A game to cry over: Death Stranding 2 for PC in review

As with the first game, the PC version was handled by the Dutch studio Nixxes Software, which has delivered good to very good work on other PC ports in the past and has earned a solid reputation as a result. From a visual standpoint, the title, which was first released for the PlayStation 5 in 2025, still feels state of the art even though Death Stranding 2 does not support ray tracing.

Among the major strengths of the Decima engine are its enormous draw distance and its believable, varied landscape geometry, which at times creates photorealistic panoramas on screen. Combined with the first-rate characters and their real-life actors, the compelling presentation, and the stirring soundtrack, the result is an excellent atmosphere that is almost unmatched. On top of that, the unusual story gives the player something to think about, which is also not something that can be said of every game.

There is also little to criticize on the technical side. For starters, the graphics settings can be accessed outside the game if needed, which can be very helpful when problems arise. But whether in-game or not, the developers have included a wide range of options.

The display settings, for example, include controls for upscaling. In addition to the in-house PICO, the familiar DLSS, FSR, and XeSS technologies are also supported. Optionally, frame generation can be enabled at up to 4x. Most of the settings, meanwhile, are found under Graphics Settings. Here, there are numerous individual options that can also be adjusted globally via presets. The range extends from Portable to Very High. A major plus is that changes are applied immediately, without requiring a restart. Even at the lowest setting, the game still looks more than respectable, as shown in the screenshot below.

We use the beginning of the game for our measurements, as you have a great view of the vast landscape from the hilltop. The CapFrameX tool is used to record the dangerous descent to a certain point for just under 30 seconds (see video).

In the Full HD range, the game's graphical demands turn out to be very moderate. Even an RTX 5060 Laptop GPU with 8 GB of VRAM can deliver an average of almost 50 FPS at maximum settings.

At 2,560 x 1,440 and using the Very High preset, the mobile RTX 5060 falls just short of the 40 FPS mark, while an RTX 5070 Laptop GPU should be able to clear it. With DLSS set to Balanced, however, a notebook with an RTX 5060 is once again sufficient.

A high-end chip is only necessary for 4K displays without upscaling. Running at 3,840 x 2,160 with maximum details calls for a strong RTX 5080 Laptop GPU or better, with TGP being a key factor. With DLSS set to Balanced, meanwhile, a mobile RTX 5080 delivers around 60 FPS.

As usual, frame generation produces a major increase in raw FPS figures. Using the RTX 5090 Laptop GPU as an example, MFGx2 delivers around 60% more frames with DLSS Balanced enabled. Compared with double frame generation, MFGx4 extracts nearly 70% more performance. Subjectively, latency remained unremarkable.

Death Stranding 2 impresses not only in narrative terms, but technically as well. Unlike some other triple-AAA games of recent years, such as Borderlands 4, it does not require an ultra-high-end graphics card, at least at moderate resolutions, especially given the wide range of settings available to PC users. Overall, our verdict is a clear thumbs-up.

As gaming benchmarks are very time-consuming and are sometimes delayed by activation restrictions, we are only able to present a limited number of results at the time of publication. More GPU results will follow.