Hello. I’m Simon, and I’ll be reviewing Death Stranding 2: On the Beach for IGN. As you probably know, the response to the original Death Stranding was varied to say the least, so I thought it would be helpful to provide a bit of context regarding my own feelings about the 2019 sci-fi epic before hearing my thoughts on the sequel.
I didn’t review Death Stranding for IGN – that was the job of the excellent Tristan Ogilvie, and you can read his thoughts here. His score of 6.8 isn’t anywhere close to the most negative assessment Death Stranding received at launch, but it’s also far from the glowing praise some others bestowed upon it. As I said, verdicts were varied, and I’m about to add yet another to that mix. Opinions are inherently subjective, especially when it comes to art, so naturally my thoughts on Death Stranding differ from Tristan's, albeit not by too much. This is not a re-review, so you won’t get a different score here, but let me explain what I did and didn’t like about the original.
Let’s start with the story, arguably the most complex and divisive aspect of Death Stranding. It’s the element I enjoyed the most, as I fully embraced its ever-increasing glossary of fresh sci-fi terminology and ended up quite connected to its core cast of characters. I think it's definitely the sort of experience that rewards you the more you put into its world, and while it can prove a little impenetrable during its slower, earlier hours, I really did end up fully invested by its final act. Sam’s connection to Lou, as well as the dynamic between Cliff Unger and Die-Hardman, especially resonated with me. Die-Hardman’s final scene, brilliantly brought to life by Tommie Earl Jenkins, is one of the most affecting performances in a video game that I can remember. That’s not to say that the rest of the cast aren’t also fantastic; I could lay on praise for all of them, ranging from Margaret Qualley’s dual roles to Lea Seydoux’s complicated Fragile. I’m looking forward to seeing new faces join them this time around, in particular Elle Fanning’s enigmatic Tomorrow, and I’m willing to go on the record as saying I don’t trust her at all.
Yes, there’s a huge scale here in its world-ending events and giant oil monsters, but this is the sort of sci-fi and post-apocalypse fiction I really connect with – grand, global stories rooted in deeply personal tales, a la Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival or Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Death Stranding delicately balances moments of wonder, whether they be colossal looming threats or simply walking over the crest of a hill to a dose of Low Roar, with one-on-one conversations that anchor that grandeur in relatable humanity. It’s those very human themes of birth, death, hope, and grief that we can all relate to, and I enjoyed greatly how these shone through, no matter how much alien language was thrown my way over the 40 or so hours its tale takes to tell.
In terms of gameplay, it looks like we’ll be getting more of that MGS-flavour tactical espionage action from Death Stranding 2, if recent hands-on previews are anything to go by. This excites me greatly, because no matter how much I enjoyed the original’s story, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find the act of actually playing Death Stranding a slog at times. In fact, it’s what made me bounce off of it when it first released back in 2019. On my first go around, I got just a handful of hours in before deciding all that walking just wasn’t working for me. Its routine of setting out for a hike, crossing rivers and mountains, before eventually reaching nothing more exciting than a delivery location became tiresome for me very quickly, especially during its laborious (and seemingly never-ending) third chapter.
But I’m very glad I gave it another shot a couple of years ago, this time playing the Director’s Cut to completion, as I found myself having a much more enjoyable time with it. That new version’s addition of deeper combat and new delivery tools, such as the companion bot and catapult, introduced some much-needed variety into the mix. Plus, the fact that many half-built highways, helpful ladders, and convenient bridges already existed in the world thanks to the online Chiral network definitely made the journey a lot smoother than it was at launch. The further I got into the game and the more my collection of tools grew, the more fun I found myself having. I bombed along on a motorcycle and enjoyed setting up zipline systems to dart around with ease. I’m hopeful that many of these more convenient delivery options are available from the get-go in Death Stranding 2.
Travelling across Death Stranding’s world was ultimately rewarding, then, but I still can’t say I ever fully clicked with its combat. Yes, I did have a good laugh chucking blood and piss grenades at a big oily lion, but I largely found its BT encounters a bit of trudge. It meant that I avoided conflict as much as I could – a perfectly valid way to play Death Stranding, but one that did result in me letting out a groan every time it started to rain. I also found myself largely dodging human enemies, too, with their yellow hazmat suits often signifying tedious stealth situations. I’m encouraged, then, that Death Stranding 2 looks to be quite a bit more action-heavy in the way it's expanding your arsenal and enabling you to deal with threats in more dynamic ways. While I’m not asking for Sam to become a super soldier able to take waves of enemies head-on, I am looking forward to wielding a bit more firepower this time around instead of opting to skirt around the edges of combat.
So, the TLDR version is that I really enjoyed the world of Death Stranding and its characters, but didn’t find the moment-to-moment gameplay consistently rewarding. I liked it, just didn’t love it. I am very excited to jump back in with Death Stranding 2, though – from what we’ve seen so far, it does look like the story is packed full of intrigue again, and that we’ll be treated to the sort of spectacle that rarely gets created outside of Kojima’s studio walls. I’m just hoping it has the gameplay to match its cinematic ambitions this time around, and doesn’t make the gaps between its gloriously sculpted cutscenes as much of a chore. I guess we’ll all find out when my review of Death Stranding 2 drops on June 23rd.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.
