A Super Fan’s Review of Death Stranding 2: On The Beach

I have often joked that I am the world’s biggest, and only, Death Stranding fan. And while it’s mainly a joke, I am genuinely a massive fan of the first game. Something about Death Stranding’s story of isolation, connection, and extinction resonated with me, even before the pandemic. I loved organizing my cargo loadout, planning the route, and trekking across the country on foot.

To this day, it has my favourite gameplay loop. Delivering packages to collect resources to then build highways and structures that will, in turn, make deliveries easier—every mechanic builds into the next in an ever-expanding series of meaningful rewards. I don’t think I’ve ever felt the same sense of accomplishment in a game as when I fully connected the map with ziplines.

I have hundreds of hours in the game across several playthroughs and an unnecessary amount of lore knowledge. I could easily spend 5,000 words digging into every detail of DS2. But that would not only bore most people to the point of voiding out, it would cause MobileSyrup’s editor-in-chief to never let me write a review again. Instead, I’ll share my perspective on whether this is a worthy sequel for fans. And that can be summed up pretty easily.

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach is not the sequel I was hoping for.

I love walking

Death Stranding 2 is what I’d call a safe sequel. It expands on the traversal and combat mechanics from the first game in interesting ways, but fails to meaningfully offer anything new to the experience.

I won’t complain about getting more Death Stranding, though. Over my 60-some hours in the game so far, I’ve had a blast creating perfect routes to connect the various outposts across the game’s fictional version of Australia. It was meditative and satisfying in the first game, and it’s just as satisfying here. I’ve built highways, ziplines, catapults, and so much more to deliver cargo as safely and efficiently as possible—and I’ve loved every moment of it. At least when I’m out running deliveries.

The world is beautifully realized, with epic vistas rendered at a near-flawless 60 frames per second (fps). Even with roaring fires, dense vegetation, and detailed textures all on screen at once, things go off without a hitch.

The environments are far more varied this time ‘round, with deserts, rainforests, mountains, and more offering plenty of visual diversity. Paired with the new natural disasters, such as sandstorms, forest fires, and earthquakes, the next moment of spectacle is never more than a few hundred meters away.

But just because there are new regions and disasters doesn’t mean that they meaningfully change how the game is played. I was able to get through nearly every region and objective using the same strategies and equipment. Not once in my playthrough did one of the natural disasters affect the route that I was going to take, or even cause damage to me. There was one story mission that heavily suggested I take a unique piece of equipment to deal with one of the elements, but I was simply able to drive past it without issue.

These are largely visual in nature, as opposed to meaningful changes to the world itself. I was never swept away by a flood, surrounded by a fire, or cut off by a landslide. And that’s honestly a big disappointment. Hurt me more, Kojima.

However, I wish that the developers added an option to adjust the amount of screen shake that earthquakes cause. I know they wanted them to feel powerful, but I had to close my eyes every time one happened just to avoid motion sickness. Not that type of pain, please.

I can’t complain too much, though. Whether running, driving, zipping, flying, or any other method of transport, I had a blast moving through the world. By the 30-hour mark, I had a full arsenal of gear that not only included nearly everything from DS1’s Director’s Cut, but a bunch of new items as well. I don’t want to get into spoilers, but the new vehicles and wearables are awesome.

Metal Gear vibes

The same can be said for the weapons and combat. While combat was a weakness of the original game, it has been vastly improved here. I’m sure nearly every review will be saying the same thing, but the Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain vibes are strong with this one. The stealth feels tight, the weapons are punchy, and the loop of stealing cargo from camps to use for improving highways and railways is endlessly satisfying.

However, it’s not all Snakes and rainbows in combat land. The enemy AI never felt like it was particularly adaptive, generally just swarming the location of the nearest sound. And on more than a handful of occasions, the enemies got stuck on doorways and other objects in the environment, allowing for free takedowns. The screenshot above shows an example of an enemy getting stuck in a wall. These types of issues could be fixed with the incoming day one patch.

