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

Kojima Productions has consistently surprised players with each new game. Years ago, when they were under Konami and before spinning off into an independent company, they were surprising players with every Metal Gear Solid release. No one game in the series was the same; each was vastly different in approach, in how they played and in the story they told. Flash forward to 2025, and Kojima Productions has done it again. They’ve created a masterful project, once again surprising and delighting players. Only this time, they did what they’ve never done before, giving players a loyal sequel in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. It’s largely the same concept as its 2019 predecessor, but with refined ideas and a more cohesive narrative vision. Coincidentally, it’s also the best thing the studio has ever done.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach picks up soon after the events of the first game. Having successfully connected America, Sam Porter Bridges (played by Norman Reedus) must once again hit the road, this time travelling across the Australian wilderness to bring them online, connecting the chiral network further across the globe. He’s not doing it alone, journeying with friends old and new, and running into a few dastardly adversaries along the way.

The original Death Stranding was a story ahead of its time, featuring the reconnection of a country following an epidemic, mere months before COVID. While it had its fans, it also had its detractors who took one look at its outlandish lore dumping and over-stacked celebrity cast and struggled to take the game at face value and meet it on its terms. I say this because though I adored the hikes, journey and gameplay, I was one of those people. I’m the bigger person who can now admit how wrong I was, but it certainly helps with how refined, clearer and tidy the story is with On The Beach.

Characters are a lot more prominent this time around. While the prior entry was a more isolated experience, largely talking to figures strictly through hologram communication systems, you’ve joined up with Drawbridge, a grassroots crew designated to connecting Australia. Characters like Lea Seydoux’s Fragile, Heartman and Deadman return, interacting with many of them in the flesh and making more real connections than ever before. This is incredibly heartfelt and meaningful for several reasons; Norman Reedus’ Sam spends a majority of the first game suffering from Aphenphosmphobia, a condition that leaves him fearing being touched. Overcoming this barrier by the time Death Stranding 2 rolls around, his connection to Fragile and especially child Lou is more intimate than ever. He’s finally opened up to people and the world. Similarly, with the first game feeling incredibly reminiscent of COVID, it’s very apt to have you picking up the pieces of a global pandemic while it is still very much going on.

What this all results in is a fantastic concoction and piece of art, all about the formidable strength of the human spirit. Like its predecessor, as you embark across the great expanse on deliveries, you’re dealing in a quasi-social media system where characters in the universe, along with players rating each other’s structures, can provide each other likes and ratings. Licensed music aptly punctuates scenes and hikes, and now can be played via an in-game media player. Occupants of shelters are often hologram scans of celebrities (or just people director Hideo Kojima really respects).

All of these little flourishes and tidbits I found corny and a little hokey in the original game, but two games under the belt, it’s clear that’s the entire point. Engaging in thumbs up, reassuring everyone all is OK, as you’re often kicked down in the dirt or falling off cliffs in Death Stranding 2, is equivalent to people today forming connections and camaraderie online despite the political world state of 2025. Why wouldn’t you then cast a bunch of celebrities and familiar faces in a story about the remnants of humanity, encouraging your audience to latch onto anything familiar you still can? Kojima Productions, I finally understand and respect your vision.

Death Stranding 2 will truly compel its devoted Kojima fan audience with the unique odd reverence and disregard for everything that came before. For one, solid narrative and gameplay chunks of the experience make it feel like you’re essentially playing the non-existent Metal Gear Solid VI. Combat has a much higher emphasis this time around, and though that’s at times thematically in odds with its very pacifistic story, it’s quickly forgotten and brushed off easily enough. You mean even my grenade launcher ammunition that I’m raining hellfire on an encampment is non-lethal? Sure, why not? It works and marries well with the building structures of it all, allowing for situations where you can engage in delightful, chaotic sandbox fun as you use a cargo launcher to remotely fire and parachute explosive grenades into bases hundreds of miles away. This combat emphasis amalgamates into setpiece boss fights where you’re taking on BT ghost beasts thirty times your size, or a torrential wave of formidable soldiers.

