I've been wandering through the strange landscapes of Death Stranding since the original release, and I can tell you without hesitation that calling Kojima's creation merely "strange" is like calling the ocean "a bit wet." As we approach the release of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach in late 2025, I'm both excited and slightly terrified about diving back into this beautifully twisted universe that somehow manages to be even more bizarre than its predecessor.
The original game was about as approachable as a porcupine wearing barbed wire. Even as someone who poured hundreds of hours into connecting America through an elaborate delivery system while avoiding invisible monsters and carrying a baby in a jar (typing that out still feels surreal), I sometimes found myself lost in the labyrinth of BTs, DOOMs, and the Beach. Many players I knew gave up before they even made it past the first few deliveries, overwhelmed by both the unconventional gameplay and the dense, cryptic lore.
Self-Awareness: The Game's Greatest Evolution
What strikes me most about Death Stranding 2 is how self-aware it seems to be. Kojima Productions appears to have acknowledged the first game's inaccessibility and has implemented features specifically designed to ease new players into this world where rain ages you and beaches connect to the afterlife. It's as if the game itself has developed a consciousness about its own peculiarity – like a peacock that finally realizes why everyone keeps staring at its elaborate tail.
The two major onboarding features that have caught my attention are:
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Complete Story Recap - A comprehensive summary of the first game's narrative
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In-Game Glossary - An accessible dictionary for all those bizarre terms
The Story Recap: Memory Lane or Memory Maze?
The story recap feature is something I'm particularly grateful for. After five years since playing the original, my memories of exactly how the Death Stranding occurred are about as clear as the timefall-soaked landscapes of the game. Did Higgs really have those motivations? What exactly was Amelie's endgame? These questions have lingered in my mind like BTs in a storm.
From what I've seen in previews, the recap isn't just a simple text summary or collection of cutscenes. Instead, it feels more like a guided tour through the first game's narrative wilderness. There are rumors that Norman Reedus himself narrates portions of it, which would add a wonderful layer of continuity as we transition to the Australian setting of the sequel.
However, I do wonder if even the most comprehensive recap can truly capture the essence of a story that was deliberately designed to be interpretive. Death Stranding's narrative was like quantum physics – the moment you thought you understood it, you realized you actually understood nothing at all.
The Glossary: A Dictionary for the Undefinable
The in-game glossary might be the most practical addition to Death Stranding 2. In the original game, I often found myself pausing to Google terms like "chiral network" or "DOOMS" mid-gameplay, breaking immersion faster than a poorly secured cargo container tumbling down a mountain.
The glossary promises to be accessible directly from the menu during gameplay, offering explanations for everything from the most basic concepts to the most esoteric lore. Think of it as having your own personal Heartman, minus the 21-minute death cycles, ready to explain the unexplainable at a moment's notice.
My expectations for this feature:
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Comprehensive coverage of both new and returning terminology
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Contextual relevance to where you are in the story
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Progressive unlocking of information to avoid spoilers
The Australian Frontier: A New Landscape of Weirdness
Death Stranding 2 transports us to Australia, a continent that in real life already feels like it exists in Kojima's imagination with its bizarre wildlife and vast, unforgiving landscapes. The shift in setting is like moving from one fever dream to another – familiar in its strangeness yet entirely new.
Early footage shows environments that make the first game's Icelandic-inspired American wilderness look positively mundane. The Australian outback appears transformed into something that's simultaneously recognizable and alien, like finding your childhood home redesigned by Salvador Dalí.
Finding Balance Between Accessibility and Mystery
What I find most fascinating about these new onboarding features is how they attempt to thread the needle between accessibility and preserving the game's fundamental mystery. Death Stranding's inscrutability was both its greatest strength and its most significant barrier. The game was like an elaborate puzzle box that sometimes forgot to include all the pieces.
Death Stranding 2 seems to be taking a more balanced approach:
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Welcoming newcomers without compromising vision
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Refreshing veterans' understanding of the lore
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Maintaining the core mystery that makes the series special
I appreciate that Kojima Productions isn't dumbing down the experience but rather providing better tools to navigate its complexity. It's like they're not removing the labyrinth – they're just giving us a slightly better map and a flashlight.
The Divisive Nature Remains
Despite these accessibility improvements, early previews suggest that Death Stranding 2 remains proudly divisive. Kojima himself has stated that he wants the game to continue challenging conventional gaming expectations, which is both admirable and slightly concerning. Like watching a tightrope walker intentionally make their wire thinner, there's both artistry and madness in deliberately creating something polarizing.
The new onboarding features feel less like a compromise and more like an acknowledgment: "Yes, we know this is weird. Here are some tools to help you appreciate just how weird it truly is."
As I prepare to once again don my Porter suit and venture into Kojima's reimagined post-apocalyptic world, I'm left wondering: in a medium that increasingly strives for accessibility and broad appeal, is there still room for games that demand so much from their players? Or perhaps more importantly, in making Death Stranding 2 slightly more approachable, are we losing something of what made the original such a singular experience – like watching a wild animal gradually become domesticated?
I guess I'll find out when I take my first steps onto this new Beach later this year. Until then, I'll be studying my chiral crystals and practicing my balance.