The PC version of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is about to be released.
After the unique "walking simulator" gameplay of the first Death Stranding gained widespread market recognition, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach not only inherits all the strengths of the original but also improves upon each of them.
To count them out, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach further enriches the diversity of map landscapes, adds more usable items such as firearms and Chiral structures, increases the proportion of combat gameplay throughout the title, and introduces a real-time dynamic natural disaster system...
Furthermore, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach continues the gripping narrative of the original Death Stranding. Through text, visuals, and item lore, it meticulously depicts how people develop and utilize new elements in the "post-Stranding" era. This not only brings freshness to players but also signifies that the unique art design and world-building of the entire Death Stranding series have become even more complete.
If there were a "Valhalla" in the gaming world composed of games with distinct conceptual features (such as post-apocalyptic zombies, violent fantasy, or Western themes), then with the release of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, the Death Stranding series could certainly take its place among them.
These factors have placed high expectations on the PC version of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach even before its launch. With a larger player base than during its PlayStation 5 exclusivity period, can it maintain the legendary status of the Death Stranding series? This is now the biggest concern among players.
Fortunately, this question isn't entirely unanswerable before the official release. Earlier this month, I was invited to an offline media event for the PC version of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. At the venue, I met three members of the development team and conducted a 40-minute Exclusive Interview.
In addition, during the first half of the event, I tried out the PC version of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach on four different configurations, ranging from high to low specs, giving me a comprehensive understanding of its PC port and optimization details.
First and foremost, it's worth mentioning the full support for 32:9 super ultrawide screens in the PC version of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. During the demo, a high-end PC equipped with a 32:9 super ultrawide monitor fully showcased the visual presentation of the Sierra Madre mountains in Mexico from the game's prologue with the widened aspect ratio.
Compared to the standard 16:9 aspect ratio, the endless mountain vistas on super ultrawide screens further highlight the advantages of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach's realistic art style and high-precision graphics. Particularly in the prologue, where players must switch to first-person view to soothe Lou, continuing in first-person after completing the required actions creates an immersive feeling, as if you are truly standing in that desolate, recovering wasteland.
Since the event only offered limited content for trial play, details about environments like the Mexican jungles and various Australian landscapes will have to wait until the game's release. However, there is no doubt that the 32:9 super ultrawide screen will bring pure improvement to the already excellent scenic maps of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.
Additionally, the PC version will fully support the more common 21:9 ultrawide screens. The PlayStation 5 version, released last year, will also take this opportunity to add 21:9 support to its list of compatible devices.
In terms of input devices, the PC version of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, like other PlayStation ports, supports the adaptive triggers and haptic feedback of the DualSense controller. If you prefer the PC-style keyboard and mouse controls, the game provides a comfortable key mapping scheme. Although the keyboard and mouse controls in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach largely follow the approach of the first game, unlike some recent poorly implemented schemes (you know who we're talking about, with the awkward WASD movement), this setup aligns well with the game's design philosophy while remaining intuitive and easy to understand—a point worth praising.
The keyboard and mouse control mode in the PC version of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach showed its strengths in another part of the demo—the VR training. With its official launch on PC, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach will update all existing platform versions with a new difficulty level, "To the Wilder," which is even harder than the original highest difficulty, "Very Hard." The several encounters with Neil Penna in the story will also be added to the existing VR training gameplay, allowing players to revisit these visually impressive combat levels and continually hone their combat skills to improve their scores.
During this process, the keyboard and mouse control mode in the PC version gave challengers an advantage in faster aiming. Although the third-person perspective and control code originally designed for controllers prevent players from achieving the extreme fluidity of native keyboard and mouse games, the overall experience with keyboard and mouse was still very good. It allowed for quick aiming, and the layout of shortcuts for switching items and adjusting stances was convenient and intuitive.
After several attempts, I completed the VR training level "Blaze" (the first encounter with Neil Penna in the story) during the demo with a time of 5 minutes and 4 seconds, scoring 46,474 points and earning an A rank. This score, which leaves room for improvement, indicates that the new combat gameplay additions have certain replay value.
At the end of the demo session, I also experienced the performance of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach on mid-to-low-end equipment. Honestly, I think the organizers calling a PC equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB a "lower performance" device was a bit humblebrag. However, since this machine could run the game smoothly at 2K resolution and 60 FPS with texture and shadow quality set to "High" and other parameters set to "Medium," we have every reason to believe that, thanks to Decima engine's new super-resolution upscaling technology "Pico," Death Stranding 2: On the Beach has achieved solid port optimization.
Moreover, according to the official recommended minimum specifications, the hardware threshold for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach has been lowered to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 and AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB. We can confidently expect that the PC version of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach will continue the excellent optimization seen in the PC version of the original Death Stranding after its official release.
What surprised me most in this regard is that Death Stranding 2: On the Beach includes a dedicated "Portable" graphics setting for Steam Deck, ensuring stable 30 FPS gameplay at native resolution. According to staff, the Steam Deck OLED units provided at the venue could run the two demo sections of the PC version for about 1.5 to 2 hours on battery power. During my hands-on session, I found that the game maintained a smooth 30 FPS even when power consumption was lowered to 12W.
Although the visual performance of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach on Steam Deck is significantly reduced compared to the other devices mentioned above, the fact that it still runs smoothly at a time when most major titles no longer support Steam Deck is undoubtedly an impressive achievement.
With this experience, we can naturally believe that Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, soon to launch on PC, will continue to deliver a wonderful gaming experience to all players.