5/5 ★ – Fokathepingvin's review of Death Stranding 2: On The Beach.

Should we have connected? Should we have loved, despite the inevitability of heartbreak? Should we have wished for the impossible, knowing that we will always get what we ask for, not what we want? Should we have held on so tight that it hurt? Should we have trusted, knowing you can only be betrayed by a friend? Death Stranding 2 dives into these questions, and answers yes to all of them, signifying Hideo Kojima’s focus on showing why connection is more important than anything. It is also a deeply profound tale of grief and community, and how they will always be interconnected, for better or worse. My review contains spoilers, and I think everyone should finish my 2025 GOTY before reading further. Death Stranding 2 starts out with the worst tragedy of them all. A parent having to bury their child. And then burying themselves. Sam loses Lou in the opening hours of the game, and this is the weight he carries for the rest of this story. He is surrounded by people who care about him. Fragile, Rainy, Tarman, Dollman and the list goes on. He even has Dollman with him for all of the game. But Sam is unable to move on. He does not want the company of Drawbridge. He wants his daughter back. He buries himself in work, and convinces himself Lou is still in the pod. The pod is obviously empty. We, as the player know this. And obviously, Sam does too. Lou has no business being in there, even if she were still alive. But the game convinces us. Every time Sam falls and starts to imagine Lou crying, we, the player start to soothe her without second thought. This is how we feel Sam’s grief, and how we also believe the delusion. And it’s how the game makes us cry, when Sam realizes he’s been carrying an empty pod around. And it’s how it makes us feel relieved when Sam finally goes on his treks without the pod. Loving and grieving Lou is not a mistake. It is a journey we have to make with Sam, that is undoubtedly his hardest. Obviously, since we finished the game, we know that it isn’t this simple, but that doesn’t make the grief any less impactful. Fragile saved Lou, but it robbed Sam and her of a life together. They are strangers to eachother. And Fragile blames herself for all of this mess. She doesn’t remember everything, but one way or another, she knows she tore Sam’s life apart.We see her regret, how worried she is for Sam, and her behavior, like how she smokes. Her soul is quite literally dead and her being a walking corpse in every meaning of the word is such an interesting path to take her character. One of the core themes of Death Stranding has always been a sort of longing, a yearning for a thing that seems impossible, coming to terms with its impossible quality, but still fighting and doing what you can. In DS1, Die-Hardman’s name, while on the surface level might seem like a funny thing, it actually is about his longing for death, an atonement that he is never able to get. He cannot die, and his arc is about realising that he can atone just as well, with staying alive, and help to reconnect. A similar but also extremely different theme can be found with Deadman, who does not have a soul, and he is already “dead” but he can’t really “pass on”. In DS2 he finds a way, but still, he clings to the world of the living, because he wants to help Sam. The list could go on forever, but I want to talk about Neil Vana. Neil also wants to make it right. He wants to make it right, because his soul weighs heavy of all the crimes he has committed. The mothers and children he condemned to a fate worse than death must haunt his dreams every night. But he is a prisoner to his fate, he is doomed (I actually fucking love that for this reason, in his fight sections, he is always introduced as a prisoner of war). He reconnects with someone who he couldn’t save in his past, Lucy, and falls in love with her. Lucy calls their relationship a mistake, and ends things. Lucy is pregnant, and the father of her child is Sam, and his special qualities make the baby really valuable to the government. They want to take the baby from her. Lucy, as a last ditch effort, asks Neil to help her. How could he refuse? It’s right here, this is how he makes things right. He will protect Lucy and Lou.But he fails. He didn’t save anyone. He dies, Lucy dies, the baby is taken. Neil Vana dies, just as he lived. Full of regrets. But “Death can’t tear us apart.” Fragile saves Lou, and sends her to the beach. Neil’s beach. Neil can atone. In death, he can keep Lou safe, raise her, for Sam could not. Death Stranding 2’s terms for community and grief are intertwined. Our connections are how we stay alive. But they don’t end when we die. The way we live, our morals and thoughts, and our actions are what draw people to us in life. If we die, what we did, said and thought stay on the earth. They offer connections to the ones we left behind, and a chance to remember us. If Death Stranding 2 taught me anything, it’s that we need to stay together. Losses in our life cannot end with pushing people away. Only through the shared power of everyone on the DHV Magellan could Sam hold Lou in his hands, and ease his grief, and only through community can we hold Tomorrow in our hands, and stay alive. I am happy that I have loved, wished, trusted, and helped. I am happy that we have connected.