Death Stranding 2 On the Beach trailer debuts at January State of Play

In which Sam swaps a baby for a dummy

Hideo Kojima showed a lengthy first look at Death Stranding 2 On the Beach during the January State of Play, and it looks like a Kojima game. On the Beach is the open-world game’s name, not where Kojima made the debut.

The 10-minute Death Stranding 2: On the Beach trailer starts with a surgical operation as two medical professionals try restoring someone covered in tar. Sam wakes up, looking rather dusty and worse for wear, and one of the surgeons tells him where he is – a vessel captained by Drawbridge, a group that stepped up to continue UCA’s connection work after UCA changed course and Sam disappeared.

She also has sentient gloves and a talking ventriloquist’s dummy, because of course she does. There’s a familiar villain, giant robot samurai powered by babies – yeah, it’s a Kojima game.

Sam sets to work rebuilding connections outside the United States and visits what looks like the moon, or a moon, a futuristic cyber-city, deserts, and factories, and it looks like he has a gun this time. The original Death Stranding’s blend of stealth over outright action mixed with tense fights against otherworldly creatures returns, and there’s a guitar that shoots electricity.

It’s a lot, and even those of us who’ve played Death Stranding aren’t entirely sure what’s going on. We’ll have to wait a while yet to find out, though. Death Stranding 2 On the Beach launches for PS5 sometime in 2025.