Death Stranding 2: On the Beach might not be the kind of game that jumps to mind when you think of online gaming. After all, this is a delivery adventure where most of the time you're jogging up hills or riding bikes along roads with heaps of packages in your backpack in order to please NPC mission givers. At no point do you see any other players actually playing the game. And yet Death Stranding 2 isn't just one of my favorite online games of the year, but maybe ever.
Often when I think about online games I think about blasting headshots in Call of Duty Black Ops 6. Slurping juice in Fortnite as I dash away from the encroaching circle. Taking shots at the goal from way too far back in FIFA – erm, EA Sports FC 24. Drifting corners in Mario Kart World! Not games like Death Stranding 2 which, on paper, is mostly a story-focused solo journey. Yet here I often feel closer to the player base than I even do in MMOs like Final Fantasy 14.
