‘Death Stranding 2’ is Hideo Kojima at the peak of his powers

 

While I’m playing “Death Stranding 2: On the Beach,” I think about how my best friend Joey put me on to so much of my favorite music throughout my life. The first Death Stranding game was like a video game version of an album by Sigur Rós, the Icelandic post-rock band Joey introduced to me. I’ll never forget how Joey would slide me CDs and say with a knowing smirk, “Trust me, you’ll love this.”

A Hideo Kojima game comes with the promise that the director committed so much of himself to the project. His favorite music, his favorite actors (like returning stars Norman Reedus and Léa Seydoux), and his favorite aesthetics are all over his works. His Metal Gear series, which built his reputation as the world’s most famous game creator, was filled with references and tracks from his favorite groups, from David Bowie to Starsailor.

While I’m playing “Death Stranding 2,” I realize I am witnessing Kojima and his studio, Kojima Productions, at the peak of their powers, creating blockbuster popular art that challenges its audiences with enigmatic, often inscrutable storytelling. This time, Kojima and longtime co-writers Kenji Yano and Shuyo Murata have written the cleanest, most complete narrative since “Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater” (2004).

Trailers for the game, personally edited by Kojima, teased a fragmented, absurd story, and there are plenty of such moments. But it all builds together to his most crowd-pleasing finale in 20 years as all the seemingly disordered character and plot elements slide together into a stunning conclusion to the Death Stranding saga. It’s quite a feat, considering the game’s cast includes a cyborg samurai that giggles like an infant and a talking puppet that moves in stop-motion animation (made in the image of Kojima’s beloved German film director Fatih Akin).

Kojima is often criticized for focusing too much on the filmic elements of video games. (Here he has even cast his favorite directors, George Miller and Nicolas Winding Refn, as in-game characters.) That criticism is misinformed and narrow: Kojima’s projects are some of the most systems-heavy, mechanical games in the blockbuster space. “DS2” is no different, serving as an expansion and clarification of the 2019 PlayStation 4 title, which could be best described as a logistics-based exploration and action game.