Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

1. Summary

Death Stranding 2 reached PC to near-universal praise, with 94.7% of English reviews recommending it. Reviewers measure it against the first game all the time, and on gameplay those comparisons mostly favor the sequel: it keeps the delivery loop and strips out much of the friction. They list an early trike, truck and exoskeleton, a backpack you can drop before a fight, one-button cargo sorting, instant recycling, monorails, a mobile base and a music player you can use anywhere. The visuals draw superlatives, and early reviews in particular say the port runs well on ordinary hardware. Reviewers also praise the music, the Metal Gear style combat and stealth, the cast, and a finale that left some of them in tears.

Most of the design and story complaints measure the game against the first one, often from players who loved that game for its hardship and loneliness. They say the sequel is too easy even on Brutal, that a truck can drive almost anywhere, that Dollman narrates the obvious and characters explain everything twice, and that the story retraces the first game's structure with less subtlety. Opinion on the story is split, even among players who recommend the game. A minority of PC players hit crashes, stutter and heavy CPU load, and technical problems are behind about a fifth of the negative reviews; a few reviewers updated their verdicts after patches improved things.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

It fixes most of what slowed the first game downHigh

Reviewers who compare the two games on gameplay mostly side with the sequel, and they point to specific changes: vehicles and an exoskeleton within the first hours, a backpack you can set down before combat, cargo auto-arranged from a quick menu, recycling without an animation, delivery results on a single screen, fabrication at terminals and post boxes, monorails and mines for bulk materials, the DHV Magellan as a mobile base, an APAS skill tree, a 3D map for route planning and a day-night cycle. One writes "This game makes Death Stranding 1 feel like a tech demo", and another "It almost feels like the first Death Stranding was just a prototype." Others put it more simply: "Imagine if DS1 were like, very fun." Some veterans count the same streamlining against it (see the split and frustration panels).

Visuals that pass for live actionHigh

Reviews that bring up the graphics mostly do so in superlatives, and several single out the opening scene: one player writes "I THOUGHT IT WAS A NATURE DOCUMENTARY", and another admits "I cannot stop staring at rocks." Reviewers also mention the facial capture of the cast, the lighting (a couple say it holds up even with ray tracing off), weather and tar effects, ultrawide and HDR on OLED screens, and the photo mode. A few found the image washed out, too bright in desert areas, or soft because of upscaling.

A PC port that runs well on most machinesHigh

Praise for the performance comes with specifics: high or maximum settings at 60fps or more on mid-range cards, decent frame rates on older cards, loading in seconds, ultrawide support, a portable preset, and a choice of upscalers that reviewers list as DLSS, FSR, XeSS and the game's own PICO. Reviewers credit Nixxes by name for the port, and some contrast it with Unreal Engine 5 releases ("UE5 could never") and with another open-world game they say came out the same day. DualSense owners report full haptics and adaptive triggers, and one player was impressed enough by the Steam Input bindings to write "THIS IS HOW YOU DO STEAM INPUT". Not everyone had this experience; see the crashes and stutter under the frustrations.

Music, now with a player you can use anywhereMedium

Woodkid's songs such as "Minus Sixty One" and "To the Wilder", Ludvig Forssell's score and the returning Low Roar tracks get the praise, and a few players say the soundtrack, timed to big story moments, gave them goosebumps or brought them close to tears. Dozens of reviews welcome the in-game music player, with playlists you can listen to while delivering: "THEY ADDED A MUSIC PLAYER TO THE GAME." A smaller group thinks the songs land less well than the first game's ("Woodkid just doesn't hit as hard as Low Roar.") or that some tracks play too often.

Combat and stealth with Metal Gear DNAMedium

Many reviewers call the combat and stealth a clear step up from the first game, and Metal Gear comparisons come up often. Players like getting non-lethal weapons early (so there are no bodies to dispose of), along with sniper rifles, assault rifles, grenade launchers, electric melee weapons, watchtowers for scouting, bandit camps you can clear, VR training missions and bigger boss fights. Boss fights also draw some of the complaints: enemies that soak up bullets, attacks that kill in one hit on To the Wilder, and Dollman talking through the fights. A handful of first-game fans think the extra combat dilutes what made the series different (see the split panel).

Characters, performances and a finale that landsMedium

Players praise the cast, with Troy Baker's Higgs named often ("Troy Baker deserves an Oscar!") alongside Luca Marinelli's Neil, Elle Fanning, Léa Seydoux and the crew of the DHV Magellan, including Rainy, Tomorrow and Tarman. Dozens of reviewers say the game made them cry, and players who reached the end single out the last chapters: "That entire ending makes everything worth it". A few parents say the story hit them especially hard, and one writes "This game hits harder as a dad."

