I still remember watching the early Death Stranding 2: On the Beach clips and thinking, okay, Hideo Kojima has finally built a game specifically for people who like their sci-fi with a side of puppet choreography. Now that we are in 2026 and the game has been out since 2025, those clips feel less like a fever dream and more like a promise the final game actually kept. I am just a regular player, not a Kojima scholar, but I have a controller, a high tolerance for weirdness, and a soft spot for games that refuse to explain themselves too quickly.
The first clip I saw was maybe the most normal thing in the whole batch, which tells you everything. A topless Norman Reedus, still doing his best to make black goo look like a fashion runway, steps through the muck to meet a man called Tarman. Tarman is played by George Miller, the Mad Max director, and he shows up with a flying pet cat and a creepy talking puppet. I paused the clip and just stared at the screen. That is not a sentence I expected to write in my notes, but here we are.
Part two of the footage introduced more characters, including Tomorrow, played by Elle Fanning, and Rainy, played by Shioli Kutsuna. They chat with Sam and then sing a song with that same creepy little puppet, officially called Dollman. I love that the game gives its weirdest mascot a name and then treats him like a normal member of the cast. It is the kind of commitment to nonsense that makes Kojima games feel like they come from a parallel universe where video game logic and stage musical logic are the same thing.
Then there was Heartman, who demonstrates his ability to sleep standing up in the third clip. On paper, that sounds like a small character quirk. In motion, it is deeply funny and slightly unsettling. The last two clips went even further. One showed a Photo Shoot Event, which seems to be a blend between a collectible and a new take on photo mode. The player takes photos of the three women in Death Stranding 2: Tomorrow, Rainy, and Fragile, played by Lea Seydoux. They pose, dance, and make strange noises. The gameplay shows the trio standing in front of a mirror, posing on some stairs, and dancing around a bike.
That Photo Shoot Event is the one I keep thinking about. It sounds like photo mode, but it is more like a collectible with a director's chair. I have played games where you hunt down shiny things and games where you line up a perfect screenshot, but I have never played a game that asks me to direct a tiny, strange music-video shoot with three characters who are clearly having their own private joke. It is the kind of side content that could feel like filler, but in a Kojima game it feels like the main point.
The final clip was a music video for a song called Horizon Dreamer, where a man dances with several versions of the little puppet man. I am not going to pretend I understood the deeper meaning. I just know that I watched it twice, then sent it to a friend with the message, this is why I play games. Death Stranding 2 is expected to be serious about its themes, and it clearly is, but it is also happy to be completely silly. That balance is hard to pull off.
Here is a quick list of the moments that stuck with me:
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🧟 Sam, Tarman, the flying cat, and the creepy puppet meeting in black goo
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🎤 Tomorrow and Rainy singing with Dollman
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😴 Heartman demonstrating his standing-up sleep
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📸 The Photo Shoot Event with Tomorrow, Rainy, and Fragile
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🕺 The Horizon Dreamer music video with multiple Dollmen
| Moment | Why it stuck with me |
|---|---|
| Tarman and the cat | George Miller showing up in a Kojima game is exactly the kind of casting I want |
| Dollman singalong | The puppet is creepy, cute, and somehow the emotional center of a scene |
| Heartman nap | A tiny character detail that says more than a cutscene |
| Photo Shoot Event | A collectible that turns into a weird little photoshoot |
| Horizon Dreamer | Pure puppet chaos, and I mean that as a compliment |
I remember the original Death Stranding got a 6/10 from IGN, and the knock was that it delivered a fascinating world of supernatural sci-fi but its gameplay struggled to support the weight. That review stuck with me because it summed up my own mixed feelings. I loved the atmosphere and the ideas, but I often felt like I was fighting the game to enjoy it. From what I have played and watched since the 2025 launch, Death Stranding 2 still asks for patience, but it seems more comfortable being strange. The weirdness is not a bug. It is the point.
Kojima Productions has already confirmed which characters are not returning, and the story introduction shared back in January left plenty up in the air. Even in 2026, with the game out and plenty of players finished, the themes are still slippery. I am not going to pretend I have every story beat mapped out. I am just a player who likes it when a big-budget game takes a risk and lets a puppet sing.
If you are jumping in now, my advice is simple: do not skip the weird side content. The Photo Shoot Event, the music video, the standing nap, the black goo meeting with Tarman and his cat, all of it matters in the way that strange dreams matter. You might not be able to explain them to a friend, but you will remember them. And honestly, that is why I keep coming back to Kojima's worlds. They are not always easy to love, but they are never boring. 😄