Death Stranding 2: On the Beach — Kojima’s Emotional, philosophical Odyssey Returns

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach developer Kojima Productions publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment release date 26th June, 2025 Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is a upcoming 2025 action-adventure game developed by Kojima Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It is a sequel to Death Stranding, and written, produced, and directed by Hideo Kojima. New-gen third-person persctive survival game. As the title implies, the game goes full survival mode where players will need to complete various tasks also meet a number of surviving challenges in order to stay alive on a treacherous deserted beach.

Players play as a man named Samuel Porter Bridges, also known simply as Sam, who is a baggage carrier. He is a legendary porter as well as a member of Bridges who plays key role in the east-west expansion of the Chiral Network across the United Cities of America. Sam is the top porter at Bridges. He was dubbed a superhuman, after lifting such loads (which went up to 120 kilogram) without having such an exoskeleton support! He could even carry freight to locations of the harshest elements.

Story and Setting

Story and Setting

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is mainly based in Australia and Mexico. The timeline is set between 11 months after the events of Death Stranding. The text adventure in the game goes as follows:

The Repatriate's Journey: A Story of Connection

You are Sam, who was born under some very strange circumstances, being the son of Clifford Unger and Lisa Bridges. And you seem to be connected somehow to these bizarre occurrences about the globe. Cliff, your father, tried to save you--his unborn baby—by giving you up into the hands of the Bridges scientists after a tragic event. Unknown to him, they planned to turn you into the first Bridge Baby—a subject for a new communication network. But fate intervened. A former friend exposed their true colors and Cliff, in a desperate bid to save you was shot! Both you and he perished.

Yet, death was not the end. In the inscrutable Beach world, someone named Amelie saved you from that place of death and gave you a second chance at life- -and with it, years later still another: to return to your loved ones alongside her. As a Bridge Baby, you were no longer suitable for use and brought up by Bridget Strand as her son, Sam Strand. But in doing so, your resurgence sent shockwaves through the balance of life and death, resulting in the catastrophic event known as Death Stranding.

Ever since you were a child, you've been plagued by DOOMS: mysterious abilities that have led you to have horrifying nightmares and be out of sync with the rest of mankind, pushing you further than what would normally consider sane. Amelie was always there, a lighthouse to calm you and guide you back. You made her a quipu back in the living world, a material representation of her connection to you and gave it to her even on the beach.

At some point you came onto Bridges, with your DOOMS and repatriatehe habilities becoming essential things to it. You met a nice psychotherapist, Lucy, who attempted to help you get over your extreme case of aphenphosmphobia (a fear of being touched). You fell in love, got married, and even produced a daughter, Louise. But the crutch of DOOMS patients, channel through you was more than Lucy could stand. She committed suicide, and your unborn daughter with her. Her death resulted in a massive Voidout in an outlying town, and you are the only survivor, suspect number 1. Drowning in public pressure and guilt, you left Bridges behind to roam the freelance porting life and distancing yourself from society. Your old colleagues thought maybe it was your way of making amends.

Rejoining Bridges: The Call to Reconnect

For ten years, traversed the desolate country, becoming a hero as "The Legend" and "The Great Deliverer." On one such occasion, during a delivery to Central Knot City, you meet with Fragile of the Fragile Express. Her touch, a trauma that helps trigger your aphenphosmphobia, ironically saves you as you run from the Beached Things (BTs). Igor Frank and a Bridges Corpse Disposal Team driver greet you after your delivery. Igor excitedly enlists your help transporting a necrotizing suicide patient to the nearest incinerator. On the way you’re ambushed by BTs and get rained on with Timefall. Igor, in despair, flings his Bridge Baby to you and is devoured by a massive BT conjured by Higgs that triggers an apocalyptic Voidout. You repatriate back to the huge crater, where five floating figures are briefly visible for stasis.

You wake up in a private room of Capital Knot City. Deadman gives you an important assignment: take the morphine to your dying mother, President Bridget Strand, for a last visit. Here in the Isolation Ward, Bridget's final moments continue to try and persuade you to take up where Amelie left off: launching a westward expedition intended to reunite America. You could care less about the country, yet in her final breaths Bridget lunges from her deathbed and seals you to this epic deed.

