At its core, Death Stranding: Director's Cut is an inventory management game. The more you play, the more freedom you have to do things with that inventory. You can help others. You can hurt others. You can save citizens. You can kill them. You can grow your world. You can destroy it. Regardless of your decision, DSDC is a game unlike others in that your assumptions about core gameplay loops and storytelling are pushed aside in favor of exploring a disconnected future. For those who have yet to play DS, DSDC is clearly the iteration of DS that is worthy of your time given its iterations that are increasingly respectful of your time and patience while also giving you additional creative outlets to muck about. For those of you who were unable to get hooked into this game, then DSDC may not be the answer you seek in a cinematic experience. Give it a shot, though; I'd love to be proven wrong.
“Hideo Kojima is a GENIUS!” My friends, B and Y, would often yell that to each other whenever we would play League of Legends or Heroes of the Storm. The origin story of this phrase is nonessential, but the sentiment and meaning behind praising Mr. Kojima for seemingly benign minutia is important. Death Stranding: Director’s Cut (DSDC) is out on the PC, and it is in every way GENIUS as much as Mr. Kojima.
I remember when Death Stranding (DS) was released for the PS4. After months of seeing weird post-apocalyptic videos featuring Mads Mikkelsen, Norman Reedus, and Guillermo del Toro, the resultant product was that of a so-called “walking simulator.” For fans of the Metal Gear series, it was assumed that Mr. Kojima would pull a tactic that had been pulled before and bamboozle anxious gamers with DS being a new installment of the Metal Gear franchise. No bamboozle was to be had; DS is its own game, set within its own universe, albeit with some easter eggs that remind us that DS is connected with Mr. Kojima’s love of music, film, and (again) seemingly benign minutia as much as it is connected to his past work. Prior to reviewing DSDC, I had never played DS on the PS4, PC, or even DSDC on the PS5. I had avoided all spoilers for almost three years so I could be surprised by what Mr. Kojima had to offer; I loved being surprised in Metal Gear Solid 4 (MGSIV) and 5 (MGSV), so I needed the bamboozle once again. Please, Mr. Kojima, please continue to bamboozle us.
To simply call DSDC a “walking simulator” or a “delivery simulator” would be entirely unfair to the depth DSDC takes to immerse the player into the world of the United Cities of America (UCA). If I was to agree with the flawed notion of DSDC being a “walking simulator,” then Breath of the Wild and Horizon Forbidden West are to be classified as that, too. Sure, you are tasked with getting from point A to point B, but how you get there and when are entirely up to you. Once you break your assumptions of what you think you need to get from point A to point B, you can start to experiment with gameplay mechanics that range from svelte and efficient to downright silly. At that point, DSDC becomes just as much of a deep third-person open world game just as much as BotW and HFW. But again, you need to break yourself of specific gameplay habits that have been beaten into your consciousness by derivative gameplay installments you may have encountered in the past few years.
Death Stranding‘s storytelling follows the Hideo Kojima method of worldbuilding with minor adjustments: Expect a lot thrown at you at once at multiple points throughout your time playing. My first time playing MGSIV, I was stunned to encounter 30minute long cutscenes that went into excruciating detail for seemingly benign plot elements, only for these elements to reappear as a plot twist further down the line. I remember folding laundry during one of these cutscenes as a high school student. Prior reviewers of this game have criticized the story as being too frontloaded AND backloaded. I don’t necessarily agree with these perspectives because they don’t get at the root cause of so much plot occurring simultaneously at the beginning AND the end of Death Stranding: Death Stranding‘s “midgame” plot occurs deep within the menus of Sam Porter Bridges’ cufflinks.
Indeed, upon reaching the “big map” (i.e., the Central US, where 80% of the game takes place), much of the story is told via email/memos rather than a cinematic medium. This is a departure from Kojima’s prior work, where context was usually added in voice-acted conversations between Solid Snake and other minor characters. Instead, the communication is one-way and textual, and it’s up to the player to read between the lines to figure out some characters’ backstories and intentions in memo form. I’m not sure how I feel about this, because some of these written memos are quite dense, despite some of the important portions literally emphasized with distinct colors. For some players, a lot of the beauty of the world (and explanation that justifies the logic of some of the gameplay loop) is entirely missable because of the content being hidden away. By the time you reach the ending, you’ll have forgotten that you’ve gone so long without a long-form cutscene that the three hours you’ll spend watching the ending (yes, three) will feel like an eternity. Consistency in the story’s pace would have made the plot more accessible.
