Death Stranding 2: On the Beach review

If you're a seasoned porter, you'll be happy to know the narrative picks up right after the first game's finale. Sam is living out his days in the hills with Lou, his now all-grown-up (and utterly adorable, by the way) Bridge Baby. But, because this is Death Stranding, peace is about as stable as a stack of cargo in a gale. Something goes awry, and suddenly, you're tasked with connecting the entire continent of Australia to the Chiral network.

For the uninitiated, imagine a post-apocalyptic hiking simulator where your goal is to link isolated pockets of humanity via an invisible, supernatural internet. Sounds simple, right? Wrong. The story is anything but digestible at first glance, but it remarkably makes sense as you play. It's a concoction of the deeply philosophical and the utterly bonkers, often driven by its stellar music and background score that elevate key story moments. We’re talking characters whose names are quite literally their characteristics: Tarman, the ship's captain, due to his connection to the tar currents; and Dollman, a stop-motion doll hanging from your belt, much like Mimir from God of War, though Dollman is far more reserved, speaking only when absolutely required during gameplay and yapping away in cutscenes. Even if you haven't finished the first game, DS2 feels surprisingly standalone, though a quick YouTube recap of the first game’s plot might help you get your bearings in this brave new Australian world.

This game is a masterclass in random quirkiness. The quirkiness never stops and keeps things extremely interesting, both visually and for the story. Things are incredibly cinematic and cool, with a lot of inspiration clearly coming from movies. Chapter 5, in particular, looks absolutely crazy beautiful, pushing the limits of even the base PS5. You can sense Kojima's many interests within the game; his tastes in music, his interests in movies, and his choices of directors and actors are all very evident. He's put all his favourite actors and directors as cameos, and somehow, this whole thing comes together remarkably well, never feeling like a hodgepodge of nonsense.

Even Kojima's habit of tweeting regularly and being very active on social media is quite apparent in how he built the social aspect of Death Stranding 2. Messages from people you meet and connect to the Chiral network often share updates on the in-game social media, which also extends to a non-usable social network with other players. This works through a 'likes' system for appreciating a well-placed bridge, a helpful electric charger, or a well-positioned ladder. Things can even be shared with other gamers to complete specific tasks and deliveries, fostering a unique sense of community. The pace is generally very quick, with the story progressing after just a few deliveries, so you don't feel like your FedEx services are a slog.

Your biggest adversary in Death Stranding 2? Forget Higgs, forget the BTs for a moment – it's the damn terrain. Gravity and the unforgiving landscape are your constant companions, and mostly, your enemies. Navigating rocky slopes, rushing rivers, and sheer cliffs is a puzzle in itself, requiring careful planning of routes and judicious use of your traversal tools.

One of the pleasant surprises is how quickly the game gets going. Unlike its predecessor's leisurely narrative pacing, DS2 doesn't linger with long, slow-burning cutscenes at the outset. You're swiftly in the thick of it, trying to connect those disparate locations. However, I have to admit, the act of connecting various places can, at times, veer into the slightly tedious. It's a lot of walking, after all, and the only thing that makes the game a bit tedious is the fact every major mission cutscene is locked behind a 'one-more delivery' aspect of the game. Every time you think the story is picking up pace, the DHV Magellan (your main ship for moving the crew around) stops functioning, and you must connect a few facilities to progress further.

But then, just as you might start feeling like a glorified delivery person on an extended route, the BTs make their terrifying appearance. These ethereal, invisible entities inject a much-needed jolt of tension into the proceedings. The music, in particular, is an absolute masterstroke here. It seamlessly blends with the gameplay and cutscenes, morphing from ambient background scores to genuinely chilling tracks that make you feel like you're constantly being stalked, or worse, chased. Getting caught by these shadowy figures is no picnic; they'll drag you down into a black tar pit, and escaping their grasp is a frantic struggle that often ends in a messy demise. This constant threat elevates the otherwise mundane task of traversal into a thrilling, sometimes genuinely fear-inducing experience.

The menu system, accessed via a rather endearing and silly gesture of holding up a thumb with a ring, is a tad complicated. It's not so convoluted as to make a veteran Koei Tecmo player blink, but it will take some getting used to. Still, once you get the hang of it, you'll be optimising your cargo and planning your routes like a pro.

The boss fights are really fun! While a bit easy on normal difficulty, they are spectacular and truly enjoyable, whether you're facing a giant octopus mech or a weird giant head.

Then there’s the building aspect of the game. Constructing bridges and other important structures, and knowing that they will be used by other players, is a feeling no other game brings. It felt almost like Roblox or Roadcraft in that sense, because I love building stuff in video games, and although the game never uses traditional multiplayer co-op mechanics, I somehow felt I was with other players, building together as part of a community. Unlike Roadcraft, however, the game never offers a challenge that would truly taint your precious cargo. I also really enjoyed fixing the monorails!

Visually, Death Stranding 2 is a feast for the eyes. The graphics oscillate between stunning photorealism, especially in character models and environmental textures, and a more artistic, almost rendered quality in certain cutscenes and vistas. It creates a distinctive look that is both immersive and stylized. The desolate Australian landscapes are beautifully realised, from rugged mountains to vast, empty plains, making every step of your journey a visual spectacle.

The load times are literally a second! And the game looks gorgeous on our long term MSI MAG 321UP QD-OLED 4K monitor. I would recommend a big 4K display and a good pair of headphones or a home theatre system.

Yes, Death Stranding 2 has a convoluted story, but one that genuinely makes sense as you play. While the cutscenes are like tiny movie clips where Kojima is trying to fulfil his movie fantasies, the in-depth delivery and building mechanics, coupled with combat and traversal elements, make it an outstanding video game. It never forgets its video game roots for the sake of 'being more like a playable movie,' which is something many games are currently divided into. Nowadays, many big-budget games are either a Last of Us-esque single-player narrative, an Assassin's Creed open-world objective hunting experience, or a boss-rush Souls-like. Death Stranding 2 stands on top as a balanced diet of story, mission objectives, and a little bit of social sandbox. It's no wonder Kojima is such a celebrated game developer among the vocal fans.

In its best moments, the game offered me action to satiate my trigger-happy side (it can be done with stealth too!). It also made me calculate my resources to build effectively while traversing the map, taking into account that I wanted to avoid a trackback from my mission area to a nearby facility. This is something work-from-home folks will face daily while going out for grocery shopping, and it genuinely intrigued me with a story that is random but digestible this time around. In all honesty, if I was not rushing the main story to complete this review, I would've taken my time, made a music playlist in the game (yes, you can do that!), and gone objective hunting and building bridges for other players. It's truly remarkable that you can pick your pace in this game, from chasing the story to completing missions or simply walking around fixing Australia for all fellow porters.