Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is an upcoming 2025 action-adventure game developed by Kojima Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment is set to be released on 26th June, 2025. It is the sequel to Death Stranding, and is written, produced, and directed by Hideo Kojima. It is a new-gen third-person view survival game. As the name suggests, the game opts for a survival gameplay, where the players have to perform different tasks and face different challenges to survive on a hostile and deserted beach.
The players control a character who is a baggage carrier named Samuel Porter Bridges, also known as Sam. He is a legendary porter and member of Bridges, playing an integral role in expanding the Chiral Network to connect the United Cities of America whole by embarking on a westward expedition. Sam is considered the best porter in the Bridges. He was considered a superhuman as he was able to lift cargos weighing up to 120 kilograms without the need of any kind of exoskeleton. He could even deliver cargo to places with extremely harsh conditions.
Story and Setting
Story and Setting
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is primarily set in Australia and Mexico. The timeline follows the events happening 11 months after the events of Death Stranding. The story of the game follows in the following way:
The Repatriate's Journey: A Story of Connection
You are Sam, born under extraordinary circumstances to Clifford Unger and Lisa Bridges. Your very existence is tied to the strange phenomena plaguing the world. After a tragic accident, your father, Cliff, sought to save you, his unborn son, by entrusting you to the Bridges scientists. Unbeknownst to him, they intended to use you as the first Bridge Baby, a sacrifice for a new communication network. But fate intervened. An old friend revealed their true intentions, and Cliff, in a desperate attempt to rescue you, was gunned down. Both you and he perished.
Yet, death was not the end. On the enigmatic Beach, a mysterious entity known as Amelie healed you, bringing you back to life and granting you the unique ability of repatriation – the power to return from the dead. No longer viable as a Bridge Baby, you were raised by Bridget Strand as her son, Sam Strand. However, your revival caused a ripple effect, upsetting the balance of life and death and triggering the cataclysmic Death Stranding.
In your youth, afflicted by DOOMS, you experienced terrifying nightmares, often finding yourself stranded on the Beach, lost and alone. Amelie was always there, a guiding light, calming you and leading you back. You crafted a quipu for her in the living world, a tangible symbol of your bond, and gifted it to her even on the Beach.
At some point, you joined Bridges, your DOOMS and repatriation abilities making you an essential member. You met a kind psychotherapist named Lucy, who tried to help you overcome your aphenphosmphobia (a fear of being touched). You fell in love, married, and even conceived a daughter, Louise. But the nightmares of DOOMS sufferers, transferred through you, became too much for Lucy. She tragically took her own life, and with her, your unborn daughter. Her death caused a massive Voidout in a satellite town, leaving you as the sole survivor and prime suspect. Overwhelmed by public pressure and guilt, you abandoned Bridges, becoming a solitary freelance porter, cutting yourself off from society. Your former colleagues suspected it was your way of atoning.
Rejoining Bridges: The Call to Reconnect
For 10 years, you wandered the desolate landscape, earning a reputation as "The Legend" and "The Great Deliverer." While on a delivery to Central Knot City, you encounter Fragile of Fragile Express. Her touch, a trigger for your aphenphosmphobia, paradoxically saves you as you're hunted by Beached Things (BTs). After completing your delivery, you meet Igor Frank and a Bridges Corpse Disposal Team driver. Igor urgently requests your help in delivering a necrotizing suicide victim to the nearest incinerator. En route, you're ambushed by BTs and caught in a shower of Timefall. Igor, overwhelmed, throws his Bridge Baby to you before being consumed by a colossal BT summoned by Higgs, resulting in a devastating Voidout. You repatriate, returning to the colossal crater, where five floating figures briefly appear before vanishing.
You awaken in a private room in Capital Knot City. Deadman tasks you with a critical mission: deliver morphine to your dying mother, President Bridget Strand, for one final moment. In the Isolation Ward, Bridget tries to convince you to continue Amelie's mission: a westward expedition to reconnect America. You show no interest in the nation's future, but in her dying moments, Bridget lunges from her sickbed, forming a contract that binds you to this monumental task.