A shared world and a livelier mapLow

Players still enjoy the asynchronous network: placing ladders and bridges for strangers, collecting likes, driving on a road someone else paved. One describes the game as one where you "carefully place ladders so strangers on the internet can save 12 seconds". The new world events add to it. Rising rivers and flash floods, earthquakes, sandstorms, wildfires and wildlife you can rescue are praised as fresh, although some veterans say the events rarely force a change of plan (see the frustrations).

Where players are split

The story next to the first game'sHigh

Supporters find the story less convoluted than the first game's, praise its themes of grief, parenthood and connection, and use the codex and recap to keep up; one finished it and wrote simply "I cried. Again." Critics, many of them fans of the first game, say it retraces that game's beats: a soldier antagonist who mirrors Cliff, war-zone nightmare sequences, a late mountain climb, a final trek across the map and a final boss built the same way. Others call the twists predictable and the dialogue blunt. Some of these critics still recommend the game. One notes "It feels odd how identically the game sticks to the structure of the first one", and another sums it up as "Death Stranding 1's gameplay but better. Worse story."

Will it win over people who disliked the first game?Medium

Hundreds of reviews tell readers that fans of the first game will like this one, and some add the reverse: "If you didn't like DS1 at all, you won't like this either". Yet dozens of reviewers who bounced off or never finished the first game say this one worked for them ("I didn't like the 1st one but I love this game"; "Wasn't a huge fan of the first game but this one is great."), crediting the faster start, earlier vehicles and weapons, and less tedium. Some veterans who loved the first game's struggle feel the accessibility cost it its identity: "Better game than Death stranding 1, but Worse death stranding" and "The QOL improvements are there, but without a soul." Reviewers disagree on whether the built-in recap is enough for newcomers, and dozens tell them to play the first game first.

Kojima at his strangestMedium

The set pieces people talk about include a boss fight decided by a guitar duel, Dollman's dance number, a fight with a pizza chef, a delivery to the VTuber Usada Pekora and a long run of celebrity cameos. Many of the reviews that bring these moments up enjoy the excess: "The guitar sequence is the coolest thing I will ever see in any form of media ever." Another lists "Professional dance numbers in the middle of huge lore dumps" as part of the appeal. Others, including some who recommend the game, find that it undercuts the drama: "The guitar battle final boss thing was very cringe" and "Unskippable VTuber mission that made me want to drill my skull." Even a reviewer who calls it a fantastic game says Kojima "packs one or two (or ten) too many celebrity friends into cameo roles".

Price and regional pricingLow

A recurring minority objects to the price. Players cite $70, €80 to €90, £70 and 125 AUD; one opens with "Lemme start by saying this: asking 80€ for any game is insane greed." and another, who otherwise loved the game, says "the regional pricing is a complete joke". Some suggest waiting for a sale. Others say a game this long and polished justifies the price, and more than a hundred reviewers had already played it on PS5 and came back for the PC version.

Steam Deck, handhelds and LinuxLow

Handheld reports conflict. Some Steam Deck, ROG Ally and Legion Go owners say it runs well on the portable preset ("it's a miracle that DS2 runs as well as it does on a Steam Deck"), while others report 15 to 20fps and warn "DO NOT BUY FOR THE STEAM DECK! ONLY VERIFIED ON PAPER". On Linux, players shared Proton launch options (several used VKD3D_CONFIG=nodxr to turn off ray tracing), and reports range from running out of the box to crashes, low frame rates and character voices dropping out mid-session.

Landing in a world PS5 players already builtLow

Reviewers say PC players share the online world with the PS5 version, so the map arrives covered in roads, bridges, signs and worn paths. Players who enjoy the network welcome the head start; others wanted to build from scratch ("the world is already covered in desire-paths on day one") or ask to hide other players' signs while keeping their structures. A few suggest playing offline, some on To the Wilder, to get the struggle back.

What frustrates players

Crashes, stutter and heavy CPU load on some PCsMedium

Players describe crashes to desktop and full system freezes (some with "device hung" or DXGI errors, some traced to drivers, undervolts or a GPU running on too few PCIe lanes), stutter at the start of cutscenes, frame rates collapsing when looking through a sniper scope, and high CPU and VRAM use. A couple lost hours of progress to saves that Windows Defender silently blocked ("MAKE SURE IT ACTUALLY SAVES, ELSE ADD EXCEPTION TO WINDOWS DEFENDER"). Some of these reviewers praise the game while blaming the port: "Amazing game, bad port. Will change when cutscene stutter is fixed." Others updated their reviews after patches, including one that opens "Great game, terrible port." and now reports that performance has improved. A smaller group says later updates made performance or image quality worse: "How does Nixxes manage to go backwards with every update?"

