass a majority of them and other enemies by finding the right path, but as I said, I liked the combat enough that I didn’t always try to avoid a fight.

Boss fights can get pretty crazy in here. You’ll face some huge BTs that vary in form and danger, and they all give you that epic feeling I crave in boss battles. The final encounters leading up to the final fight get bigger and more epic in feeling. You can also bump into several bosses while exploring if you don’t mind going deep into heavily BT-occupied areas. The good thing is that when you defeat these huge BTs, you get a lot of chiralium, which goes a long way in upgrades and creating roads. The final boss fight is an experience in its own. I don’t want to spoil anything, but let’s just say the middle of the boss fight includes one hell of a rocking face-off, and I’ll keep it at that. It’s over the top, ridiculous, and awesome - it’s a Kojima boss fight.

This, of course, is all to connect the network, and you’ll meet numerous people along the way. A lot of cameos and likenesses of minor celebrities are used with these characters, some are recognizable musicians or directors. The wildest one for me is a VTuber, anime art, and personality, which took me by surprise. Some returns from the first game as well. Some are a bigger deal, like the Motherhood, who are essential to one of the subplots and include a character played by Debra Wilson. There are standard orders and aid orders you can take to get the highest “likes” from each of these clients and add a lot of hours to the game if you want to stay in this world for a long time. Myself, I would do some now and then, and I do plan to do some through the year, but if you want to focus on the main story, you can golden path it. That being said, these side orders do help expand your arsenal and can even unlock more songs to put in your music player.

The soundtrack, sound design, and feel are what wrap this game up in a bow. The music uses a lot of needle drops from various bands, which you can listen to again by using a music player you get for helping make a delivery early in the game. The score and soundtrack don’t feel tacked on, and every moment fits perfectly. The BB theme is used probably a little too much, but outside of that, the needle drop moments make sense, and the original score for characters and moments delivers. The Dualsense’s haptic feedback and small speaker add to the experience, and you can tell Kojima didn’t want that just to be there because it had to; he made it every bit part of the gameplay experience and journey.

Negatives

My main gripe with the game came twice, once near the midpoint and again right before the final acts started. These two times, the game took a good while before making significant progress on the main story, and the story beats began to feel like filler. It didn’t help that the deliveries themselves were long, and I found them a bit tough and time-consuming. The worst part was easily going up the mountain in the snow. This section sounds good on paper, but I found myself just hating it, and the long (and I do mean long) journeys up the mountain to make deliveries got old fast. I do think it shows realistically how hard it is to move in those conditions, but I didn’t like that section at all.

The other thing is that the main story beats do take long, and there are times I felt the gaps from one significant moment to another were too long. It does pick up significantly in what I would say is the last 35-40 % of the game, but when you’re in the middle of the game, you can start to feel the grind of some of these deliveries.

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Death Stranding 2 is ultimately a game with themes around human connection, grief, and loneliness, and does so while improving on every aspect of the first game. The deliveries are easier, the combat is better, and the boss fights are epic. Hideo Kojima delivers another thought-provoking and memorable story with characters that fit. The finale alone makes it a must-play, even if it does take you around forty-plus hours to get there. Troy Baker delivers the performance of his life, turning Higgs into an all-time villain. It’s a story that ends with an emotional moment that only increases if you’re a father. Kojima delivers yet another masterpiece as he uses the art of video games to teach us that we are truly never alone and that hope and connection will always be our greatest weapons. Should we have connected? I would say yes.

GOLD - ESSENTIAL

Silver - Recommend

Bronze - Okay

None - Don’t Recommend

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