In order to avoid more necrosis and the forming of a BT, you hoist Bridget's body up on your shoulder, and take it to the Incinerator West of Capital Knot City. The fire raises the Chiralium level, which leads to BT apparitions. You also trance link back to Igor’s Bridge Baby in defiance of the decommission order, which enables you to see the more invisible types of BTs and sneak your way through them back to Capital Knot City.

It’s there that you encounter Die-Hardman and a holographic Amelie. They fill you in on the state of play: Amelie’s been captured by the Homo Demens in Edge Knot City while out west. They beg you to complete her journey, and link up the east and west cities into the Chiral Network, delivering her back to Capital Knot City so she can take over presidency of the United Cities. You are indifferent to their lofty ambitions, but the determination to rescue Amelie is driving you. You're given your standard Bridges delivery bit before you leave and for some reason a Q-pid to bring the terminal "knots" online with the Chiral Network.

Embarking West: Forging New Paths

Your first stop is Port Knot City. You link it to the Chiral Network as a connection to both the Waystation West of Capital Knot City and the Distribution Center West of Capital Knot City. As you get ready to set off, Higgs appears and explains Amelie is an "Extinction entity" before summoning a BT for you to fight. You and Fragile then take a Fragile Express boat to Lake Knot City after you defeat it.

Upon reaching Lake Knot City in the center of the region you’ll be tasked with connecting three near Preppers (the Engineer, Craftsman, and Elder) before the Distrobution Central South of Lake Knot City to the Chiral Network. While organising an assistance package for South Knot City, a member of Bridges brings you a "lost" Fragile Express cargo container. You know it picks Higgs, as either of the showers contains a thermonuclear bomb! Hurrying to a crater lake east of South Knot City, you are able to get rid of the bomb.

You deliver the mystery aid package and link to South Knot City before being smothered by a supercell, and ending up on a World War I battlefield. Fleeing into the trenches, you’re pursued by Combat Veteran and his reanimated troops. You kill them, and by doing so you touch the Combat Veteran, rejoining the world of the living.

Gameplay

and Mechanics

Gameplay and Mechanics

The game is a third-person action-adventure title featuring life-like visuals revolving around concepts made louder by the COVID era. Players take on the role of Sam A porter exploring a mysterious post-apocalyptic landscape as you play to reconnect communities and restore life on earth in this free-to-start adventureThe title is an homage to one of Kojima’s favorite film directors, Alfred Hitchcock, combined with the name of an antiquated Japanese technique for joining metals: kintsugi.

The main innovations in this release are:

1: Hiking and climbing up, down, and across remains core to traversal; so is handling cargo – but it’s all paired with more focused combat, new weapons, throwable spears, robotic enemies, and vehicular transport like monorails and turret‑fighting trucks.

2: Traversable dynamic weather (dust storms, brush fires, rain) enforces strategy changes

3: Widened the chiral network to accommodate NPCs and asynchronous multiplayer; player-made structures and paths are shown

4: New cargo-carry mechanics, enhanced UI, vehicles and a mountain of photo-mode features (poses, props, frames, filters) will help you fulfill the unbreakable bond between your photogenic hero and BB.

System Requirements

PC Requirements

Minimum:

1. Intel i5-3470 OR AMD Ryzen 3 1200
2. GeForce GTX 1050 (3GB) OR AMD Radeon RX 560 (4GB)
3. 8GB RAM
4. 80GB SSD
5. DirectX Version 12
6. Windows 10

Recommended:

1. Intel i9-9900K
2. RTX 2080/RTX 3000-series
3. 16GB RAM
4. 100 GB SSD

Release, Editions

Pricing and Platforms

Release, Editions, Pricing & Platforms

The game is due for release 26 June 2025. But you will be able to use it on 24 June if you have early access.

• Platform: PS5 at launch. Possible PC or not yet confirmed - if past is anything to go by, around 2026 a PC release may ensue
• Standard Edition: $69.99, begins pre-orders March 17
• Digital Deluxe: $79.99; includes in-game bonuses + 48h early access
• Collector’s Edition: $229.99; includes physical collectibles, soundtrack, strategy guides and early access

Check out the official trailer: