Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is a third-person action-adventure game set in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by otherworldly creatures. Players control Sam Porter Bridges, a retired porter, as he traverses the open worlds of Mexico and Australia to connect isolated survivors to a wireless communication network called the Chiral Network. The core gameplay revolves around delivering packages across hazardous terrain, managing cargo weight, building infrastructure like roads and monorails, and navigating natural disasters. Combat has a greater focus than its predecessor, offering lethal and non-lethal options alongside stealth approaches. The game features asynchronous online elements where players can build structures visible to others.

Eleven months after the events of the first game, Sam Porter Bridges lives in quiet isolation near the former US-Mexico border with his adopted daughter Lou. The United Cities of America is now fully connected via the Chiral Network, and automated delivery robots have rendered human porters obsolete. When mysterious portals called "plate gates" begin manifesting across the world, linking distant continents, Sam is drawn back into action. Fragile, his former ally, recruits him to venture through one such portal into Australia, where scattered survivors remain cut off from the rest of civilization, threatened by evolving ghostlike creatures, hostile bandits, and powerful machines. Sam and his companions aboard the tar-traversing ship DHV Magellan must cross an increasingly dangerous continent to connect its people before humanity faces extinction.