Death Stranding 2: On the Beach review — a stunning triumph
The 61-year-old Japanese games designer made his name at Konami in the Nineties by creating the influential Metal Gear Solid franchise. A messy separation in 2015 led him to establish his own studio. The world expected another game like Metal Gear Solid; instead we got the divisive Death Stranding (2019), a post-apocalyptic walking simulator hailed as a masterpiece by some. Others, including me, thought it painfully meandering and pretentious.
Now we have a sequel worthy of the masterpiece mantle (and despite that awful subtitle, On the Beach). Kojima has tweaked tons but has done so without sacrificing emotional complexity and beautiful writing. Death Stranding 2 is simply more engaging to play than its predecessor. He still doesn't want the game to appeal to everyone, though — and it won't. It's self-indulgent and filled with his famous buddies such as the Hollywood director George Miller (Mad Max). It remains bizarre and complicated but this is Kojima at his outrageous best.
It's set 11 months after Death Stranding. Our hero, Sam (The Walking Dead 's Norman Reedus), has lost his job as a porter. He hides away with his adopted daughter, Lou, cleaning up her toys and wandering the mountains of Mexico. He's reunited with his pal Fragile (Léa Seydoux) but things go awry.
Haunted by visions and grief, Sam goes to Australia via a strange portal. Like the rest of the world, the country is now a desert. Society is fragmented. People mostly appear as holograms. Spectral ghouls called Beached Things lurk in the rocks. Sam is tasked with connecting everyone to the Chiral network — this game's internet — by delivering goods to their camps.
With connectivity comes knowledge and so the villains know where people are now. That means conflict and a new emphasis on action, something the first game sorely missed. Aside from traipsing across harsh terrain (which requires careful planning), Sam is armed with shotguns and grenades to wipe out bandit camps. There are shades of Kojima's Metal Gear Solid V in the tactical espionage and stylish shootouts.
There are also spectacular battles against giant mechs and monsters, and thrilling set pieces such as a race on a futuristic bike through a burning forest to rescue a kangaroo. Kojima's games are always entrenched in cinema — here we get Denis Villeneuve (Dune) in the sweeping camera shots and David Lynch in the abstract horror. Death Stranding 2 is stunning and everything the first game should have been.
★★★★★
Available on PlayStation 5 from June 26
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