“Death Stranding 2,” the deliverer of the apocalypse returns in force
It was the most anticipated game of the summer. Released on June 26, “Death Stranding 2: On the Beach” invites players to step into the shoes of Sam Porter Bridges, a parcel delivery man in a post-apocalyptic world. For “The Guardian,” this installment is even more successful than the first. It shines with its disturbing poetry, its meditative nature, and its gameplay systems.
What is Death Stranding 2 trying to tell us? This is a question you'll have plenty of opportunities to ask yourself as you play Hideo Kojima's hypnotic and fascinating second installment in this series, where the art of transporting goods is taken to a level of slowness that's almost provocative. Firstly, because as you wander through the supernatural landscapes of Mexico and Australia, you'll have plenty of time to admire the smallest details and try to understand what you're seeing. Secondly, because this question generally calls for truly profound answers.
These long moments of contemplation that the game invites us to experience are a testament to the meticulous care that went into its design. It must be said that Death Stranding 2 [released June 26 on PlayStation 5] is quite unique in its genre: with its atmosphere and narrative pacing worthy of an art-house film, it combines elliptical storytelling with clockwork-precise gameplay mechanics. And the tension that emerges between these two dimensions makes the game captivating. At first, you brave the first to face the second, then over time you savor both.
For those who missed the first installment, Death Stranding tasks you with transporting goods from point A to point B, either on foot or with the aid of a vehicle. You must deliver food packages, various technological devices, or luxury goods like an Amazon delivery driver operating in a post-apocalyptic world.
The first game [released in 2019, just before the Covid-19 pandemic] begins as a mysterious calamity has ravaged the world, allowing the dead to return to the world of the living in the form of spectral entities called “Stranded” [Beached Things or “BT” in the original version]. When one of them manages to kill a human, it creates an “annihilation,” a sort of supernatural nuclear bomb that leaves nothing but a huge crater.
As humanity now lives in closed, fragmented, underground communities, our hero, Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus), is tasked with connecting these remaining pockets
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