DEATH STRANDING 2: ON THE BEACH review on PlayStation 5 Pro

BASIC GAME INFORMATION

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach — is not just a continuation of the cult game, but also a technical benchmark for the entire current generation of consoles. The project is built on an updated version of the engine Tenth, specially adapted for advanced features PlayStation 5 Pro, including improved ray tracing, hybrid rendering support, denser geometry, and expanded upscaling capabilities. Death Stranding 2 offers users several graphics modes at once: from a frame rate-prioritizing mode to modes with an emphasis on resolution and ray tracing - including hybrid shader tracing and complete deactivation of RT effects. Each of them makes noticeable changes to image quality, lighting, shadows, and reflections.

In the context of technical analysis, we will consider in detail differences between graphics modes, including a comparison of standard rendering, ray tracing through shader procedures and full-fledged RT with deep integration of reflections and Global Illumination. A comparison will be made temporal upscaling and native rendering, as well as an analysis of the scalability of LOD models and texture quality at different priorities. Special attention will also be paid to Decima engine operation, the way it handles weather effects, surface simulation, and loading data from the PS5 Pro's SSD when Accelerated Memory Buffering is enabled.

This review is for those who want to understand the technical side of the game: how each mode works, how ray tracing plays a role, what exactly is rendered in real time and what is rendered through pre-computed maps, and how exactly the PS5 Pro handles one of the most resource-intensive games of its generation. 

Well, below are the gameplay on the console itself PlayStation 5 Pro: 

DEVELOPMENT HISTORY

Creation Death Stranding 2: On the Beach began immediately after the success of the first part. Hideo Kojima and the Kojima Productions team immediately realized that they could not simply continue on the same path - the pandemic had changed the perception of loneliness and interpersonal connection, including in the personal lives of the developers. Therefore, from the very beginning, the script was built not around a new "epic story", but around a sense of inevitability and longing for real interaction in the virtual world.

The plot is based on the idea of ​​psycho-emotional recovery. The team of writers, working under the direction of Kojima and Michiru Okaya, spent over a year interviewing people who found themselves cut off from society. The concept of the main character Samuel Bridges develops not as a heroic savior, but as a link between the destinies of others, where each time she rethinks her own pain. This is not just a continuation of the brand - it is an attempt by the studio to undermine the comfort of defeat and isolation.

The process of redesigning the scenario cycle lasted from the beginning of 2022 until the spring of 2024, when the team built the final narrative framework. These were hundreds of drafts, reworked dialogues, lines, scenes and encounters with NPCs. Not only the genre changed - the game now has elements of social drama, tragedy, the inextricable connection of family and country. The most powerful scenes are associated with the dramas of brother-in-arms officers, the loss of relatives, building bridges between families - literally and metaphorically. Forgiveness for parents, understanding for children, connection for the state. This is the key theme - when each bridge symbolizes not a technical connection, but an emotional step towards another.

In June 2024, the work shifted from the script to the implementation of cutscenes - the team of actors (including Neil / Luca Marinelli and Return of Fragile) shot dozens of hours of material in Motion Capture, recorded not on the stage, but in a specially equipped recording studio - there was an adaptation of the microphone for the roar of the wind, breathing under load, the pulsation of waves. It seemed that the tiny sounds of footsteps became part of the sound core - without them, emotions lost their color.

In late 2024, the team rebooted the tactical script gameplay: the long transition phases were removed, integration with bridge systems was strengthened, and motorcycle riding was added as a tool for new freedom. This was a response to criticism of the first part about the too slow pace: the player was given the opportunity not only to carry cargo on foot, but also to feel the speed on the open roads of Mexico and Australia. A motorcycle is not just a means of transport - it is a symbol of a return to life, speed, and determination.

The official release date is June 26, 2025. This is not just a marker for the game's release - it is the end point of a series of long tests on ourselves and the team. Owners of collector's editions received access two weeks earlier - this was a test of the synchronicity of online structures, bridges, traces and visual response to the actions of other players. Everything was confirmed: PS servers withstood the load, connections between PCs were alive and stretched - but everything was higher.