To prevent further necrosis and the creation of a BT, you carry Bridget's body to the Incinerator West of Capital Knot City. The burning increases the Chiralium density, causing BTs to manifest. Defying a decommission order, you trance connect with Igor's Bridge Baby, allowing you to see the invisible BTs and sneak past them back to Capital Knot City.
There, you meet Die-Hardman and a holographic Amelie. They brief you on the dire situation: Amelie has been captured by the Homo Demens in Edge Knot City during her westward expedition. They plead with you to continue her journey, connecting cities from east to west to the Chiral Network, and bringing her back to Capital Knot City to assume the presidency of the United Cities. You're dismissive of their grand aspirations, but the desire to save Amelie compels you. Before you set out, you're equipped with standard Bridges delivery gear and a Q-pid to connect terminal "knots" to the Chiral Network.
Embarking West: Forging New Paths
Port Knot City is your first objective. You connect it to the Chiral Network, using the Waystation West of Capital Knot City and the Distribution Center West of Capital Knot City as relay points. As you prepare to sail to Lake Knot City, you're confronted by Higgs, who reveals Amelie's status as an "Extinction entity" before forcing you into a battle with a summoned BT. After defeating it, you and Fragile board a Fragile Express ship and sail to Lake Knot City.
Arriving in Lake Knot City in the central region, you set out to connect three nearby Preppers – the Engineer, Craftsman, and Elder – and then the Distribution Center South of Lake Knot City to the Chiral Network. Preparing an aid package for South Knot City, a Bridges member brings you a "lost" Fragile Express cargo container. You realize it's Higgs in disguise, and the container holds a thermonuclear bomb! Rushing to a crater lake east of South Knot City, you manage to dispose of the bomb.
After delivering the aid package and connecting South Knot City, a supercell engulfs you, transporting you to a World War I-era battlefield. Escaping into the trenches, you're hunted by the Combat Veteran and his reanimated soldiers. You defeat them and, by making physical contact with the Combat Veteran, return to the living world.
Connecting Mountain Knot City: A Family Reunited
Returning from the supercell, Mama informs you that no time has passed. You head to her lab, where she reveals a defective limiter in your Q-pid. She gives you new hardware, but you must meet her sister, Lockne, in Mountain Knot City for a software update. First, you connect the Waystation North of Mountain Knot City and the Distribution Center North of Mountain Knot City to the Chiral Network, then journey to Mountain Knot City.
Upon arrival, Lockne denies you permission to connect to the city. As Mama suggested, you use cord cutters to sever the umbilical cord connecting Mama to her beached daughter. Briefly evading a BT summoned by Higgs, you transport Mama to Lockne in Mountain Knot City, where the sisters are finally reunited. Lockne then updates your Q-pid and allows you to connect Mountain Knot City to the Chiral Network.
Lou's Realignment and Further Connections
Inside your Mountain Knot City private room, Deadman informs you that your BB, whom you've affectionately named "Lou," is veering too close to the living world due to your attachment, requiring a realignment procedure. In the shower stall, Deadman divulges classified information about BB technology and the questionable history of Bridget and Die-Hardman. You leave Lou for the realignment, creating distance, and focus on expanding Chiral Network coverage around Mountain Knot City by connecting nearby preppers: the Doctor, Roboticist, Mountaineer, Photographer, and Spiritualist.
After expanding the network, you travel to a cabin in the mountains to reunite with Deadman and Lou. Just as you near the cabin, another supercell transports you all to a World War II-era Eastern European battlefield. After reuniting with Deadman in a sewer and reconnecting to Lou, you once again defeat the Combat Veteran. Making physical contact with him again, you, Lou, and Deadman are transported back to the living world.
