Death Stranding 2: On The Beach

First Test:

Version 1.000.000 included on disc. Version 1.000 displayed in game.

Entire main story playable offline.

This game has an online element where you and other players are encouraged to work together by sharing structures that you have built, contributing supplies to build larger structures, as well as helping each other complete support requests and deliveries. You can fully play the game offline without this feature but you will have to completely rely on yourself to contribute supplies to build & maintain structures, and the only support requests that will appear will be ones from NPCs. While this can make the game a bit harder, the game still feels very well balanced even when playing offline.

If you are going to be playing the game fully offline, it is HIGHLY recommended to disable the “Log In at Launch” feature, as keeping it enabled will interrupt your gameplay occasionally to tell you that it cannot connect to the internet.

Two online-only trophies are required for the Platinum.

Issues:
⁃ At the very beginning of the game after it asks for your birthday, the patched version adds icons for when it talks about your Star Signs

⁃ Some minor pop-in encountered

⁃ Noticed a minor framerate drop during one cutscene

⁃ Occasionally, during gameplay, some minor sound effects don’t play when they’re supposed to, the most noticeable one being the sound effect for picking up Chiral Crystals

⁃ Encountered two instances where the Terminal music continued playing during a conversation

⁃ Some occasional animation jankieness observed during gameplay, however, most of this was also present in the first game as well.

⁃ Encountered an instance in Episode 14 where none of the music during gameplay played properly. Reloading a save fixed the issue.

⁃ Encountered two instances in Episode 16 where sound effects for a character could be faintly heard during cutscenes where it wasn’t supposed to be audible. This issue wasn’t observed after restarting the game and loading a save.

Content completed:
⁃ Entire main story completed.
⁃ Completed a few side and standard orders.
⁃ Completed various non-order related side activities
⁃ Reached overall Porter Grade 153
⁃ Earned 38/55 trophies, with 57% overall completion

Voice languages included on disc (Only English was tested): English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Spanish (Latin American), Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazilian), Polish, Russian, Japanese

Text languages included on disc (Only English (USA) was tested): English (USA), English (UK), French, Italian, German, Spanish, Spanish (Latin American), Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazilian), Polish, Russian, Greek, Arabic, Dutch, Czech, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified)

Second Test:

Completely playable offline with no download required. Utilized default settings except for disabling subtitles, switching over to 'Performance' mode & turning off the online log-in notification (see "Special Note" below). All attempted trophies unlocked as necessary although the platinum trophy is unobtainable without an Internet connection as a few of them specify online requirements.

SPECIAL NOTE: Before booting up the game from the main menu, it's highly recommended to disable the online log-in notifications. Under the 'Game Settings' tab in the 'Options' section, switch 'Log In at Launch' over to 'Off' for uninterrupted offline gameplay. Otherwise, an in-game prompt will appear periodically, particularly when traveling into newer locations or chapters, informing you over the lack of online connectivity for the optional social component of the experience. It can be manually declined when the window pops-up during gameplay, but it'll feel rather disruptive in pacing & the game app has to be restarted to implement the change for reference.

-- Very, very minor technical oddities that hardly appeared or surfaced only once through the entire duration of a 50+ hour single playthrough, such as insignificant pop-in of environmental objects / shadows on both the map feature & open-world (ex. most notable was circular draw distance pop-in for a single spot during a late-game section with dead fish in a snowy area), invisible cargo (ex. captured live kangaroo) when Sam exited the DMV Magellan elevator before appearing as normal in the next transition shot, slight ghosting effect when Sam awakens in dark private rooms & an enemy soldier getting stuck under the corner of a bridge south of the 'Motherhood' base during active combat status.

-- When checking out Lou in the pod, the baby might have an abrupt animation shift during the beginning of the Sam's point-of-view perspective. Also when resting out in the field, Sam's POV camera can clip into cargo attached to his shoulders.

-- Partly clunky animations from traversing the terrain, such as moving rapidly across a mountainous ridge, appear to have been retained from the first game.

-- Exiting out of the 'Social Strand System' sub-menu using another prompt instead of the 'Menu' button as suggested while in a private room can unintentionally trigger other activities that were highlighted underneath the mode (ex. hitting 'Circle' will close the social media window & transition straight into the restroom section, etc.)

-- When near surfaces that can disrupt the exiting animations for vehicles, Sam can quickly respawn elsewhere within the vicinity & the third-person camera will whip into position behind him to correct itself.

-- After completing a pre-built private storage facility foundation near the Data Scientist, Lou's default color pod scheme switched to 'Iridescent' despite still being 'Normal' in the cosmetic settings. Unselecting & reselecting the standard color fixed the issue.

-- Minor spoiler: Only one moment of faint 'slowdown' with frame-rate during a cut-scene shot of Sam passing back through the Plate Gate back into Mexico while riding an Offloader vehicle.

-- Story spoiler: During the second boss fight with Neil, which involves underwater physics, Sam briefly rag-dolled with a horizontal tilt after exiting out of the 'Pause' menu. It hardly lasted a second & likely happened due to the odd weight physics in action for this sequence.

-- Late-game spoiler: While approaching the last major fort with an Offloader vehicle, all of the stored cargo was dumped onto the nearby vicinity of the collapsed bridge following a cut-scene of the "red ninja" breaking the pathway behind the player. This can be particularly annoying as a large quantity can be automatically placed in a spot of bottomless tar where items will slowly sink into the substance before becoming irretrievable at some point. The emptied vehicle was inaccessible as it was left on the other side of the passage, but it later became available after the road was "restored" during a subsequent story moment shortly afterward. Another instance of displaced Offloader cargo happened after the BT boss fight during the return trip through Mexico although the player left the vehicle a little bit out of the arena vicinity & all cargo was placed back into the machine through a manual process.