After the release, the studio announced that the PC version would come out later — in six months or more. This was not announced as a refusal — it was a planned adaptation, when Decima had to work on the layer of bridges and models for platforms with a different architecture. Everything sounded honest: “First PS5, then PC”, without pretense or technical justifications.

Eventually - death stranding 2 became more than a continuation of the franchise: it is an emotional experiment, an exploration of the theme of connection lost in the digital world and an attempt to outlive each other in space and time. The studio, without fanfare, returns with a second issue, having stuck at the core of the project large-scale ideas and desires to become a bridge when they themselves are tied to the earth. 

GRAPHICS

Visual part Death Stranding 2: On the Beach represents a consistent development of the visual paradigm of the first part, but with noticeable changes towards hybrid rendering, scalability and control over image quality. On PlayStation 5 Pro, the game offers several graphics modes: from a performance priority to an emphasis on maximum detail with ray tracing enabled. Each mode not only changes the resolution and frame rate, but also uses different levels of post-processing, lighting, reflections and geometry density, which affects the overall visual perception of the scene.

The basic visual structure of the scene remains cinematic, with a subdued palette, high contrast in rain and fog, realistic materials, and procedural surface simulation. death stranding 2 significantly improves the microdetailing of objects. Stones, grass, rock textures and roads receive a denser structure even at an average distance from the camera. Normalization of reflective maps is used, which gives a noticeable improvement in the perception of the material at close range. In comparison with the first part, textures have become less dependent on the viewing angle and respond better to direct lighting.

The lighting is based on a hybrid model: the scene base is illuminated by a classic directional source with shadows, light probes and screen-space GI are additionally used, and reflected rays are connected in raytraced modes. At night and in closed locations, the visual effect changes noticeably - the shadows become softer, the rhythm of cascading shadows disappears, and lighting from secondary sources more accurately models light scattering. At the same time, in scenes with open skies and daylight, you can see how the included RT effects make minimal changes: sun glare and reflexes are slightly improved, but the overall picture remains comparable.

Particular attention is paid to water. The sea surface and puddles react to rain and wind, creating wave oscillations with independent phase. Water in motion displays reflections in SSR mode, which become more accurate when ray tracing is enabled, especially in the presence of multiple light sources. However, reflections on stationary surfaces (e.g. glass walls, wet rocks) remain in Screen Space, even in RT mode. Visually, this gives the effect of incomplete reflections outside the screen - a characteristic feature of the hybrid approach. Indoors, RT reflections become active, especially in the presence of directional light sources, lanterns or lamps, while in the open world this is used sparingly.

Weather effects in the game have been significantly improved. Rain has a dense simulation: drops leave traces on the surface, distort reflections, at high levels of precipitation you can see a wet shine on almost all objects. The accumulation of moisture is visually manifested on the character and cargo - the model becomes glossy, glare from light sources is visible. The effects of dust, steam, wind and snow particles are integrated into the render directly, with minimal graininess. Particles react to lighting and remain stable even when turning the camera, without the characteristic "jumping" of the alpha channel.

The depth of the scene is perceived stably thanks to the scalable rendering of distant objects. Priority in the construction of the frame is given to the geometry of the middle distance. Horizons are formed through simplified meshes with normal maps, which replace real geometry at a distance of more than 400-500 meters from the player. Visually, this is almost imperceptible, but in scenes with a high density of rocks and vertical objects, smoothing of the structure in the background is observed. In high-quality modes, the density of distant geometry is higher, but in performance mode, part of the terrain is loaded in compressed form.

Shadows vary depending on the mode: in the basic quality, cascaded shadows with 3 levels of detail are used, while at close range, a PCF filter is active, smoothing out jaggies. In RT, a shadow component from secondary lighting is added, giving softer penumbras. The difference is especially noticeable indoors and on the character's face: eyebrows, nose, folds of clothing receive more pronounced soft shadows. However, in open space, the difference becomes insignificant. An interesting feature: shadows from thin objects, such as railings or vegetation, are rendered with simplification even in RT, which indicates performance priorities.