Finishing Network Expansion and Rescuing Amelie
Approaching the completion of your mission, you travel to Heartman's lab, bringing him Mama's non-necrotizing corpse and dog tags from the Combat Veteran. To expand the Chiral Network in this region, you connect three more preppers: the Geologist, Paleontologist, and Evo-Devo Biologist. The expanded coverage allows you to connect a waystation construction site in the deep southwest, near the western tar belt. Once you deliver the materials, the waystation connects, providing the final push for the network to reach the West Coast.
To cross the vast tar belt, you allow BTs to drag you across, transforming the tar into traversable ground as buildings, objects, and leviathan BTs surface. Deep across the tar belt, you encounter an image of Amelie, who leaves you to sink into the tar.
Emerging from the tar, you awaken on the outskirts of a decimated Edge Knot City, where Higgs harasses you about Amelie's extinction entity status. You first bring the Distribution Center North of Edge Knot City onto the Chiral Network, then journey through the ruined city, connecting Edge Knot City itself, finally expanding the network across the entire continent. You are then attacked by Higgs, who controls Amelie and manifests a colossal BT. After felling Higgs' monstrous form, Fragile jumps you to Amelie's Beach. There, you engage in brutal hand-to-hand combat with Higgs in a tar pit, incapacitating him and rescuing Amelie. As promised, you leave Higgs alive for Fragile to deal with as she sees fit.
Following her rescue, Amelie confirms her status as an extinction entity, capable of "ending it all." She confesses that she visited you once back east, lying about being held hostage to coerce you into embarking west – a plan concocted by Die-Hardman. You briefly share a blissful run along the Beach's shore, witnessing Die-Hardman's vain attempt to shoot down Bridget, and Cliff's subsequent arrival, searching for his BB. Amelie pushes you into the Seam, and you repatriate into a private room east of the tar belt. Your allies urge you to return east to avert the Sixth Extinction.
Returning East: Unraveling the Truth
Making your way back east, another supercell sweeps you away near Lake Knot City. You battle the Combat Veteran once more, this time on a Vietnam War battlefield. After defeating him, you approach the fallen man. He whistles a familiar lullaby to Lou, and you whistle along. No longer hostile, the Combat Veteran rises, bestows his dog tags to you, and embraces you as his "bridge to the future," before vanishing at the sound of a gunshot.
You awaken in a private room in Port Knot City, brought there by Viktor Frank after being found unconscious. Deadman shows you a pre-recorded message from Die-Hardman, revealing his doubts about Amelie's physical existence, the impossibility of her being Bridget's biological daughter, and his intention to accept Amelie's invitation to the Beach to attempt to "put her down" with his revolver and hematic rounds.
Briefed on Fragile's worsening condition from excessive Beach jumps, you set out to deliver cryptobiotes to her in Capital Knot City, defeating a leviathan BT along the way. In the Capital Knot City Isolation Ward, Fragile reveals what she learned from Higgs: he was seduced by Amelie's extinction entity powers and became her "agent of extinction." Soon after, Fragile jumps you to Amelie's Beach so you can attempt to talk her out of initiating the "Last Stranding."
Averting the Last Stranding: The Final Choice
Arriving on Amelie's Beach, you search for her until she appears. She reveals that "Amelie" and "Bridget" are two halves of the single extinction entity she is – her "ka" (soul) and "ha" (body). Furthermore, she confesses that your expansion of the Chiral Network has bound everyone connected to her Beach, enabling the Last Stranding, which was always her plan. She presents you with two choices: witness the swift end of the world with her, or use Die-Hardman's left-behind revolver to sever your connection to her and her Beach, postponing the inevitable. You choose instead to embrace her, assuring her you would always be there for her, just as she was for you.
Amelie reveals her destiny as an extinction entity to usher in the Last Stranding, and that after agonizing solitude on the Beach, she opted to accelerate it using the Chiral Network. She chooses to remain on the Beach, sacrificing herself to spare humanity the worst of the inevitable, hoping to provide life an opportunity to emerge stronger. After one last embrace, Amelie pushes you out of her Beach and into your own, sending you back to your allies.