The most enticing piece of this self-referentialism is in the ghost mechs and figures that are haunting Sam. Rising from under the ground from the land of the dead, ghost samurai and mechs, before long, become the assailants and a big opposing force next to the ghostly BTs. As Sam is being hunted by these forces, you suddenly feel like you’re Kojima, being haunted by the Metal Gear Solid property, something he can’t quite shake off. There’s a very P.T. nod in there too, not to mention the mysterious figure known as Neil, a bandana-clad soldier whose face keeps glitching into that of a skull, referential of the status of the Solid Snake franchise. Suddenly, Death Stranding 2 transforms into a thoughtful and very intense piece, all about fandom culture and the unbelievable expectations forced upon the auteur and his studio. Credit where credit’s due, this isn’t a type of exploration that we’ve seen in games before, let alone that of an AAA-level production.

Each delivery job you’re on tells its own story. Compared to every story beat, negative or positive, they’re unmatched compared to these moments. I think fondly back to the one where I trepidatiously was navigating a boatload of cargo on Sam’s back, scaling down a rocky mountain and shuffling as I do, barely keeping him upright before I reached a clearing where the saving grace of a delivery outpost awaited me. Zipline networks that players previously left helped navigate dicey cliffsides helped out immensely on a snowy mountain top, and I was able to lend a helping hand by adding one extra node in this network, helping myself and others clear far ground.

This is where the Death Stranding franchise is magical and feels special. Everything is interconnected. The ripples that you and other players make have an impact. Make fun of the infamous ‘Strand game’ term all you like, it’s got weight to it now, even inspiring other games. I love being a person of the people, helping out wherever I can and donating resources to structures, placing ladders up harsh inclines or building bridges over harsh rivers. If you do otherwise, you’re missing the entire point of the experience and not engaging with the game on its level.

Every human being should always be striving to leave the world better than they found it. Kojima Productions and Death Stranding know this with its mechanics of building efforts to make life easier for those who come after. It also further explores this through the newer, more unique type of delivery jobs you’re embarking on. Australia is home to a lot of unique fauna that you can rescue and take to animal preservation shelters. Kangaroos, Tasmanian Devils and the like are found out in the open world. Happen upon the unfortunate situation where you find a dead animal? You can create a commemorative resting spot for it. As an Aussie myself, you better believe it added to the reverence I took with these jobs.

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach has perhaps the best open world I’ve ever experienced. Long ago, there was a time when people’s complaints with open-world games were that they would feel empty. This isn’t necessarily a negative, nor is it probably the issue they actually had, but instead that the game didn’t quite know what to do with its empty open world. Kojima Productions is versed in making what you could argue as an empty open world engaging. That’s through the terrain and how you travel. Australia is a compelling open-world setting, offering vastly different engaging environments. Snowy cliffs make way to rolling sandy desert hills, jungle terrain and dry arid rocky hills. As an Australian resident actually familiar with how the country and its land functions, of course, there are moments I need to suspend disbelief. Still, for every oddity, there’s accurate Australian bush and the like to fawn over.

The tech that is hiding under the hood is perhaps the most impressive part of the sandbox design. How you stack packages on your back and tie them to your limbs, how the world remembers and retains where you dropped that piece of cargo that you could later go back to if you so wish… It’s undoubtedly demanding and tactile stuff. That was all in the prior entry, but I cannot fathom the game design headache that must’ve occurred when you add in the new open-world natural disasters and chaos that can occur mid-job. You’re witnessing earthquakes and avalanches that can see snow and rocks piling up around you, roaring bushfires that you must brave and floods that can wipe away structures at a moment’s notice. Open world games haven’t really been done like this before, and it teases a striking and immersive future to come.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is a game more about the journey than the destination. With every funky hoverboard, truck or bike you’re using to navigate the world, the purpose of it all comes in all the quiet moments.  Standing out over vast expanses and vistas, and seeing the entire country and all its beauty laid out before you. You know, the little things. This then weighs heavily in the game’s favour, and every minor grievance you have washes away. I could complain about how it’s more onboarding-friendly this time around and doesn’t kick you down or provide friction as much as the original does, but why would I bother when soaking in the vibes is just this good? Not every story beat is nailed to 100% perfection, but damn, there are some fantastic swings in this here game.