My journey across Death Stranding 2’s landscapes had me constantly pressing the screenshot button to take a brief pause and soak in the game’s breathtaking sights. From the first nighttime atmosphere, I saw stars twinkling in the sky, and my trek across the snowy mountains was met with the stunning sight of a massive, moon-shaped object.
That experience alone had me thinking: Death Stranding 2: On the Beach wouldn’t be nearly as good without Guerrilla Games’ Decima Engine. As one of the most celebrated games this year, a large part of Hideo Kojima’s latest sequel’s success is thanks to its immersive environments and incredible atmosphere.
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+ 5It’s fair to say the Decima Engine truly saved Death Stranding once Kojima moved on from his Konami days. Back then, the later Metal Gear Solid games made great use of the highly optimized FOX Engine, which was regarded as one of the best in its era. Sadly, that engine was shelved for years, until Konami revived it for the Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater Delta remake.
It was clearly a tough transition for Kojima Productions to move on from FOX Engine. Finding a new engine to match the demands of a Kojima game meant weighing performance, scalability, and fidelity. It needed to support high-end visuals while also delivering the seamless and open-ended gameplay for which Kojima is known.
click to enlarge+ 5Capcom’s RE Engine wouldn’t be viable due to its notorious struggles with open-world development. Unreal Engine 5, while powerful, would likely take KojiPro years to master. And FOX Engine? That chapter is closed.
The best choice was always Guerrilla Games and Sony’s Decima Engine, and choosing it was one of KojiPro’s smartest moves since going independent.
click to enlarge+ 5The Horizon games have always showcased Decima’s open-world prowess. Aloy’s adventures across post-apocalyptic America are filled with stunning vistas, abandoned cities, empty deserts, and lush jungles teeming with mechanical beasts. Death Stranding shares a similarly bleak, post-apocalyptic backdrop, albeit one that is more surreal and strange.
click to enlarge+ 5Even thematically, the connection makes sense. And with On the Beach, the engine feels even more refined, benefiting from years of updates since the first Death Stranding.
If Death Stranding 2 had been built on a different engine, I doubt I’d be playing it with this level of polish. KojiPro’s craft and attention to detail deserve credit, of course, but having an engine they're already familiar with helped them push even further.
click to enlarge+ 5There are still occasional bugs and glitches. The Decima Engine, while strong on performance and scale, sometimes causes me to clip into invisible objects or strange geometry. It’s frustrating, but it’s still leagues better than performance issues and fluctuating framerates.
If it’s not clear by now, the use of Decima in Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding series is the perfect fit. And it’s a promising sign that Guerrilla Games’ third and possibly final Horizon title will look even better. That alone has me excited for the engine’s future. We still don’t know whether KojiPro will use the engine again for the upcoming horror game OD or the tactical espionage game PHYSINT. But we can hope.
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