One Last Delivery: A New Beginning
Upon returning to the living world, you attend Die-Hardman's presidential inauguration as the United Cities of America is formally recognized. Afterward, Deadman explains that your allies searched for you for a month, only bringing you back by following Die-Hardman's revolver – a "stick" that became a "rope." Deadman also discloses classified information about Die-Hardman's past as "John," his role in Cliff Unger's death, and his resurgence as the masked Bridges director. Shortly after, you converse with Die-Hardman, who, ridden with guilt, confesses his actions and breaks down. You help him up, asserting that the old ways must die for a better America to be built, returning his revolver.
A decommissioning order arrives for Lou. Deadman suggests you remove Lou from her pod, defying the executive order. You opt to take Lou to the nearest incinerator. Deadman takes your cuff links offline, making you invisible to the Chiral Network until after the incinerator. Before setting out, you meet Fragile, who asks you to work for her UCA-approved private delivery company. You claim no ties, expressing your detachment despite the connections formed on your journey, stating there's no place for you in the reconnected America. You leave a disheartened Fragile with the parting remark that "everything I touch, I lose."
At the Incinerator West of Capital Knot City, you place your cuff links and Lou in the incinerator, but retrieve Lou before she can be cremated. You trance connect with Lou, triggering a repatriation-like experience, following a strand to join your soul with an infant carried by Cliff in chronic visions you've had since first connecting to Lou. Experiencing the full breadth of events surrounding Cliff's death, an adult, you share a brief respite with Cliff. He acknowledges you as his "bridge to the future" who unites people rather than divides them, embracing his son before being shot dead.
Following the trance connection, you remove Lou from her BB pod, frantically trying to stimulate activity in the lifeless infant. As a spectral umbilical cord forms and infant BTs float above, a dejected you holds Lou in your embrace. To your surprise, Lou lets out a fussy cry, holding a Quipu with chains – an indication that Amelie brought Lou back to life. Together with Lou, you leave the incinerator into a gentle rain, free of Timefall's effects, as sunlight breaks through and an ordinary rainbow forms above you both.
Gameplay
and Mechanics
Gameplay and Mechanics
The game provides a third-person action-adventure gameplay with realistic graphics built around themes amplified by the COVID era. The players control the protagonist Sam across various missions and overcome different challenges along a journey to connect isolated survivors and colonies to the wireless communications "chiral" network in order to save humanity from extinction.
The major evolutions in this release are:
- Core traversal mechanics (hiking, climbs, cargo handling) return—but with tighter combat, new weapons, throwable spears, robotic foes, and vehicles like monorails and turret‑equipped trucks
- Dynamic weather (dust storms, brush fires, rain) influences traversal and strategy
- Expanded chiral network supports NPCs and asynchronous multiplayer, showing player-built structures and paths
- New cargo-carry mechanics, improved UI, vehicles, and a treasure trove of photo-mode features (poses, props, polaroids) deepen immersion
System Requirements
PC Requirements
Minimum:
- Intel i5-3470 OR AMD Ryzen 3 1200
- GeForce GTX 1050 (3GB) OR AMD Radeon RX 560 (4GB)
- 8GB RAM
- 80GB SSD
- DirectX Version 12
- Windows 10
Recommended:
- Intel i9-9900K
- RTX 2080/RTX 3000-series
- 16GB RAM
- 100 GB SSD
Release, Editions
Pricing and Platforms
Release, Editions, Pricing & Platforms
- The game will be officially released on 26th June, 2025. However, it will be available on 24th June with early access.
- Platform: PS5 at launch. PC version is highly likely but unconfirmed—if following the original pattern, expect a PC release around early 2026
- 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; physical collectibles, soundtrack, strategy guides, and early access
Check out the official trailer:
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