Occlusion is implemented via standard SSAO in the basic mode and HBAO+ when tracing is activated. Volumetric elements of the scene, such as boxes, stairs or curbs, receive additional depth due to shading at the joints. The effect works correctly, but in scenes with a high density of small objects (for example, cargo, awnings, plants), the occlusion can merge into a single dark outline. This is smoothed out by post filters, but when the camera moves, artifacts from temporary reconstruction are sometimes observed.

Image quality varies from mode to mode. In performance mode, the game runs in dynamic resolution with upscaling to 1800p or 2160p via temporal reconstruction, which is almost visually imperceptible at medium distances. Native 4K is only available in quality mode, but it reduces the frame rate. The picture remains clear - without noise, ring artifacts or dirty edges on objects. In RT mode, the resolution is also dynamic, but adapted to maintain visual clarity of nearby objects. The upscaling model does not use DLSS or FSR, but uses its own TAA with a temporary buffer. This gives a consistently clean picture, but in fast scenes there is a slight blurring of moving objects - especially against the background of a sharp change of the camera.

Post-processing includes correct bloom, depth of field, chromatic aberration (in moderate values) and light vignetting. Blur effects are disabled in performance mode, but are preserved in scenes with close-up focus. DOF works stably, without flicker or focus changes in the background. Facial animations and character skin have been upgraded with dynamic pores, fine wrinkles and a controlled gloss mask. At the same time, however, subsurface scattering is limited - in scenes with side lighting, the skin looks slightly more matte than in the cinematic implementations.

The game maintains visual stability in dynamics. Thanks to balanced parameters and aggressive filtering of time artifacts, the image does not fall apart even in conditions of heavy rain, strong wind and fast movement. The only drops in visual quality can be observed when loading new segments of the world - at these moments, blurring of shadows or slow loading of textures for 1-2 frames may occur.

Overall graphics Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is built on a combination of cinematic quality, physical verisimilitude, and flexible visual modes. Despite the lack of path tracing or modern next-gen upscalers, the visual quality remains consistently high, and the implementation of effects is technically accurate and adaptive. This makes the game one of the most advanced visual projects on PlayStation 5 Pro in the current generation.

GAME ENGINE

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach uses an updated and heavily modified version of the engine Tenth, designed with a focus on visual fidelity, physics simulation, and scalable performance. This technology is an evolution of the engine previously used in the original Death Stranding, but for the second part it has received a significant update at the level of rendering, simulation, and memory handling to meet the needs of the PlayStation 5 and, especially, the PlayStation 5 Pro. First of all, changes concern three main areas: expanded support for ray tracing, low-latency asynchronous I/O, and the introduction of a hybrid approach to rendering through shader reconstruction.

The basic structure of the engine remains multi-point, with a strong focus on working in closed ecosystems - it was initially optimized for specific hardware and API. In the case of PS5 Pro, Decima uses the built-in GNM/GNMX architecture and low-level compilation of graphics pipelines. This allows both traditional rendering processes and tracing to be launched in a single time slot with bandwidth management. All processes for working with geometry, streaming and LOD objects are moved to separate threads using asynchronous loading with priorities that support Kratos I/O technology - an internal implementation of the SSD system, different from DirectStorage or similar on PCs.

One of the key components of the updated Decima was support for ray tracing via hybrid system, where only individual visual components (reflections, shadows, global illumination) are ray-traced. This allows flexible management of the balance between quality and performance. For example, in priority RT modes, reflection tracing is used only in closed rooms and on wet surfaces, while the rest of the scene uses SSR and screens with temporal stabilization. Shadows in scenes can simultaneously consist of classic cascaded shadows (CSM) and shadows obtained via BVH tracing - this is implemented through the choice of material, depth and LOD level on which one or another technique is applied.

The lighting system in Decima remains hybrid and does not use full-fledged path tracing. Instead, an improved version of global illumination is used with pre-calculated light maps (light probes), supplemented by screen-space GI and limited tracing based on reflected light. All materials use physically correct BRDF shading, with support for microfacet reflections and subsurface scattering. In rainy conditions or high levels of scene humidity, a system of dynamic change of surface characteristics is additionally activated, which is reflected in the gloss and level of reflected light.

