Death Stranding 2: On The Beach

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach is an all-time great sequel and one of Hideo Kojima's best games. With a stunning world, greatly expanded gameplay and player choice, and one of Kojima’s most compelling casts and narratives, it significantly improves on the original in virtually every way.

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.

And after all, shouldn’t we leave this world better than we found it?

The whole experience is equal parts relaxing and thrilling. Going on deliveries and taking in the beautiful environments along with your music player is captivating. The times when players have to fight are excellent because of the incredible controls. It seemed like a challenging task, but the work that Kojima Productions put into their sequel is something special. While topping the original is tough, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach makes it seem like an easy task.

It has been a little under six years since the original Death Stranding came out and much has changed since. We’ve seen the world go through political and economic turmoil, a pandemic, and so much more. Maybe that’s part of what makes Death Stranding 2: On the Beach so interesting in 2025. Where Kojima and his team once told us a story of connections in the original game, its sequel questions the dangers of those connections, exploring the pain they can cause us and even how they can be used to manipulate us. The story is an overflowing well of ups and downs, shaped by improved gameplay and co...

Hideo Kojima’s 2019 game Death Stranding is arguably one of the most divisive games in recent years. A game that bucked AAA trends and delivered something truly unique, and something that wasn’t for everyone at the same time. Some at WayTooManyGames absolutely loved the game (mostly just me), whilst others are mostly indifferent and just missing out on something different in a sea of clones.

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach is a sequel that fulfils all the promises of the first game and smooths out the many rough edges the first entry suffered from.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach continues the story of Sam Bridges, living in isolation with a toddler version of his BB from the first game, Lou. Early on in Death Stranding 2, events are set in motion that force Sam back into the "porter" game, and he finds himself delivering packages to various communities across open world Mexico and Australia. Sam is recruited by his old friend Fragile and the two soon start building a crew of allies to travel across the world on a huge ship called the DHV Magellan. Going into too much detail would spoil the experience for players, but rest assured that D...

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach takes everything you loved about the first game to the next level, but doesn't go out of its way to attract those who might have disliked it.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach builds on the foundations of the original, but adds whole new wings with a different vibe. This tarpunk delivery epic is more Metal Gear Solid than ever, for better and worse – but it well serves series fans like me. Charmingly bizarre with its worldbuilding and spectacle, there's still a real sense of community as you bring the world online with other players at your side.

2012’s Far Cry 3 is undoubtedly one of the most influential games of the HD era. It wasn’t the first open-world action game of course, but its enormous critical and commercial success quickly made it the blueprint for just about any and every such release that followed.

Death Stranding 2 keeps the spirit of the original by continuing to be a game about deliveries. However, it threw away its soul by removing any and all friction involved in those deliveries. Instead of overcoming obstacles, the most direct path rarely has any, and the entire game is designed to allow you to ignore its core gameplay loop without engaging with what the game actually is. I can’t overstate just how disappointed I am with this sequel.