Hideo Kojima says “Combat has become more flexible” in the upcoming Death Stranding 2

In a recent interview with IGN, Hideo Kojima has shared several insights on the upcoming Death Stranding 2 including many of it’s gameplay features which will separate the game from it’s predecessor. He explained that although Death Stranding 2 has put a lot more emphasis on combat, it’s still fundamentally a game about cargo delivery.

“It’s not that I’m simply pushing combat,” states Kojima. “The game is still fundamentally about cargo delivery, but combat has become more flexible. Players have the choice to take a detour around enemies or use a car or motorcycle so as not to encounter them.”

“Some of the staff on Death Stranding 2 worked with me on the Metal Gear series, so there were times when people worried that it was getting a little Metal Gear-ish. My personal explanation for it is that we simply pursued more enjoyable combat. This is actually connected to the theme of ‘we should not have connected.”

He also says that players won’t be forced into playing Death Stranding 2 as a Stealth game at any point. “That doesn’t mean that you will be forced into stealth: I don’t even use stealth myself.”

“When I play the game myself, I use ladders and make bridges, but I don’t build any of the highways; I just use what someone else made,” says Kojima. “That’s why I was concerned if people would really make roads themselves when the game came out, but it turned out that a lot of people did nothing but that. That was a pleasant surprise for me. I wanted to make sure that the sequel would have more interesting things to do for those players as well. The monorail is one such element.”

Kojima also implied in the interview that the release date for Death Stranding 2 were not up to him, and had been finalized a while back.

“For example, Sony has various other games lined up,” the game director said. “So, we can’t overlap with these other titles. It’s the same with movies. This decision (on Death Stranding 2’s launch date) was made quite a while back.”

He also elaborated on the Open World setting of the game and it’s realistic Day/Night cycle:

“We did [a day/night cycle] in Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain as well, but I wanted to properly include the passage of time in an open world,” says Kojima. “Gazing at the sky as the sun rises and sets is something that couldn’t been done in the first game, in part due to engine-related reasons, but it’s been put into the sequel.”

Death Stranding 2 will be open for pre-ordering on March 17, 10 a.m. local time while the game will release exclusively on the Playstation 5 on June 26, 2025.