Death Stranding 2: On The Beach

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is ambitious art from a gaming legend, but I can't recommend it. Hideo Kojima deserves respect for pushing boundaries, yet this sequel doubles down on everything that made the first divisive—without fixing the fun deficit. Gameplay remains a slog: walking, balancing, menus, combat, BB management—all feel deliberately frustrating and joyless. The "meditative" chores turn into pure tedium. No real evolution; just more of the same over longer distances and bigger maps. Visuals dazzle, Woodkid's score shines, themes provoke thought, cast impresses, PC port excels technically. But polish can't save a core loop that provides zero pleasure. If the first hooked you as meditative genius, this will too—more scale, disasters, action. If you hated the premise, it'll feel worse. For €80, it's a hard pass unless you're already all-in on Kojima's vision. I play for enjoyment, not endurance. This is competent, ambitious, interesting—but fundamentally unenjoyable for me. One of my worst gaming slogs. Full French review: https://rogueh24.fr/test-du-jeu-death-stranding-2-on-the-beach/

[8/10] After a long period of silence and a lack of major exclusive releases on PlayStation, Sony console fans have finally received a true gem. Death Stranding 2 is an absolutely polished game—deeply engaging and virtually eliminating all the monotony of the first installment. This time, the campaign is a full-throttle ride packed with plot twists, emotional moments, and profound backstories for both new and returning characters. It’s a beautiful story about how each character’s personal tragedies brought them together on a shared mission to heal the world and reconnect scattered human settlements. Even if the story may seem nonsensical at times, don’t worry—everything comes together as the epilogue approaches.

Full Review:
https://bigbaddice.pl/death-stranding-2-recenzja

Kojima at his wildest. I like a lot of the goofy stuff Kojima does and with this one he goes nuts. It's got pizza kung fu and literal guitar battles. I enjoy the community aspect of this game and sharing items and buildings to help out other players. The gameplay is improved from the first game in a few aspects and this time around it gets you into the game so much faster with more combat and traversal options available sooner. I did have a problem with the progression of the outposts. Some level faster than others with no real indication as to why, making 5 star completion a pain in the ass. On top of that, half the time you are trying to complete a place you can't seem to find orders for them and only collect lost cargo that barely gets any likes. There is a lot more MGS feel to this game that works well IMO. I was enjoying the main loop of the game until I got into the mountain section and how frustrating that became I just mainlined the game after that. Story wise it's as crazy as ever, hard to follow and filled with holes. I think all the performances are extremely good, with Troy Baker delivering a very good performance, cheese and all. I do hope Kojima moves on from this series to something slightly more grounded.