The opening moments of Death Stranding 2 is something special from both a technical standpoint, and even thematically. The latter being it is the first time you step back into the shoes of the game’s protagonist after a few years and so, as the music swells up, welcoming you back, as he also heads back home. It’s quite an experience.

And technically, it’s visual looks breath-taking as a first impression, the vistas you see looks phenomenal, not to mention loading into the game feels as fast here on PC, as it was back in the PS5. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves.

DS2 is perhaps more of the same for some, being a walking delivery game that sometimes sprinkle in some insane story-beats to make it engaging. I’ll argue it’s one of the more unique games in any of its genres, and this perhaps being the final PlayStation game that’s releasing on PC (for the time being), it’s a good bookend to send off quite an interesting period of this gaming lifecycle.

Cold Computer Paradise

The Decima Engine is turning 13 this year, did you know? 

And it still produces one of the beautiful graphics engines this side of the sphere for the world to see. The optimization is still of the best out of the PlayStation stables, with incredible Data Streaming for the locales that we visit (plus the chiral submarine) and still maintaining incredible visual fidelity even on  the hardware that I have, that being my RTX 2060 powered machine.

All that’s possible thanks to their in-house Upscaler option, the Progressive Image Compositor (PICO), that pairs well with the graphics setting, especially one that made specifically for Portable PCs such as the ROG Xbox Ally (in Windows mode) and Steam Deck, though it needs some more work on the Proton side before being solid still.

And all throughout my time with it, it didn’t even drop any frames during combat, weather changes and the such, being quite a solid 60fps experience no matter what the game throws at my machine. And that’s just impressive enough for me. All of the models still look impeccable, much like how the PS5 version looks and both Mexico and Australia just stuns, even on this sort of hardware configuration.

Asphalt Maelstrom

For those already familiar with the first game, Death Stranding 2 is about being Sam Porter Bridges, the one man courier who has trekked across America to unite them via delivering packages for people living in bunkers that includes Conan O’Brien and now one Usada Pekora (Peko~), goes off once more, fighting off Beached Things (BTs) using weapons that are made from Sam himself via 3D printers, and making sure Higgs (Troy Baker’s character) doesn’t send him a nuke again for the fun of it. 

The walking mechanics is still one of a kind to me, being able to make sure you footpathing is correct or Sam will fall off and sustain damage is quite a compelling gameplay loop and it still is in this 2nd game. The general gameplay flow now feels more streamlined as you get into action quicker, with less of the exposition dump you expected from the first game and it’s storybeats really take hold of you right towards the start of the 2nd act. Its combat has been improved as well, now having to build up Sam’s stats along the way to make sure your encounters can be done quicker and so on.

And like the previous game as well, you are connecting people together, so while playing and building structures like bridges (heh) and even towers acting as save points along the way, you can see stuff made by other players along the way as well, aiding you in trek once more, building what seemed to be an empty, barren world slowly becomes full of life as the hours tick by.

It’s a quirky game, as we have mentioned back in our original game review back then and I do feel like it’s story does get a bit disjointed later on, but it’s a comfy delivery cargo haul game like its predecessor back then, with its multiple pitstop to take down enemies and getting dunked on by Higgs to a bemused Sam and the bit with the new teammates  (and that Pizza fight), it’s a really unique game that’s quintessentially on-brand, and what is expected from the game’s director and development team.

Is it bad? Not at all, but it’s also not everyone’s cup of tea. And respect that. 

Verdict

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach is quite incredible with their PC port that feels on-par with their PlayStation counterpart, and perhaps it is quite appropriate that this game, built upon the learnings of its original game and its interesting creation, being the last game (for now) being released on PC for the PlayStation brand.

I still recommend getting it on sale since it is a love it or hate it sort of game, but that’s the bain of a Kojima Production game, it’s a bit strange, but once it sinks it’s teeth on you, you best believe you’re going to see the credits.

Played on PC, Review copy provided by PlayStation Asia.

Read our original review on PS5 here.