Kojima Productions is a studio that’s up there with the top names in the games industry, and that level of reverence can largely be attributed to the excellent work that the team has done on the Metal Gear Solid franchise. Each entry in the series is a masterful work of art; something that will keep you thinking long after the credits roll. So when Kojima Productions parted ways with parent company Konami in 2015, fans were understandably stoked to see what the beloved video game auteur would do with his newfound creative freedom.
The first trailers of Death Stranding were just as ominous as we expected, and the concept of a strand-type game wasn’t really clear right up until the game’s release in 2019. It’s safe to say that Death Stranding was released to a polarizing critical reception, with some loving the concept of a strand-type game while others discarding it as a failed experiment.
Cut to the present, and many fans have jumped ship and completely flipped opinions on the game – and that simply is the magic of its immaculately detailed post-apocalyptic world and the slow-burn nature of its gameplay. As it stands now, Death Stranding 2: On The Beach is one of the most highly anticipated games of the near future. All we have seen is a short trailer that leaves us with more questions than answers, and that is precisely what I want from a sequel to a game that I love despite it being clearly out of my comfort zone.
You see, Death Stranding was far from a perfect game – and many of its flaws are clearly apparent from the bland writing to the poor pacing of the narrative and much more. But the post-apocalyptic world that it all takes place in has a special aura to it, and the fact that it largely reflects what we experienced during the pandemic adds so much more relatability to the whole affair. Isolated communities, death and suffering all around, and the inherent fear of forming bonds with others – these are the broad themes under which the world of Death Stranding operates. Many of these feelings would have felt almost alien or even fantasy-like in a pre-pandemic world, but cut to the present – and Death Stranding feels like a frighteningly accurate prediction of the future.
It was a first draft after all, and a really good one at that – and that is precisely why I am excited for Death Stranding 2: On The Beach. The first game had a nasty habit of subjecting players to exposition dumps, and while that kind of storytelling worked in a game like Metal Gear Solid where the constant bombardment of information perfectly mimics the feeling of falling down a rabbit hole of never-ending conspiracies – it doesn’t fly in a game like this one. The focus on building its world and explaining its concepts meant that its characters always played second fiddle, but now that most of the world-building has been done – Death Stranding 2 can instead focus on delivering a story that’s more personal to Sam than his mission of connecting communities and expanding the UCA.
What’s also interesting is how Death Stranding 2: On The Beach seems to be exploring more elements than just the post-apocalypse. Throughout the story trailer, we see elements like a fully healed Fragile, an older Sam Porter, and a potentially grown-up BB Lou, and those things strongly point towards the concept of multiverse, alternate realities, or a story that’s spread across multiple time periods. Kojima has himself stated that he scrapped the entire story of the sequel post-COVID to not further delve into the same elements, and that’s a really exciting prospect for starters.
In a similar vein, Death Stranding 2: On The Beach gets to work with a lot of feedback earned from players’ experience with the first game. The team now knows exactly what players liked about the gameplay, and what elements disrupted the balance leading to boring stretches of just hauling cargo from one point to the next. By carefully analyzing that feedback, the developers can hone in on the elements that worked and create a gameplay loop that seats you in the experience of being a lone survivor in this long-forsaken world.
The original had very few elements of action since the focus was on avoiding danger as much as possible, and it’s looking likely that Kojima and the team have changed their stance on the matter with the sequel. Just the beautifully eccentric fight sequence from the trailer is adequate proof of that notion, and further backing that sentiment is Sam’s voice actor Norman Reedus’ statement that the sequel is a lot more violent than the first game.
One of the things in Death Stranding that I am personally really excited about is the multiplayer aspect, especially how the developers choose to evolve the social strand system. For those unknown to the entire ordeal, players can see structures and supplies dropped by other players in their world through this multiplayer aspect of the game. It all might sound simple at first glance, but when you spot a recharge station built by someone else right when you are low on resources and all hope seems lost – such moments make the system extremely endearing to engage with.
It’s a system that rewards you with more visible structures across the world as you make bigger contributions toward shared goals, and the way that it’s all laid out is pure genius. That’s a really unique way of enabling cooperation between players in a world where solidarity is almost a requirement for ensuring safety, and it resonates with the game’s themes of connecting worlds through interactions. It’s almost a given that Death Stranding 2: On The Beach will build upon these elements in new and exciting ways – and while the specifics of those refinements are unknown at the moment, the prospect of all is more than enough to leave me and thousands of fans salivating to know more.
Between the possibilities of a much better story and more action-packed gameplay, Death Stranding 2: On The Beach might just end up being a worthy sequel that not only would appeal to a broader audience but also refine the elements that made the original so great in the first place. Like I previously said, the original was a rough first draft that had the markings of a great game, and the sequel is looking to be on track to fully realize that promise and show the true potential of a Strand-type game.
In conclusion, Death Stranding 2: On The Beach seems like an exciting prospect; it’s a sequel that will most likely build upon what came before while also alleviating the many frustrations that came along with that design. Despite the fact that most of its innovations remain unknown at this point, Death Stranding 2: On The Beach is definitely going to be at the top of my hotly anticipated games for next year – and hopefully we will get to know more about what’s in store with passing weeks and months.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.