Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is the direct sequel to the cult Death Stranding (2019) from Hideo Kojima and his independent studio Kojima Productions. The publisher is Sony Interactive Entertainment, but the studio is legally independent and is not part of PlayStation Studios. The PC version was released on 19 March 2026: Sony, as usual, kept about a year between the console and PC releases, the same path taken by God of War Ragnarök, Horizon Forbidden West and Spider-Man Remastered. The port was developed together with Nixxes Software (a Sony-owned studio in Utrecht, the authors of the same PC versions of GoW Ragnarök and Horizon).

11 months after the first game, the USA is connected to the chiral network (chiral network: wireless communication that lets communities survive after the Death Stranding catastrophe), and logistics are run by APAS drones. Bridges falls apart as an organization, and couriers are pushed out by automation. Sam lives on the border of former Mexico with Lou, the grown "BB" from the first game. Fragile comes to him with an offer: connect Mexico to the network and the file on Sam will disappear. While expanding the network to Australia, Sam comes into conflict with Higgs (Troy Baker), the commander of the "ghost mechs".

The cast is of Hollywood level. Norman Reedus (Sam), Léa Seydoux (Fragile) and Troy Baker (Higgs) return. Among the new actors are Elle Fanning (Tomorrow) and Luca Marinelli as Neil (known from Martin Eden and The Old Guard). Guest roles go to director George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road) and Fatih Akin. Mads Mikkelsen did not return for the sequel: Hideo Kojima confirmed that Cliff's arc was completed in the first game.

The PC port from Nixxes comes with a full set of technologies: DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation, AMD FSR 4.1 and Intel XeSS. Ray tracing, available only in the PC version and absent on PS5, adds reflections and global illumination. Ultrawide 21:9 and super-ultrawide 32:9 are supported without a stretched interface, along with HDR, Xbox controllers and DualSense with haptic feedback during cargo balancing. Steam Deck Verified on Medium settings at 30 FPS. DSOGaming called the port "one of the most optimized AAA releases of 2026", running without stutters from RTX 3080 to RTX 5090.

Metacritic 89 and Steam 95% "Overwhelmingly Positive" agree with no gap between them. In the first 12 days after the PC release, the game sold more than 2 million copies. The Decima engine, developed together with Guerrilla Games, received full ray tracing on PC in DS2 for the first time in the history of the series.

Russian is one of 11 audio languages, plus Russian subtitles and interface. The language is switched only through the main menu before the game loads. A PSN account is not required for PC: Sony did not repeat the mistake of forced linking from Helldivers 2. PSN linking is optional and is only used to transfer cosmetics from first-game saves.

There is no publicly documented wave of bans for Death Stranding 2 specifically, but workarounds, such as regional keys with a change of account region through a VPN, violate the Steam terms of use and formally carry a risk of account ban. Keep this in mind when buying.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is the sequel from Hideo Kojima (Kojima Productions, an independent studio), published by Sony. The story takes place in Australia and Mexico 11 months after the first game: the courier Sam Bridges (Norman Reedus) expands the chiral network while facing APAS automated drones and the returning Higgs. The PC version was released on 19 March 2026 together with Nixxes: Metacritic 89, Steam 95% "Overwhelmingly Positive". Full Russian voice-over and interface.