Following Hideo Kojima's split from Konami, many fans were excited to see what Kojima could achieve as an independent developer, and his new studio's debut game did not disappoint. Death Stranding immediately captivated audiences from the moment its first teaser dropped, even to a re-release with Death Stranding: Director's Cut. The game blended the surrealism and somber beauty of a world drifting in the post-apocalypse with a hardy optimism for humanity's future by coming together, released at a time when Kojima saw the real world as divided and in need of unity.
A sequel for Death Stranding has been on many peoples' minds as they anticipate what Kojima Productions will deliver next. With the official announcement of Project Overdose between Kojima and Xbox, as well as rumors spreading about Death Stranding 2, many are hopeful about a return to the series. Depending on which ending players got, it seems humanity might be living on borrowed time in the Death Stranding universe. Whatever shape a sequel takes, there are a few things for certain - chief among them being Death Stranding 2's need to go big with its next setting.
Death Stranding's Setting
Death Stranding took players to the United States of America, only the country had been destroyed in the first stranding that preempted the game's events. The "states" had long since been lost to the stranding, and instead all that's left cities, leading to the in-game name being the United Cities of America. Death Stranding's core objective was for Sam Bridges to trek across the surviving landscape connecting "knots" into the chiralium network, bringing the country back together and leading to a community-led determination of the "strand" genre.
In order to rationally fit the scope of a playable game, attempting to cross America on foot would not take six months of real-time, so Death Stranding's map was condensed. With a bit of creative liberty on Kojima's part explained away by the events of the stranding, the entirety of the former United States formed the basis of Death Stranding's setting. For a first game that many saw as a walking simulator, this worked well, as it helped contain the narrative of a country trying to rebuild itself. With a second game highly anticipated, players are expecting more than just a return to the same America they saw in Death Stranding.
Death Stranding 2's Potential New Setting
One of the challenges currently facing Kojima Productions is whether Death Stranding 2 will feature any previous characters. Sam Bridges was last seen going off-grid after faking his BB's decommissioning, so should Norman Reedus be returning for a sequel, it stands to reason that sequel will also take place in America. However, fans are going to be expecting more than a retread of the first game's map, meaning Kojima will need to get more creative.
Provided the game wouldn't venture to an entirely different continent, Death Stranding 2 should at the very least expand its borders to include the entirety of North America. Canada (and potentially Alaska too) would provide enough new ground for the player to traverse for the game to feel fresh and interesting. Narratively speaking, it would also be an easy solution to expand on the first game's story threads and original premise of connecting disparate cities together to form a network, instead elevating this concept to create Death Stranding's own version of a new United Nations.
An alternative to this would be the same premise but traveling south, expanding the map to include South America by traveling through Mexico to reach other nations left isolated. However, both concepts do carry the complicating factor of perhaps paralleling imperialism, something which Kojima could aim to avoid for a game predicated on forming human connections through goodwill - especially in the wake of the Ukraine conflict. Whatever Kojima Productions settles on for a sequel, players at least hope the team is aware of the high standard it is going to have to meet following Death Stranding's debut.
Death Stranding is available now on PC, PS4, and PS5.
