Death Stranding 2 Leverages Next-Gen Metahuman Tech for Photorealistic PS5 Visuals

There’s no beating around the bush: Death Stranding 2 looks wonderful. The first footage started on Game Awards This week featured a noticeable upgrade from the first game, which already looked absolutely stunning on PS4 (and, later, PS5). Kojima Productions is once again working within the framework of Guerrilla’s impressive Decima Engine, but it’s also taking advantage of the unoriginal engine’s next-generation metahuman technology, such as the eagle in the small-print at the end of the trailer. Seen by Eyed fans.

For those of you who missed the announcement last year, MetaHumans is a package that is part of Unreal Engine 5 that allows developers to add extraordinary photorealistic NPCs to their games at an incredibly fast pace. It’s like the most complex, realistic RPG character creator you can imagine – but it’s clearly a tool designed for game developers rather than users. While many of the main characters in Death Stranding 2 are being face-scanned, such as Norman Reedus and Léa Seydoux, this suggests that the sequel may feature a more dense cast of NPCs overall.