Press Start's GOTY #1 - Death Stranding 2: On The Beach

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It’s time for our annual countdown to award the very best games this year had to offer. Over the next ten days, we’ll count down our top ten games of 2025.

As always, the votes of each Press Start team member, weighted from #10 through to #1, were collated to compile our collective very best for the year that was. Games worthy of one’s top spot would be awarded a maximum of 10 points, and the values would descend to their tenth selection, which would receive a single point.

Hideo Kojima’s penchant for film and music has been evident throughout his previous works; however, none made it quite as obvious as Death Stranding, a contemplative, quite literal, walking simulator stacked with big-screen talent and the poignant ambience of artists like Low Roar. With the game’s sequel, Kojima ratchets the lever up to eleven, even going so far as to have a title track produced, as though it’s a James Bond flick, by Caroline Polachek.

Just as he did with the first Death Stranding, Kojima’s subtle-as-a-sledgehammer character work re-emerges through the lens of a new cast, portrayed by actors including Elle Fanning, Luca Marinelli, and Shioli Kutsuna. Although I did love the likes of Fragile and Deadman, it’s undeniable that the new members of the team shine bright, giving an even greater depth to the game’s world and setting.

Although the game’s Australia felt more like a geographical amalgamation than it did a true representation of our sunburnt country, being chosen as the sequel’s setting at all made On the Beach feel that much more special. Without changing the heart of the Death Stranding experience, the team at Kojima Productions was able to refine and perfect the combat and stealth mechanics, creating an experience that felt like a meeting partway between both Death Stranding and Metal Gear.

What a spectacle of a sequel Death Stranding 2: On the Beach turned out to be.

Brodie Says

“Death Stranding has become a particularly special property to me. I hold it near and dear to my heart. The first game, this wildly confident game basically about a mailman delivering parcels while trying to save the world, felt so off-beat and unexpected, while having that trademark Kojima tang. It felt like a microcosm of everything there is to know about its creator: it melded cinema and music seamlessly, giving players all over wanderlust for Iceland, the game’s setting for the United Cities of America.

The sequel has been everything the original was and then some. It benefited from its world being pre-established, so it was able to leap straight into the thick of things and confidently careen from one wild scene to the next.

‘Bones’, the Low Roar song prominently featured in the first title, featured a motif about being a long way from home; clearly, for us, it being set in Australia was a swerve nobody could expect, and that made it all the more memorable. As someone who has grown to love this series, even going so far as to visit the Opera House to watch Strands of Harmony, I’m thrilled that there’s more in this universe to come.”

In our review, James scored Death Stranding 2: On the Beach a 10 out of 10, stating:

“Death Stranding 2: On The Beach does everything it can to eclipse the original in practically every way, improving on the systems surrounding the already solid core of the original.

The result is a livelier world to explore, an engaging story to experience, and an overall much better-paced adventure through Australia that I struggled to put down. It’s well worth your time and more respectful of it, too.”

On the review aggregator Metacritic, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is resting at an average of 89.