The geometric part of the engine has been significantly reworked: Decima now supports dynamic meshes with variable density, which are automatically simplified or compacted depending on the camera position, character movement, and personnel budget parameters. Unlike the standard LOD system, which uses predefined levels, Decima implements a continuous LOD morphing system similar to Nanite, but with lower density. This technology is called VGM (Variable Geometry Meshes) and has been adapted for the console architecture. In particular, the engine generates several levels of detail at the moment the scene is loaded, and then interpolates them on the fly, reducing visual artifacts when changing geometry levels.

The animation system has also undergone significant changes. The new version of Decima uses combined animation based on motion-matching and kinematic bindings, where every character movement adapts to the terrain in real time. This is especially noticeable when moving on uneven surfaces: the feet and body adjust their position relative to collisions and the model's reactions to the mass simulation. In addition, the body's physical system is built using Ragdoll procedures with limiters and balance controllers, which is important for scenes with loss of stability or reaction to external influences (explosions, projectiles, sliding). The engine dynamically chooses between animation and physics based on a probabilistic context model.

Water and weather conditions are processed through nonlinear simulation of liquids and vapors, where each state has its own set of viscosity, density, reflection and refraction parameters. Rain is partially textured procedurally, but drops and traces on the surface are calculated locally, depending on the surface angle and material type. Waves and oscillations of liquid, especially in marine scenes, are rendered using FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) simulation with overlapping rainfall, breeze and refraction. Refraction of light in water is implemented not through physically traced, but through cascaded refraction maps with a multi-layered transparency mask.

The particle system in Decima now works through GPU-pipeline, with the ability to run simulations in parallel with the frame. This is used not only for visual effects (smoke, dust, snow particles), but also for simulating small objects at the gameplay level - for example, flying debris, destruction, flying insects and air currents. Particles react to scene lighting, including global illumination, which makes them visually consistent with the environment. At the same time, a special type of clipping of invisible particles through camera zones is implemented - this reduces the load in large open spaces.

In terms of sound, the Decima engine uses spectral-discrete model of the audio scene, where each location has its own acoustic map. This allows for realistic echo, reverberation and sound decay, especially in closed and semi-closed spaces. All sounds are spatially processed and distributed based on the scene geometry, including effects from walls, water surfaces and objects. Dynamic reverberation changes based on context are used for voices and footsteps - for example, when changing the location from a street to a cave, the entire sound profile is immediately adjusted.

Finally, the handling of memory and data storage in the new version of the Decima engine has been rebuilt around block-based priority-fetching thread system, where each scene is divided into micro-segments with their own loading index. This allows the engine to load only the world segments necessary for the current frame or the next transition, without taking up unnecessary memory. In combination with the PS5 Pro SSD, this gives zero loading screens and smooth transitions between zones without lag. The special feature is that the engine generates a preload map in advance and chooses priorities itself based on the player's actions, camera angle and movement speed.

Overall, the Decima engine in Death Stranding 2 is a hybrid solution between classic rendering and modern ray tracing technologies, with a focus on optimizing for the PS5 Pro hardware. It does not use cutting-edge approaches like full path tracing, but gives developers full control over the visual composition of the scene, quality, and performance. It is this modularity and adaptability of the engine that allowed us to achieve high image quality while maintaining a stable frame rate in most modes.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is installed in the main console storage and takes up 91.99 GB disk space. This is the volume without additional packs or DLC, which indicates a very compact structure of the game given the scale, quality of assets and volume of cinematics. This optimization is the result of tight integration of the Decima engine with the PlayStation 5 Pro SDK, which uses real-time data decompression technologies via Kraken and high-speed I/O from NVMe SSD.

Current build - Version 1.003.000, uploaded and updated June 23, 2025 at 17:42. This is the final build of the first release, fully available to all users, as confirmed by the line Eligible (everyone). The age rating (18+) indicates that the game contains mature content and requires approval in the console profile.

The download is complete and the game is active in local storage without the need for a constant network connection. This is especially important for offline playthrough scenarios, since even with the network features, the single-player campaign structure is completely offline.

In this way, death stranding 2 takes up a reasonable amount of space, optimized for high-speed I/O, and from the first patch it was deployed into a stable version with an eye on high compatibility and correct operation on PS5 Pro.