When I began the game, I couldn’t help but notice the emptiness of DSDC‘s world. My first “delivery” to an incinerator that felt eerily like “As I Lay Dying”‘s “my mother is a fish” quote hammered home the expanse of the wilderness and its potentially taxing nature. Small boulders tripped me up and damaged cargo. Rivers picked me up and whisked me away downstream like Sisyphus’ eternal descent from the top of a mountain with his pal, Bouldy. Yet, as I progressed through the world and connected more cities to my network, I began encountering echoes of other players by interacting with their structures they added to DSDC‘s world. At the time, these players were other reviewers, since they were some of the lucky few early access to DSDC. Nevertheless, I was grateful to see small spatters of life in the world consisting of a bridge here and a sign there.
Then came the release day, March 30. Upon logging in to play, I was bombarded with notifications alerting me that others had used my bridges, ladders, and ropes, and had encountered my signs. Areas I had previously connected were now becoming populated with more signs alerting me of enemy presence and hidden easter eggs. Suddenly, I had this urge to make parts of this game easier for others. I proceeded to spend almost 10 hours on a personal mission to rebuild the roads across the nation by moving around cargo from depot to depot and raiding enemy encampments for their precious materials.
Indeed, DSDC presents you with an illusion of isolation as you trek across the nation with your BB (bridge baby) strapped to your chest. Norman Reedus’ Sam Porter Bridges is just as much disconnected as his world, yet his journey forces him (and you) to connect to others in ways that seem unimaginable and unpredictable. Simply adding a ladder on a hill makes it easier for you AND other players to get to your destination and find others, and you may find yourself going hours out of your way to become the world’s best road worker. In no way is this required of you to dedicate that much time to navigate the world, but…how you choose to utilize your tools to make the world easier to explore will impact others, and their worldbuilding will impact your experience, too.
Unique to the PC version of DS are small missions involving easter eggs from other franchises, such as Cyberpunk and Half Life. Even more, the Director’s Cut features several new missions that bear similarities to other stealth-based games. No spoilers here, but Kojima-fans may be pleased with these new additions. There are other customizable options in DSDC, such as being able to change your BB’s color, that weren’t present in DS. It’s clear that DSDC seeks to let players customize more of their world as they see fit and increase their immersion.
Other than the cosmetic and fanservice content, DSDC offers additional elements that are mindful of players’ time and add creativity to how you make deliveries. First on the list is Cargo Catapults, which are large stationary guns that can literally shoot your cargo across the map and allow you to remote control where that cargo goes. If you want to avoid investing playtime into building roads, then catapults may be the way to go to get the larger deliveries to the more disparate regions of the UCA. Ziplines have been given additional buffs, too, in that you can now bring your floating carriers along as you zip across large vertical and horizontal stretches of land. I personally loved using ziplines in the mountainous region (you’ll know what I mean when you get there), as I was able to make deliveries and complete quests in a matter of minutes. Also unique to DSDC is a racing mode that offers a fun little diversion for those tired of rebuilding the UCA. Personally, I wasn’t that much of a fan, but I can see how others can enjoy it as well as what it unlocks for you.
Combat has been upgraded and given more attention in DSDC. No longer are you confined with stiff melee combos that occasionally fail against human enemies. Now, you can equip gloves that make your punches more agile. You can dropkick enemies. And, if you’re struggling with using the guns at first (especially the Maser Gun, another DSDC addition), you have a shooting range and set of tutorials and drills to walk you through how to best use these weapons to their fullest extent. All of these additions are helpful for the player and give you an easier time with some of the learning curves of DSDC‘s combat.
