It’s been while since we heard any updates from Hideo Kojima and his company Kojima Productions, and during this year’s SXSW convention held at Austin, Texas, the Japanese video game prodigy and creator revealed a brand new trailer for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach – the highly anticipated sequel to the 2019 adventure game Death Stranding that was his new game following his controversial split and subsequent departure from Konami after completing work on his final Metal Gear game “Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain”.
After the pandemic hit and began sending the world into lockdown, Kojima made changes to his narrative for the sequel – as a lot of unintentional parallelisms and comparisons were made between what was depicted in the world of Death Stranding and in the real world. The first game saw Sam travelling across a post-apocalyptic America, visiting isolated communities and building bridges to reconnect everyone again. The second game dives into the opposite direction and sees more questions asked – Should we have connected? Along with the mysteries and new characters introduced, that’s what the new footage below shows, which runs over ten minutes and features some familiar nods and allusions to Kojima’s previous works too.
Besides seeing Norman Reedus back as main character Sam Porter Bridges, the trailer also features some returning characters from the first game – including Lea Seydoux as Fragile and Troy Baker as Higgs. New characters added to the mix are Elle Fanning as Tomorrow, Luca Marinelli as Neil, Alissa Jung as Lucy, Debra Wilson as Doctor, and. Alastair Duncan as The President. George Miller of Max Max fame also lends his likeness to play Tarman, while Turkish-German director Fatih Akin plays Dollman. A couple of nods and references to Kojima’s previous work in the Metal Gear series also feature heavily in the footage – including Marinelli’s character donning a Solid Snake headband, and a large Death Stranding creature combining with one of the game’s ships to form a Metal Gear Rex inspired called the DHV Magellan.
Knowing Kojima’s penchant for creating convoluted storylines and exploring deeper themes and messages in his games, it will be quite the journey to explore when DS2 hits and gives fans an epic journey to eplore. You can find out more details about the different versions of the game via the PlayStation Blog – and those who pre-order the Digital Deluxe Edition and Collector’s Edition will have access to the game 48 hours before everyone else on June 24.
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach will be released exclusively on PlayStation 5 on June 26, 2025