Thankfully, the stealth takedowns, enemy variety, and Sam’s varied arsenal more than make up for these shortcomings. And that’s a good thing, because you’ll likely be spending a lot more time in combat this time around. As long as I had my tranquillizer, silent assault rifle, and [redacted weapon] in hand, I felt unstoppable in the best way.

Someone give Woodkid a raise

One change that will make returning players happy is the inclusion of a music player. Though not given right out of the gate, the ability to play music while out on missions is a definite upgrade thanks to some incredible tracks that fit the mood of the game perfectly.

Woodkid delivers an album’s worth of killer tracks that will live on my playlists indefinitely. I highly recommend checking out the game’s main track, To The Wilder, but some of my favourite songs are buried in areas of the game that some players may never touch. If you pick the game up at some point, please try the VR challenges to get a taste of what Physint’s infiltration tracks could sound like. It’s unreasonably good.

The music player is unavailable, though, when not connected to the grid or when nearing enemies such as BTs. Oh right, BTs.

For those that have played the first game, you’ll probably remember BTs—the invisible floating enemies that attack if they hear you breathe. They make a return in DS2, but outside of an early section of the game, they really don’t play much of a factor. Not only are they far more rare than in the first game, but they can be taken out so easily that they don’t really pose a threat. That’s not a complaint though—BT encounters quickly lost their luster after the opening hours in the original as well. In my book, this is a change for the better.

But what about the story?

There’s one other obvious element of Death Stranding 2 that I’ve avoided discussing so far: the story. Why would I leave it until the end of the review? Well, the answer is simple.

I didn’t like the story.

And this is coming from someone who loved the narrative in Death Stranding 1. Yes, the story in the original was slow to start. And yes, it was a bit heavy on the exposition—okay, very heavy. But it had so many fascinating ideas. By the end of the adventure, I was deeply invested in the story of Sam, Die-Hardman, Cliff, and the world they inhabited.

I could tell you all about extinction entities, timefall, bridge babies, the UCA, and DOOMS. I read every journal entry, every email, and soaked up every cutscene, no matter how dense they were with proper nouns.

But the story in Death Stranding 2: On The Beach doesn’t manage to recapture that magic. It’s disconnected, simultaneously too heavy with its foreshadowing and consistently pulling the rug out from under the player. Major plot twists are either seen a mile away or could never have been predicted because the information wasn’t provided to the player until after the fact.

It doesn’t trust the player, needing to spoon-feed them every piece of information. Let me give you an example without any story spoilers.

You may have seen a puppet in the trailers for DS2 that appears as if it’s animated using stop-motion. He’s a character named Dollman, and he’s one of Sam’s main companions throughout his journey. His main role in the game is that of exposition master. After every cutscene, Dollman will say, “Sam, what you just saw was…” and will continue to explain what you just watched so that there can be absolutely no uncertainty. This is probably a reaction to the confusion from players in the first game, but DS2 already covered this with the inclusion of a real-time glossary.

The cutscenes are gorgeously rendered with possibly the best motion capture we’ve ever seen in a game. The choreography and cinematography are stunning, capturing the scale and intensity of conflict, while beautifully framing the quieter moments. Paired with Woodkid’s powerful music, there are moments that really caught my attention.

If only the trailers for the game didn’t spoil so many of the best scenes. Or if I actually cared about the characters.

Where do I start with the characters? They aren’t people. They aren’t even archetypes. The actors do their best with what they are given, but I couldn’t forget that these were actors on a motion capture soundstage. The writers give each of them one trait, one tragic moment that defines them, and expect us to latch onto them. Even after all of the hours aboard the DHV Magellan, I couldn’t tell you more than one or two things about any of them.

The game’s tagline asks the question, “Should we have connected?” And the answer is painful: I wish I could.

Death Stranding 2 is half the game I wanted it to be

Death Stranding 2 is a sequel in every sense of the word. It is a continuation and expansion of the first game. It builds on the mechanics and introduces a few new ones. But given how innovative—and divisive—the first game was, I was hoping for more than just additional Death Stranding.

I’ll probably put dozens of more hours into the world of Death Stranding 2: On The Beach as I continue to connect the continent. It is still unique in what it offers and I love it for that.

I just wish that the story made me feel something. Anything.

Image credit: Sony