Hype - Death Stranding 2: On the Beach - Coming June 26th, 2025 to PlayStation 5

Developer: Kojima Productions

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Available on: PlayStation 5

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is an upcoming open-world, action-adventure game developed by Kojima Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It serves as the sequel to the critically acclaimed Death Stranding.

Aside from being written, produced, and directed by the legendary Hideo Kojima (responsible for the entire Metal Gear Solid series of games and Death Stranding 1) - which is normally enough to hype any game or event up by itself, the game’s writing reflects the world as of the time he started working on it (prior to 2020, but changed a bit to reflect a world ravaged by COVID-19).

It being a true PS5 exclusive (for now, if the original Death Stranding coming to PC and Xbox is any indication) helps further the hype for this game. I am excited to see how the old characters from the first Death Stranding interact with the newcomers. I’m hyped, in an unusual way, to see how COVID-19 affects the game world and the interactions between the game’s cast of characters.

This quote from an interview with Hideo Kojima by Sachie Kobari really struck a chord with me: “When developing the sequel, we came up with various ways to accommodate players who are passionate about building infrastructure like highways, and as part of that, we added the ability to build monorails.”

It struck a chord with me on a nostalgic and sentimental level. I used to play with train sets and small-scale versions of NJ Transit trains and other train sets when my older brother Eric and I were kids. I still get all wonder-eyed seeing the display trains and helping the Barron Arts Center in Woodbridge, NJ, with their train show each December, which I am going on to year 7 with them as of December 2025.

As a result of all the above, my hype level for this new Monorail-building system is at an 11 out of 10, if I were to score it. To me, the developers saw that players loved building stuff like you could in Mojang’s Minecraft, for example, and wanted players to feel at home building elaborate monorails in the game’s open-world settings. For players, they might get the main point of the game, that being it might’ve been better if we didn’t get too connected, or they might skip that point entirely to build monorails all day long.

This game takes place in Mexico and Australia. These two locations are Open-World, which adds further hype to the game for me. Unlike the original, where package delivery was the focus for the most part, combat in Death Stranding 2, along with avoiding natural disasters like Earthquakes, are a main part of the game.

It explores what Sam had to do in the first game and builds a unique mystery on whether what occurred in Death Stranding was the right choice in a natural and unforced way, much unlike The Last of Us Part 2.

All of these reasons are why I’m so hyped for this game when it comes out for PlayStation 5 on June 26th, 2025, as a console exclusive. Whether it’s timed or not remains to be seen.