DSDC brings increased graphical options for those with higher-end PCs to maximize framerate and customize your experience based on your hardware. If you have a 4K or Ultrawide monitor, you can rest easy knowing that your bleeding edge monitor will display DSDC in all of its beauty, up to 240fps. This isn’t to say that you need a top of the line machine to run DSDC–if you have at least a Geforce TGX 1050 (4GB), you’ll do just fine. I played DSDC on my PC running a 2070S and encountered zero technical problems. I capped my frames at 60FPS, but I’m confident I could have increased them without issue.
DSDC offers eight additional tracks to DS‘s already phenomenal soundtrack. Kojima’s appreciation of Low Roar adds to the desolate nature of the world, and these additional tracks are no different in being perfectly fit for the DS universe. As I write this review, I find myself listening to Woodkid’s “Goliath,” Low Roar’s “I’ll Keep Coming,” and Major Lazer and Khalid’s “Trigger.” It’s very rare for a game to trigger goosebumps on my skin like DSDC‘s song selection, and DSDC features several goosebump-inducing musical moments in the story where the music ever-so-gently fades in while you travel about. It’s comparable with Red Dead Redemption‘s Mexico moment (if you know, you know). One of my few gripes is that the only place you can select music to play is in a private room while Sam takes a break. Unlike MGSV (which, I stand firmly behind the notion of that game having one of the best curated soundtracks of the PS4 generation) that allowed you to play music freely as you explored, you’re limited to the ambient soundtrack of DS (which is pretty good, don’t worry) and the occasional Low Roar song as you complete a story-related quest. I would have loved to listen to the songs in their entirety as I drove through the game on the roads I built. I miss MGSV‘s cassette player quite a bit.
Seeing as this is a PC game connected to Steam, I spent the first 10 hours or so using the Steam controller. However, as I played, I remembered that several of the PlayStation exclusives that have been slowly making their way to the PC have had varying degrees of DualShock 4 and DualSense support. I am ecstatic to report that, yes, DSDC fully supports the DualSense controller, haptics, adaptive triggers and all! Playing with the PS5’s DualSense controller feels MUCH more immersive than playing on mouse/keyboard, but I can understand if you’re most comfortable with a keyboard and mouse rather than a controller in your hands. If you’re a PS5 owner, or if you prefer to use a controller, I _highly_ recommend that you use the DualSense controller when playing DSDC. (Note: To enable the DualSense’s unique features, you may need to adjust Steam’s default configuration and disable the “Steam Controller” as the default controller for DSDC.)
I’ve spent 57 hours playing DSDC for this review, and I can very easily say that DSDC is absolutely fantastic…for those who haven’t played DS before as well as those who have invested a hot minute into DS and want more. For the casual player, I find it slightly difficult to recommend them to pay to upgrade to the Director’s Cut. Despite the gameplay improvements, combat improvements, graphical improvements and flexibility, and so much more, I find DSDC to be more appealing for those like me who can find themselves immersing themselves into Mr. Kojima’s vision of a disconnected and near-apocalyptic America. DSDC is the DS that is meant to be played by those who are able to defy gameplay routines that we take for granted.
At its core, Death Stranding: Director’s Cut is an inventory management game. The more you play, the more freedom you have to do things with that inventory. You can help others. You can hurt others. You can save citizens. You can kill them. You can grow your world. You can destroy it. Regardless of your decision, DSDC is a game unlike others in that your assumptions about core gameplay loops and storytelling are pushed aside in favor of exploring a disconnected future. For those who have yet to play DS, DSDC is clearly the iteration of DS that is worthy of your time given its iterations that are increasingly respectful of your time and patience while also giving you additional creative outlets to muck about. For those of you who were unable to get hooked into this game, then DSDC may not be the answer you seek in a cinematic experience. Give it a shot, though; I’d love to be proven wrong.
If you want to read some additional perspectives on Death Stranding and Death Stranding Director’s Cut, I highly recommend you consider our review of Death Stranding (PS4) and Death Stranding Director’s Cut (PS5). Nathan (DS) and Steven’s (DSDC) reviews offer additional context about what to consider if you’re truly on the fence about this game knowing that some of the gameplay is indeed contentious.