SETTINGS

🔹 Game Settings section - difficulty, interface, behavior filters

This section contains the basic parameters that define the context of the game before the first step. Difficulty is not only set in numerical terms: each value here is part of the narrative. Story turns off resistance, allowing you to focus on the emotional story; Casual maintains a minimum interaction threshold; Normal offers a balanced test structure; Brutal — a rigorous, methodically constructed test of endurance and patience. This distribution emphasizes the emphasis on accessibility — but without compromising on depth.

Below that are additional options for network behavior, content display, and visual clarity. You can limit the number of enemy animations shown on first contact, disable spoiler signs, and customize the interface to your own playstyle—disable auxiliary icons, leave only basic markers, or reduce visual overhead entirely. All of this creates a sense of fine-grained control over the narrative—as if the player is determining how much information they want at any given moment.

🔹 Section Controls - physicality of control, tactility and balance

The section on control physics is structured taking into account the philosophy Death Stranding. Here, control is not just pressing, but an extension of the character's body. One of the most expressive points is the setting of the motion sickness mechanics Lou: The player can choose whether to control this action with the gyroscope or the stick. This strengthens the connection between the player and the game event, turning simple interaction into a kinesthetic experience.

Particular attention is paid to balance - physical in the literal sense. The player can adjust the sensitivity of the response to attempts to maintain balance, change the level of vibration and resistance of the triggers, thereby affecting the "weight" of all actions. Dead Zone on both sticks is manually adjusted, allowing you to eliminate drift or, conversely, increase sensitivity. This is especially important in scenes with unstable load - when every tilt, every step must be extremely precise. Control over the minimum duration of holding buttons complements the impression of precise engineering tuning.

🔹 Camera Settings Section - Cinematic and Manual Navigation Precision

The camera parameters are concentrated here, arranged according to context zones: movement, aiming, driving, working with the map. The camera in the game is not just a look, but a tool for reading space. The settings allow you to change not only the direction of the axes, but also the speed of their reaction. The player gets the freedom to adjust down to the smallest detail: you can separately adjust the acceleration when moving the sight, the response delay, even the shape of the response curve - linear or adaptive.

An important feature is the ability to separately configure the camera behavior depending on the mode: normal movement, shooting, driving. This allows you to accurately build behavior in critical conditions, avoiding annoying shifts. Auto-centering can be completely disabled or adjusted by the speed of return - which is especially useful in dynamic scenes, where the focal point must remain under the player's control. Even the map follows the same principles: inverting the axes, maintaining orientation - everything is available for manual adjustment.

🔹 Language Settings section - multilingual presentation and accessibility

The language section confirms the international focus of the project. The user can choose not only the subtitle language, but also the voice-over language - the available options include English, French, German, Japanese, Russian and others. An interesting detail is the ability to turn on or off the display of the names of the speaking characters in the subtitles. This allows you to vary the depth of immersion - either focus on the plot dialogues, or leave the viewer in the dark and build perception only on voices and intonations.

🔹 Audio Settings section - sound distribution, volume and source priorities

The final section, concerning sound, opens up possibilities for fine-tuning the acoustic space. The user can change the overall volume level, as well as control individual sound streams: audio playback from joint structures, gamepad cues, and even specific effects such as interaction sound signals. The automatic audio output optimization option allows the system to adapt to the type of equipment used, from a TV to headphones.

This set of parameters emphasizes the importance of sound in death stranding 2 as a full-fledged navigation and emotional tool. Not only the visuals, but also the sound can be fully customized, creating a personal audio space around the player.

GRAPHICS SETTINGS

Continuing our technical review Death Stranding 2: On the Beach on PlayStation 5 Pro, let's move on to the key section - graphics settings, which determines the balance between image quality, performance and visual presentation. Although the list of parameters seems laconic, the simplicity of the interface hides the architectural features of the hybrid renderer and the internal logic of scalability. Below is a sequential analysis of each subsection.

