Death Stranding Director's Cut, the preview
Death Stranding Director's Cut
It has been discussed almost every day since the announcement during the Summer Game Fest and, without too much surprise, Death Stranding Director's Cut returned to show itself during the State of Play on July 8. A presentation that, it had been specified, would not focus on the next big triple As like God of War or Horizon Forbidden West, preferring instead to dedicate space to minor titles: between an unexpected Moss: Book II and a F.I.S.T. (which somewhat mitigated the disappointment in not having seen a return of Stray), however, the latest work by Hideo Kojima also made room.To explain in more detail what awaits us with this Director's Cut - the first of what could be a new trend, closely followed by Ghost of Tsushima which has adopted the same definition for its definitive edition, we have thought of this preview of Death Stranding Director's Cut.
So let's find out more about the contents scheduled for next September 24th.
A new tomorrow awaits us
Following the order of the trailer above, we are first of all, anticipate new battles. It is not clear if we will have to face new bosses, which in our opinion is the most logical option, or will only be introduced generic enemies absent from the original version: the latter option would make things simple in terms of contextualization, whether it is Mules. whether it's CA. If instead we were to confront some bosses, then we should see how they were introduced, because every danger of a certain importance (and dimension) faced by Sam had a logic. Could it be battles with unedited plot content? This is also a plausible option and, indeed, interesting because it would anticipate the possible creation of enemies with a unique design.Immediately after we move on to a series of updates regarding an advanced combat system, all however focused on potential clashes with donkeys: this is the aspect that has less convinced us of the package, because if it is true that these sections were very clunky in the original game (with questionable melee and long-range conflicts that could mostly be resolved with the Bola Gun), the main point was that they didn't feel necessary at first. Structuring them better, with new melee moves and lethal / non-lethal weapons including even a machine gun from the station, goes to deprive the game of the charm of avoiding a direct confrontation with the donkeys as much as possible and reminds us a little of the times in which Metal Gear was described as a stealth video game but, in each trailer, there was Snake blasting something with rocket launchers.
Of all Death Stranding, the concept of having to fight against human beings and above all the way in which it was introduced were the most out of tune and less functional elements. If on the one hand it makes sense to have refined it, on the other it would have been better to work to reduce these interactions and not encourage them.
Death Stranding Director's Cut On the other hand, the introductions to facilitate, or at least vary, deliveries are more appreciable. All except the catapult, which once again seems out of context and not particularly necessary in an experience, it is worth remembering, already complete in its original edition. A support exoskeleton and the Buddy Bot are additions that do not undermine the balance, in particular the all-legged robot that often did damage during solo deliveries. Seeing him running alongside us, or even using him to rest our legs making us transported, made us smile and fits Kojima's slightly bizarre view. He also excellent the ramp, which replaces the bridge but with much more style. It does not remove or add anything to the package but it is a sensible option overall.
This brings us to the Fragile Circuit. We do not know exactly how to react to this content, except by saying that it is a "kojimata": on the other hand, if the "nomurate" exist, it is possible that even the Master can indulge in one and more vices. Did he feel the need? No, as probably none of the above additions were needed, not even the ones best introduced in context, but they might turn out to be fun. Of course, as far as we know now these are spaces that don't make sense within a deadly setting like that of Death Stranding, but to the eye they seem to take advantage of the roads built by Sam himself, so let's just consider it a divertissement.
Death Stranding Director's Cut
The highlight of Death Stranding Director's Cut are clearly the additional story contents: no details have been provided on this, but just to see, in a few seconds of videos, a series of empty and abandoned BB pods, together with an unexpected cemetery in a small flowery field and the probable focus on stories (not to mention tragedies) of lived lives, is enough to intrigue us.
Without counting the new enemies introduced, whose identity is also unknown. They may be a further advanced version of the Donkeys but we suspect there may be something more behind it and we can't wait to find out. For what little they have been shown to us, even taking into account the previous trailer in which the opening video of Shadow Moses in Metal Gear Solid was very similar, we have not been able to get an idea of who they may be: it is sure that in the internet someone is analyzing the images pixel by pixel in search of the smallest detail but for now there are no big theories about it.
Lastly, a post on the PlayStation Blog confirmed the news of the PS5 version: Needless to say, the most anticipated, for us, is about haptic feedback and trigger resistance. We want to feel under our fingers all the weight and the effort of handling Sam's oversized loads, because let's face it, we all have at one time or another loaded him with a weight and a quantity of objects that are decidedly out of scale. As much as 3D Audio, fast loading and Performance / Fidelity modes are more than appreciable features, the triggers are the one we will focus on most while playing - the best for returning the fatigue of eternal walking and climbing. Tomorrow is in our hands again.
Death Stranding Director's Cut has presented itself with more content than we expected: not all of them are necessary, and even those that are more focused don't seem indispensable anyway, but it is also true that the main dish of this definitive edition are the unpublished narrative contents. What more can the game tell you that it hasn't already said? How will Hideo Kojima expand the story to make it meaningful to the lore? Questions to which it is impossible to answer, because the direction that Kojima's inspiration can take is unpredictable and Death Stranding has confirmed it: we just have to wait until September 24 to understand the potential of this Director's Cut.
