Death Stranding 2: On the Beach was featured heavily during Sony’s January State of Play presentation. The PlayStation 5 sequel is coming out in 2025, but while it’s still over a year away, we did learn a lot about it in the nearly 10 minutes of new footage from the show. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, for a game helmed by Hideo Kojima, a lot of it seems incomprehensible out of context, we can still break down what we know so far. So let’s head to the beach and dive into Death Stranding 2.
The cast is full of new and old faces
Kojima Productions loves to cast big-name actors in its projects, and Death Stranding 2 continues this tradition. Returning cast members Norman Reedus, Lea Seydoux, and Troy Baker will reprise their roles as Sam, Fragile, and Higgs, and have appeared extensively in the sequel’s early trailers. Elle Fanning, Shioli Kutsuna, Mad Max director George Miller, and filmmaker Fatih Akin join the cast as new characters. Director Hideo Kojima has confirmed that Mads Mikkelsen will not return as Clifford Unger, which is probably not a surprise to anyone who finished the first game.
The story will see Sam building bridges again
We still don’t know a lot about the minutiae of Death Stranding 2’s story, but broadly, it follows Sam as he attempts to connect another part of the world. The first game was all about America, whereas the sequel takes things to Mexico, where people “are all spread out, cut off from one another” due to the titular Death Stranding phenomenon, as Fragile describes. She’s working for a civilian outfit called Drawbridge, which looks to bring the world together in the same way the logistics company Bridges did for America in Death Stranding. Throughout Sam’s journey, he’ll meet some new allies like a living puppet (Akin), and be reunited with old enemies like returning antagonist Higgs who fights with a guitar. It kinda rules. There’s still no word on whether Geoff Keighley’s Ludens Fan will return or not.
Death Stranding 2 will bring back the delivery and shooting elements
As we saw in the latest trailer, On the Beach looks like it features a lot of the same gameplay elements as the original. Most of Sam’s journey is spent delivering packages across treacherous territory, whether that danger comes from the terrain, the elements, otherworldly monsters, or killer robots. The State of Play showcased some stealth and shooting elements, as well, but didn’t linger on them for very long. There are also a few shots of Sam driving vehicles around, so hopefully, some deliveries won’t just have you moving around on foot. Will the piss bomb return? Only time will tell. We can almost certainly expect the original game’s asynchronous multiplayer elements to return, as well, through which players can help each other by building useful structures, leaving ladders in handy spots, and otherwise helping to make crossing the difficult landscape a little easier.
Death Stranding 2 will launch next year on PlayStation 5
For the moment, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is a PlayStation 5 exclusive. However, that might not be the case for long. The original Death Stranding started out as a PS4 game in 2019 under Sony, then was ported to PC in 2020 with 505 Games publishing. So while there’s no confirmation that this is the plan for the sequel, there’s precedent for Death Stranding 2 to come to other platforms after the PS5 version launches in 2025.