🔹 Graphics Settings Section - Flexible Architecture and VRR Support

In this section the player is given a choice between two main graphics profiles: Prioritize Quality и Prioritise Performance. These modes don't just control resolution or anti-aliasing — they toggle a full set of rendering parameters inside the Decima engine, down to the length of LOD chains, shadow complexity, and lighting algorithms. The main difference between the modes is in the target frame rates and stability when working in variable resolution conditions.

Mode Prioritize Quality designed for stable 60 frames per second, with an emphasis on full-screen clarity, improved reflections, expanded depth of field, and denser shadows. The resolution in this mode is either close to native 4K or achieved through high-level temporal reconstruction. VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) is enabled, so that small fluctuations do not cause visual tearing or micro-freezes. Even in complex scenes with weather effects, the game maintains visual stability, making this mode preferable for those who value frame stability and richness.

В Prioritise Performance the game is accelerating to 120 frames per second, although the frequency can dynamically drop to 90-100 FPS under high load conditions - for example, in scenes with many light sources, wet surfaces or dense weather effects. This is especially important for players with monitors or TVs that support 120 Hz - thanks to VRR, smoothness is maintained even during temporary drops. Visually, the game is slightly inferior to the quality mode in terms of geometry density and reflection processing, but in motion these differences are smoothed out due to the frequency. The resolution is variable, with a priority on maintaining FPS.

Thus, the system of graphic settings in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach on PlayStation 5 Pro implements not a static choice between "beautiful" and "fast", and dynamic switching between two balanced approaches, both of which take into account the capabilities of modern displays. Support VRR and high frame rates in performance mode turn the game into a technically adaptive experience - with a choice of either visual density or ultra-smooth controls.

Compared to a static frame, simplified geometry, smoothing of shadows and reduction in the accuracy of reflections are noticeable.

🔹 Screen Brightness subsection - brightness, HDR and tone calibration

The brightness is selected via a special screen with a visual example of a night and day scene. This approach allows for precise calibration of the display in both dark and brightly lit conditions. An interesting feature is the presence of a setting HDR — the function is switched on manually and is accompanied by a regulator HDR Luminosity Settings.

The default value is set to 5, which attempts to achieve a balance between the brightness of highlights and the depth of shadows. The slider determines how much the game will use the high range - at high values, highlights can lose detail, and at low values, the scene becomes muted. This is especially important in a game that often combines contrasting landscapes: misty mountains, shiny rocks, neon lights, and indoor architecture with artificial lighting.

HDR calibration is done correctly, and with the right display the game is capable of producing dense, rich images, especially in scenes with the moon, lightning flashes and water reflections.

Thus, despite the apparent simplicity, the system of graphic settings Death Stranding 2: On the Beach on PS5 Pro is built on the principles of internal adaptation of the engine to the rendering profile. The user does not manually adjust shadows, reflections or anisotropic filtering - instead, the game offers two full profiles, each of which optimizes the internal frame architecture. Together with HDR calibration and visual demonstration of changes, this system ensures stable operation on different types of displays and gives the player the opportunity to choose between aesthetics and smoothness without sacrificing stability.

COMPARISON OF GRAPHICS QUALITY MODES

In this section, we presented comparisons of image quality in the PS5 Pro version. in performance mode The game runs in dynamic resolution upscaled to 4K, but with a noticeable reduction in clarity upon closer inspection. The image becomes softer, especially at long distances, where details lose sharpness and the edges of objects blur. In fast frame movement, minor reconstruction artifacts can be seen - subtle halos or barely perceptible "tails" behind the characters. However, thanks to the high refresh rate, visual stability in dynamics remains good.

In this case, the performance is impressive: in this mode the frame rate is maintained at the level 110–120 FPS, with drawdowns up to 95–100 FPS in heavy scenes - for example, with many effects or in rainy episodes. The game supports VRR, which eliminates image tearing during temporary drops in frame rate. Animations become much smoother compared to a fixed 60 FPS, and the response to the player's actions feels faster. For players who prefer responsiveness, this is the best choice.

Quality mode, on the contrary, demonstrates completely stable 60 FPS without hesitation. It runs at a higher resolution — probably with less scaling or in near-native 4K. The picture is significantly sharper: distant landscapes are rendered more clearly, objects have more precise contours, and lighting effects — such as highlights, reflections, and chiaroscuro — are rendered with greater fidelity. This mode is visually closer to what we see in trailers and cinematics.

