Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.

The Gavler Review.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Review: Kojima's Sequel Refines and Wins

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach ranks number 2 on Gavler's Best PS5 Games of 2025 list with a 9.0, and Metacritic named it the outright Best PlayStation Exclusive of 2025 — a strong statement in a year stacked with strong exclusives. Hideo Kojima's sequel does something sequels rarely manage: it directly answers what critics found frustrating about the original — thin combat, opaque systems — without sanding off the strangeness that made Death Stranding memorable in the first place. Buy it if you played the first game and wanted more teeth, or if you're curious about one of gaming's most singular auteur visions with a gentler on-ramp than its predecessor. Skip it if slow, deliberate traversal-as-gameplay never appealed to you — this sequel deepens that formula, it doesn't abandon it.

What it is

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach picks up nearly a year after the events of the original, following Sam Bridges — again played by Norman Reedus, alongside a returning cast — into a haunting, reimagined vision of Australia. The core premise carries over from the first game: in a world fractured by mysterious, timefall-triggered catastrophes, Sam's job is to physically carry cargo across dangerous, disconnected terrain, reconnecting isolated communities to a fragile network called the Chiral Network.

What's changed is scope and confidence. The traversal-and-delivery loop that defined the original — planning routes across mountains, rivers, and hazards on foot or by vehicle — is deeper and more legible here, and the toolset available to solve those traversal puzzles is considerably broader. It released on PS5 on June 26, 2025, with a PC version following on March 19, 2026, mirroring the staggered release pattern of the first Death Stranding.

In use

Metacritic's designation of Death Stranding 2 as the Best PlayStation Exclusive of 2025 is the single clearest signal of where critical consensus landed — in a year that included Ghost of Yōtei and other major first-party PlayStation releases, this is the one the aggregate scoring put on top. The reasoning consistently traces back to how directly the sequel addresses the first game's most common critique: that traversal, while meditative, could feel under-supported by meaningful combat or player agency when things went wrong.

Sam now faces both human antagonists and the spectral BTs with a substantially wider set of options — stealth routes, firearms, and gadgets that give delivery runs real stakes beyond simply not falling down a hill. That expansion doesn't turn Death Stranding 2 into an action game; the balance still leans heavily toward planning routes and managing cargo weight and terrain. But it gives players tools to respond when a run goes wrong, rather than simply eating the consequences and restarting.

The game also carries forward the original's most quietly ambitious system: the Social Strand System, which lets players leave structures, roads, and equipment behind for other players to discover and use asynchronously — no real-time multiplayer, but a genuine sense that other players' choices are shaping the same world you're walking through. It remains one of the more understated, effective multiplayer ideas in modern gaming, and Death Stranding 2 builds meaningfully on it.

Where it shines

• Metacritic's Best PlayStation Exclusive of 2025. Not a Gavler-only claim — the aggregate critical consensus put this specifically above the field of 2025's other major PlayStation exclusives.
• Meaningfully deeper combat systems. More firearms, gadgets, and stealth options against both human enemies and BTs directly address the first game's most common critique.
• An expanded, more varied Mexico-to-Australia world. A larger traversal canvas with more terrain variety than the original's single-region scope.
• The Social Strand System, refined. Asynchronous structure- and road-sharing remains one of gaming's most distinctive, quietly effective multiplayer ideas — and it's richer here.
• A returning cast with real emotional continuity. For players invested in the first game's story, the sequel's character work pays off accumulated investment rather than starting cold.

The trade-offs — who should skip it

Death Stranding 2 is a genre-defining sequel, but the honest caveats are worth naming clearly:

• It's still fundamentally a walking-and-delivery game. Combat is deeper, but traversal-as-the-core-verb hasn't changed — if that idea didn't appeal to you in the original, more of it (even a better version of it) may not change your mind.
• The story leans on the first game's emotional groundwork. Newcomers can follow the plot, but the sequel's biggest emotional beats land harder with the context of the original.
• PC players have to wait. The PS5 version released in June 2025; the PC version doesn't arrive until March 19, 2026 — a long gap if multiplatform access is your priority.

How it compares

On its own list, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sits at rank 1 — a completely different genre (turn-based RPG rather than open-world traversal game) and a useful contrast in how differently 2025's two biggest critical darlings approach ambition. Meanwhile Hollow Knight: Silksong at rank 3 offers a third data point entirely: a tightly-scoped 2D metroidvania proving that 2025's best PS5 games span every possible scale and genre, not just big-budget open-world epics.

The Gavler verdict

A 9.0, and Metacritic's Best PlayStation Exclusive of 2025 designation to back it up. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is the rare big-budget sequel that listens directly to what critics found lacking in its predecessor and answers it without losing what made the original distinctive. If you've been waiting to see whether Kojima could refine Death Stranding's most unusual ideas into something more approachable, this is your answer — and a strong one.

Common Questions

Is Death Stranding 2: On the Beach worth playing?

Yes, especially if the first Death Stranding's slower pace or opaque systems held you back. It ranks number 2 on Gavler's Best PS5 Games of 2025 list with a 9.0, and Metacritic named it the Best PlayStation Exclusive of 2025 — reviewers consistently cite deeper combat and sharper systems as real improvements over the original.

Do I need to play the first Death Stranding before this one?

It helps but isn't strictly required. Death Stranding 2 picks up nearly a year after the first game with a returning cast, and its emotional weight lands harder if you know Sam Bridges' history — but the game does enough re-establishing work that newcomers can follow the plot.

Is Death Stranding 2 coming to PC?

Yes. It released on PS5 on June 26, 2025, and a PC (Windows) version is scheduled for March 19, 2026, following the same PlayStation-then-PC release pattern as the original Death Stranding.

What's different about combat in Death Stranding 2?

Death Stranding 2 significantly expands Sam's combat options against both human enemies and spectral BTs, adding more firearms, gadgets, and stealth tools than the original's more delivery-focused, evasion-first design. It's still primarily a traversal game, but it gives players real tools to fight back when a delivery run goes wrong.