Death Stranding Director's Cut is also great on PC | Review
The reality, however, is always in the middle. Hideo Kojima's latest production is, undoubtedly, atypical both in its concept and in its implementation. The story of Sam Porter Bridges is a very complex story, at times excessively bizarre and which voluntarily opens up to different interpretations. One of its strengths, however, lies in sharing the heaviness of every step taken by Sam with the player, asking the latter to make a "real" effort, through undoubtedly peculiar game dynamics, to make people perceive as interactive as possible, Sam's efforts to carry out his task.
A concept that remains even with all the additions to the gameplay introduced in Death Stranding Director's Cut which, net of some not exactly convincing news, not only tries to expand the adventure of Sam Porter Bridges but tries to make it more usable to the public, managing at the same time not to distort its important DNA.
On the splendid notes of Don't be so Serious, we have therefore started a new game on Death Stranding Director's Cut. Our aim? Go hunting for every single addition and understand if, this new version, proves to be an indispensable purchase for those who have already completed, on PC, the journey of Sam Porter Bridges.
We thus advance within a prologue with very interesting implications but almost identical to those of the base game, just like the gameplay mechanics which remain completely unchanged in the early stages of the game. Only a few hours later, during what we could label as "the first, true order", the innovations introduced in Death Stranding Director's Cut began to knock on our door.
First of all, the game tutorials and the general user experience have been improved: the dialogs now have a better timing and the calibration of the path to be faced benefits from a completely new introduction, perfect for explaining to novices how to set the course and face the most difficult tasks.
Although the latest effort by Hideo Kojima turned out to be a divisive production, one element has always made everyone agree: the ever-pressing progression that skilfully alternated moments of narration, the release of new tools and new approaches to dealing with deliveries.
Already in the basic version of the title, these dynamics were managed in a brilliant way, with very few moments in which the constant progression made room for more tedious and redundant moments. Death Stranding Director's Cut tries to correct precisely those situations, matching access to the new tools available to Sam, precisely with moments in which the continuous playful stimulus was less in the original version of the title.
By doing so, from the beginning to the end of the adventure, you will always have the opportunity to approach deliveries in different ways, finding something really concrete in your hands that offers greater variety to the dynamics of the game. What convinced us is that the tools introduced in Death Stranding Director's Cut are not limited to being trivial enhanced versions of the previous ones but turn out to be completely new accessories that will require "field tests" to understand their potential before exploit them for deliveries.
Once it has been ascertained that the entry into the game of these tools is well dosed, it remains to analyze how the novelties introduced in Death Stranding Director's Cut relate, with accessories, and gadgets, present in the base game. We can tell you right away that although enhanced stabilizers, ramps and robot assistants undoubtedly make deliveries easier to complete, the balance between bonus and malus for those who want to abuse these new accessories is well done.
If on the one hand it is true that, through the ramps, you will be able to perform a very violent "chiral leap" capable of making you cross rivers and impassable paths, on the other hand, making a careful analysis, it is clear how the use, for how effective, it does not in any way interfere with the cableways, which unlike the ramps allow you to create real routes to be combined, a bit as if we were aboard a cable car. Ditto for the Robot assistant, who is not a substitute for overcars, since the AI will have a hard time following you during the most complicated paths; not to mention that its use as a Delivery Robot (not an assistant) prevents Sam from getting the maximum score.
Utilities aside, given that Sam's space is quite limited, some of these tools will also need to be analyzed and compared with your own style of play. For example, the very powerful level three stabilizer takes up almost the entire backpack, preventing the transport of batteries and bags that are much larger than normal. All these examples are only to explain, further, how the improvements, which in the announcement phase were perceived as destructive, are actually inserted with intelligence and, if associated with the new level of difficulty, able to guarantee an even greater challenge rate. ironic, yet always balanced.