Too easy, with a truck that flattens the mapMedium

Vehicles arrive early, the truck "can climb mountains better than Sam can", and the Australian map is open enough to drive almost anywhere, so players who call the game too easy say ladders, ropes and route planning stop mattering ("Truck-META is real."; "the fastest route is always just point the truck at the destination and hold right trigger"). BTs are easy to avoid or kill ("The BTs aren't scary anymore; they are just tedious."), human enemies pose little threat, and floods, quakes and sandstorms are mostly scripted or easy to route around. Several suggest the new To the Wilder difficulty for more challenge, though others found even that easy, and a few say it mainly lets bosses kill you in one hit. Not everyone wants it harder: one player moved to the easiest setting to play it as a way to unwind.

Dollman won't stop talkingMedium

Dollman, the talking doll on Sam's belt, annoys a lot of players: about half of the reviews that mention him complain. They say he repeats tips they have just read, warns about fire they can already see, and talks through boss fights, breaking the isolation the series is known for: "Death Stranding 2 is terrified of silence." A handful ask for a way to mute him or point to a mod that does it, and one negative review says "Review will stay negative until I can shut Dollman up." A positive review warns "If dollman talked maybe 10% more this would be a negative review.", and another reads in full "Mute Dollman Mod 10/10". He has fans too, some of them won over by his dance scene: "Came for the walking simulator. Stayed for the Dollman dance sequence."

Characters explain everything twiceMedium

Beyond Dollman, players object to how much the game explains. Characters restate what a menu or cutscene just showed, one player says tutorials on the basics still pop up 20 hours in, and a couple describe holograms that read out what a text log already said. One negative review puts it as "Every character treats you like an idiot". Supporters see the codex and recaps as useful help in a dense setting.

Grind, cooldowns and a grounded mobile baseLow

Completionists say five-starring every facility takes "an absurd number of deliveries for barely any progress" and that "the fifth star is a grind", and one notes that standard orders go on a cooldown. Story missions also keep the DHV Magellan from moving for long stretches ("The DHV Magellan is unable to move due to unstable tar currents"), which players who rely on it for travel find contrived. Others say the middle of the game sags into a loop of mission, return to the ship, cutscene, and one player who still recommends it writes "Kojima the visionary really needed Kojima the editor to step in."

Missing options on PCLow

A smaller set of complaints is about settings: no separate music volume ("No option to reduce Music volume separately"), dialogue that is too quiet next to the music, default controls changed from the first game ("inexplicably altered from the original and worse in basically every way"), simultaneous inputs that one player says have been broken since release, no way to turn off upscaling or temporal anti-aliasing (one player says the blur makes them physically ill), cutscenes capped at 60fps, pillarboxed cutscenes on 32:9 screens, no field-of-view slider, and no way to adjust the white point.

3. The player conversation

The tone is celebratory, and many positive reviews are short tributes: "Absolute cinema" appears in 180 reviews and some form of "Keep on keeping on" in 280, alongside dozens of jokes about Norman Reedus, foot scans and delivery jobs. The negative reviews fall into two groups that rarely overlap: technical problems (22.5% of negative reviews) and design or story objections (35%), most of which measure the game against the first one. Only 13 negative reviews do both.

Players with 40 or more hours bring up the difficulty, Dollman, the grind, the story's resemblance to the first game and the ending far more often than those under 10 hours, whose reviews more often praise how well the port runs.

Sentiment stayed high but eased slightly over time. Launch week was 96.1% positive across 2,156 reviews, and reviews written from June onward are 92.8% positive (1,719). Praise for performance became much rarer after the first two weeks and stutter complaints more than halved, while complaints that the game is too easy, or that its story is weaker than the first game's, became more common.

4. What the developers could do

1. Keep fixing crashes, cutscene stutter and scope frame drops. Technical problems drive 22.5% of negative reviews, and players name the cases: device-hung and DXGI crashes, stutter at cutscene starts, frame drops through the sniper scope, and heavy CPU load.
2. Make traversal matter on the harder settings. Players who want a challenge say the truck, open terrain and pre-built structures remove it even on Brutal, so To the Wilder could limit vehicle range or battery, make terrain and BTs harder to bypass, and offer an easy way to play without other players' structures or signs.
3. Add an option to mute or limit Dollman's commentary. About half of the reviews that mention him complain, and a handful, positive and negative, ask for a way to mute him or point to a mod that does it.
4. Add a setting that cuts repeated hints and explanations. Players object to characters restating what they just saw, one still gets tutorials 20 hours in, and one says "Every character treats you like an idiot".
5. Revisit regional prices. A recurring minority objects to the price, including some who recommend the game, and one player who loved it calls the regional pricing "a complete joke".
6. Warn players when a save fails. A couple of players lost hours of progress because Windows Defender blocked their save files and the game did not tell them.
7. Add separate music, voice and effects volume sliders. Players cannot turn the soundtrack down on its own, and one finds cutscene dialogue too quiet next to the music.
8. Offer the first game's control layout and more image options. Changed default controls, forced upscaling or TAA, cutscenes capped at 60fps and no field-of-view slider are among the PC settings players ask for.