Death Stranding 2: On The Beach Review
“Sunsets on a Wilder Frontier” Written by: Hunter (@ReaperHunter23)
When I finished Death Stranding back in 2019, I don’t think I was expecting a sequel. My notion was proven wrong in the following few years. Death Stranding 2: On The Beach went on to be revealed in late 2022 with a suitably esoteric tone setter of a trailer. Since then it has been one of those games that I was very excited to play, but for some reason was expecting it to still be further down the line than it was. Well the game is out now so let’s see what kind of ride it takes us on.
Image Credit: Kojima Productions, Playstation
The story of Death Stranding 2 picks up around a year after the events of the first game. Sam Porter Bridges has left the UCA and lives alone with his child in some remote part of Mexico. The story is kicked off when Fragile shows up at his door and asks him to bring a selection of areas in Mexico onto the Chiral Network. It is quickly revealed that due to the events of the first game, a doorway to another continent, referred to as a plate gate, has appeared at the southern tip of Mexico. Once Sam links Mexico onto the Chiral Network , he is cajoled into stepping through the plate gate to link up the next continent.
The story of Death Stranding 2 does a good job at distilling what worked in the first game down to its key elements and building upon them. Things such as the wacky characters and fever dream adjacent story moments are all still present, but elements such as the BTs and the looming threat of extinction are pushed more into the set dressing rather than something anyone is going to spend thirty minutes explaining to you. It still probably could have done with more happening in the middle portion of the game, but I still had a good time overall.
I really enjoyed the cast of this game. Sam himself is a bit more lively in this game. Fragile gets to flourish in her new role of mission command. The new characters such as: Tarman, Dollman, and Rainy all have interesting contributions to the team with appropriately intriguing stories. By the end of the game, the whole crew came across like believably close friends. Especially the friendship between Fragile, Tomorrow, and Rainy.
Generally speaking, I think the story of Death Stranding 2 serves as a cool thematic companion to the first game. In the first game, the world was barely holding it together and the prevailing feeling as you traveled was a deep sense of isolation. In Death Stranding 2, humanity has started to get its footing back. Almost every prepper you run into has some kind of new gadget to help you deal with BTs and it seems like society is well on its way to adapting and overcoming the setbacks sent its way. Some of the preppers even have little side stories attached to them in a manner that made me more interested in engaging with them beyond the initial meeting.
Image Credit: Kojima Productions, Playstation
Similarly to the story, Death Stranding 2’s gameplay takes the foundation laid down by the first game and builds upon it pretty excellently. The general gameplay loop is the same. You are still delivering cargo from place to place in a cross-continental trek. The key difference is that it is a lot easier to get your footing in this game. I feel like the toolset you are granted is much more vast and I found a much more frequent use case for a lot of the things that were being offered to me.
I think the most prevalent example of this is the combat that’s present in the game. In the first game, I didn’t particularly like engaging with the combat at all. Whether it was Mule Camps or BTs, I would tend to just run through them whenever possible rather than stopping to fight. In Death Stranding 2, you are given the means to deal with your human threats without having to worry about heinous repercussions like you did in the first game. The game gives you a pretty adequate arsenal of guns to use when dealing with Brigands. The shooting felt really good, and taking out an enemy base would reward you with supplies pretty handsomely.
BTs are way less of an issue in this game as well. For starters, they don’t show up as often. And secondly: you are given a variety of ways to fight them. Blood Grenades were my go to whenever I ran across a BT area. It usually only took 2 or 3 of them to kill one. And if I ran out of Blood Grenades, the guns I was carrying could also damage them. This does make BT encounters way less tense than they used to be but I do think it makes sense from a gameplay-story integration point of view.
The movement from place to place in the game feels how you would expect it to. You still press the shoulder buttons to keep your balance if your stack of cargo starts veering off to one side and you are still liable to faceplant if Sam stubs his toe on a rock that is too far out of the ground. As far as methods of transportation are concerned,all of the old favorites from the first game return. The motor cycle, Off-Roader, and zipline all make a comeback. They each receive some form of upgrade as well. The motor cycle can be loaded up with extra batteries. The Off-Roader can be fitted with a sticky cannon that retrieves cargo for you. And I think the Zipline gets the best addition. Aside from the ziplines you can lay down yourself, the continent also has a monorail system you can work towards restoring that is zipline compatible. It made moving from one end of the map to the other so satisfying in the later parts of the game.
In general, Death Stranding 2 is much easier than the previous game. This is a bit of a double edged sword. On one hand, there was something that felt undeniably great about being at the end of a difficult hike in the first game. It felt like there were more stakes attached to how you chose to go about your deliveries. On the other hand: I feel like this game being a little easier made me engage with more of the systems they presented with me. I built way more roads, and structures than I did in the first game. This because I was more inclined to participate in the enemy camps, which led to me having a dragon’s hoard of materials at my disposal for most of the game. I was also inclined to go the extra step for that stray bit of cargo in the distance. I didn’t make it a point to max out all of the preppers, but I did hit a point where a lot of them were sitting at 4 and a half stars.
Image Credit: Kojima Productions, Playstation
Death Stranding 2 is an audio and visual spectacle. When it comes to the overall presentation, there’s no one who does it quite like Kojima Productions. Everything from cinematography, to shot composition, to the character performances, and the score are all so unique. This game has a guy that is a doll that moves in stop motion.The other character models are not to be scoffed at either. As a whole they are all an impressive step forward from Death Stranding 1. These have got to be the most expressive characters I’ve ever seen brought to life by facial capture. The performances in general are really great in this game. Norman Reedus has a little more life to him as Sam this time around. Tomorrow doesn’t speak that often but when she does it is well delivered. Troy Baker puts on the performance of his life in this game. Luca Marinelli turns in a stellar performance as well.
The environmental designs in this game are excellent. The visuals border on lifelike anytime the game decides to have any landscape shots in the cinematics. The variety of environments is a nice change of pace as well. Sam’s deliveries take him across deserts, through canyons, and even through some lush forested areas. And of course, a couple of overcast coastlines as well. The addition of wild life really helps color in the world as well. It just adds that extra bit of contrast from the first game to illustrate that the world is healing in some fashion.
The music in this game was so eclectic and well done. Whether it was the score from Ludwig Forssell, the thematically relevant uses of licensed tracks, or the songs that Woodkid contributed to the game, they all ring wonderfully as the backing track to the events that unfold before you. I could see an argument for saying that they might have overdone it with the needle drops this time. I’m not particularly bothered because when the music hits, it hits like a truck. So many of the scenes I think about from this game will be intrinsically linked to the music that was accompanying them. Some of my favorites include: Rainy’s theme, Any Love Of Any Kind, and that piano song that plays during main order 22.
Image Credit: Kojima Productions, Playstation
Summary
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach is a must play if you are a fan of the first game or really enjoy it when games aren’t afraid to be weird and commit to a vision. It took the foundations laid by the first game and expanded on almost every element for the better. The meditative gameplay loop connected so well with the story, which was held up by a great cast and top notch presentation. All of these elements weaved together to keep my interest in trekking down the path less traveled.