Delivering packages has never been so difficult
The new difficulty level introduced in Death Stranding Director's Cut makes both orders and clashes with CAs more challenging or human opponents. Just to give an example, shoes and batteries last much shorter, and the transported load is more fragile and sensitive to impacts. Even the boss fights benefit from some improvements: we report the presence of new attacks and a greater reaction speed. However, in some situations, due to the high degree of challenge, the clashes could double their duration, becoming excessively long and risking to quickly lead to "tedious" rather than "demanding".An expanded narrative sector?
In the months leading up to the launch of Death Stranding Director's Cut, we did not perceive any movement related to the actors and the motion capture sessions. As expected, the new contents related to the main narrative are indeed interesting and focused on some elements that remained quite smoky in the basic version, but do not boast the exposure to which we have been accustomed with the traditional experience. Expect documents to be read or, at the most, to listen to a hologram. However, this information is well guarded by donkeys or terrorists, and imagining yourself as the Snake of the situation you will have to sneak in or face the enemies openly.A known defect of the original title, and also present in Death Stranding Director's Cut, resides in the action and stealth phases. However, we have noticed in the new missions, a much more intelligent level design, and positioning of the enemies. Although the stealth sections are always immediately legible, the shootings, being concentrated in closed places, feed more the enemy pressure, giving the AI a better and lively attitude. Situations that, in truth, we have partially noticed also in the common fields of donkeys and terrorists, as evidence of the fact that the AI, especially at Very Difficult difficulty, has been slightly improved.
Episode after episode, then, some new deliveries will also appear: the first concern the rescue of some couriers; the others the delivery of dangerous materials to be transported, similarly to what was experimented with the assignments that involve the transport of a bomb.
Shown in the final trailer as side additions, the Races and the Polygon play a marginal role, but there is a difference between the two contents: the polygon, being the world of Death Stranding quite dangerous, is a remarkable playground within which to experiment approaches, challenge the AI and try every single weapon without the risk of leaving craters behind. Races, on the other hand, introduced with little enthusiasm by the game itself and quite redundant in execution, represent the worst side of Death Stranding Director's Cut. During our test we completed all the available circuits, but it was the sole desire to unlock some new content that pushed us. For pure whim and personal enjoyment we would never have faced them.
The heart of Death Stranding beats even more
Two years after its release, it should by now be known: the beating heart of Death Stranding lies in its multiplayer component, fortunately expanded properly in the Director's Cut. First of all, it is finally possible to choose to have your friends on the server, an introduction that could give life to very close-knit communities and eager to take care of the structures and to expand and complete to the maximum the whole road network (partially extended within Death Stranding Director's Cut).With your friends, and the whole world, you can also enter into competition: in Sam's private room it is now possible to repeat some of the boss fights of the main story, at the end of which it will be assigned a score to be included in a global ranking. Even more interesting are the classified orders: very demanding deliveries which, by necessity, deny the use of structures and vehicles, giving rise to quite complicated situations. In all of this, it is not yet clear to us how this content will be updated. According to our tests, they should receive a monthly refresh, changing in rotation, but we have no way to confirm it yet.
Death Stranding Director's Cut requirements
I minimum requirements to be able to play Death Stranding Director's Cut, do not change from those of the previous edition of the title and we report them below. As you can see, there is no need for a particularly powerful PC for Kojima Productions' debut title. As long as you are satisfied with playing in HD (720p) or 30 FPS: it is sufficient to have an RX 560 or a GTX 1050 with 3GB of video memory, paired with a third generation Intel Core or a first generation Ryzen.720p 30 FPS 720p 60 FPS 1080p 30 FPS 1080p 60 FPS Processor Intel Core i5-3470 / AMD Ryzen 3 1200 Intel Core i5-4460 / AMD Ryzen 5 1400 Intel Core i5-4460 or AMD Ryzen 5 1400 Intel Core i7 -3770 or AMD Ryzen 5 1600 Video Card GTX 1050 3GB / Radeon RX 560 4GB GTX 1050 Ti 4GB / Radeon RX 570 4GB GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB or Radeon RX 570 4 GB GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB or AMD Radeon RX 590 RAM memory 8GB 8GB 8GB 8GB Disk space 80GB 80GB 80GB 80GB Operating system Windows 10 Windows 10 Windows 10 Windows 10