The most noticeable difference between the modes remains processing of reflections, vegetation and background texturesIn Quality mode, water has a more realistic surface with world reflections, while in Performance mode, reflections are simplified or disabled at all. Likewise, textures on slopes and in the grass in the background load earlier and with fewer compromises in Quality mode, creating the effect of a denser, more alive environment.

Both modes use unified post-processing system, including depth of field, blur, SSAO and volumetric lighting, but the level of detail and stability is higher in the quality mode. It is worth noting that even at a high frame rate and at maximum clarity, the game does not lose its signature atmosphere. The choice of mode depends on the player's preferences: either an almost cinematic image or the fastest and most responsive gameplay.

HDR OFF/ON COMPARISON

In this section we presented comparisons of image quality with HDR on and off. through photography. In mode SDR image looks flat and grey: the sky loses depth and white objects often blend into the surroundings. Clouds and smoke look featureless, while in HDR creates clear layering and volume. Light from lamps and flashes in SDR seems muddy, while in HDR it stands out brightly with the right gradation. The difference is especially noticeable in dynamic weather - snow and rain in HDR feel like real.

Dark scenes in SDR lose detail, especially indoors and at night. Shadows turn into solid black areas without textures. In HDR, the complex structure of lighting is preserved: textures on the floor, face or clothes are distinguishable. This affects the expressiveness of cutscenes - facial expressions and facial expressions are conveyed much more accurately.

Colors in HDR look realistic and richIn SDR, the characters' skin and vegetation appear washed out, with the wrong palette. With the switch to HDR, the greens acquire a natural hue, the skin becomes warm and alive, and the lighting makes the colors three-dimensional. Even the desert slopes in HDR show a variety of tones, unlike the monotonous SDR picture.

Light sources in HDR are worked out in detail: in SDR the sun and lamps are just white spots, while in HDR you can distinguish the shape and direction of the rays. The light through the windows stops overexposing the image, the contrast remains balanced. This creates a believable and cinematic atmosphere, while SDR leaves a feeling of cheap film.

HDR materials with reflections look natural. In SDR, glass and water lose transparency and realism, metal objects look plastic. In HDR, everything changes: water reflects the environment, raindrops shimmer, and metal on suits shines when the camera moves. The result is that the picture in HDR is perceived as alive, and SDR is an outdated imitation without depth.

CONCLUSION

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Shows Off a Dramatic Leap in Visuals compared to the first part. The characters' faces are rendered with micro-details of skin, wrinkles, pores and facial movements that look real. The materials of clothing, leather, metal and water are realistic, and wet surfaces effectively reflect light and refract the environment. Even hair looks physically correct, without the "brush" effect.

Lighting in the game is based on a physically accurate model., in which light sources interact with surfaces in complex ways. Soft shadows, diffuse light, global illumination effects, and natural reflections from water and wet surfaces are visible. HDR enhances the depth effect of an image, adding volume to scenes and creating a clear separation between light and shadow, which is especially noticeable in cutscenes.

Atmospheric effects and fluid simulations add a cinematic feel to the game. Rain, waves, steam and snow are not simply superimposed on top - they physically interact with the environment. Environmental details such as grass, rocks and structures are rendered with high texture density. and complex geometry, which is especially noticeable up close. At the same time, the drawing distance remains high, without the effect of "popping up" objects.

Animations and behavior of objects in scenes reach photorealistic levels. The improvements in the physics of movements, reactions to wind, and contact interactions with the environment are especially noticeable. Particle effects and post-processing - cinematic quality, including depth of field, blur, lens effect and subtle color work. This creates a film-like feel rather than a game, especially in fast-paced scenes.

Overall, the game's visual style has reached premium CGI levels. Unlike the first part, the picture here does not feel like an in-game one, but like an expensive pre-rendered scene - and this is preserved in everything, from cutscenes to gameplay. The difference between SDR and HDR is colossal, and only with HDR enabled does the game demonstrate all of its artistic richness, volume and light drama.