Granted, it would be very little before I was on board with a Death Stranding Director’s Cut. It should have just been more Death Stranding for i will be resold Reworking of Hideo Kojima’s latest vanity project. Luckily for me, that’s exactly what the Director’s Cut is. I love the original release and this is a perfect excuse to dive back in. I think you should play it too. But maybe not for the reasons you think.
Death Stranding Director’s Cut is an expanded version of the base game released in 2019, the definitive version of Kojima’s vision. With 26 hours to go – and much, much more to come – my knee-jerk impression is that the Director’s Cut moniker is more marketing gibberish than anything else. Still, there are some fun and creative additions that improve the overall experience.
For new players, all the bells and whistles you’ve come to expect from new PlayStation releases are present in the Director’s Cut – performance/resolution modes, incredibly fast load times, 60 frames per second and all that good stuff. Interestingly, new missions and deliveries were added to the game fairly seamlessly; They appear within the primary campaign itself and not as “new content”.
Returning or returning players will likely get more out of these additions just based on past experience with the game. And to be fair, some of the supplements are really good. I particularly enjoyed the crossover with Valve’s Half-Life Alyx, which brings the Gravity Glove to the Director’s Cut (that was in the PC version of Death Stranding, but that’s the first time it’s been on console), which allows you to grab objects in the world without actually walking over to them. The Maser Gun, which quickly electrocutes human enemies, is also a great touch – although the game’s wobbly aiming makes the weapon better for stealth than combat. The new racetrack makes for a fun distraction from the main trail, but the game’s poor car controls mean it can be frustrating with the constant crashing into walls. A motorcycle jump ramp is awesome because you can do sick stunts. Finally, the new songs included in the new carrier missions are all solid throughout. That being said, the way the game – both Director’s Cut and the original release – implements licensed music into its mission structure is so good; I wish all games were as clever with music as Death Stranding.
Importing a PlayStation 4 save means you have instant access to much of the new content in Director’s Cut. However, if you’re like me and want to start a new playthrough of Death Stranding, know that the new stuff is scattered throughout the game’s campaign. After 26 hours of my playthrough, there’s still a lot, if not the majority, that I haven’t found – I can’t wait for Chapter 5’s Cargo Catapult. I think this is a clever way to implement new elements into the game and the best way to experience it; I feel like I’m stumbling across it organically, rather than just going through a checklist of everything I haven’t seen before. When I come across something that wasn’t in the base game – sometimes after hours of old content – the game feels fresh and new, even when it’s not.
The Director’s Cut is in some ways the best way for newbies to experience Death Stranding, but I wouldn’t discount buying the base game if you want the original experience instead. Both ways have their justification. Personally, I haven’t found anything in the Director’s Cut that changes the core Death Stranding experience so radically that it would be impossible to play anything else – especially if you’re looking to save a little money by buying the original version.
But none of that really gets to the heart of why I think you should play Death Stranding.
A chaotic, holistic experience
The more time I spend with Director’s Cut, the less interested I am in going through a list of new or old mechanics – which is at odds with my job: writing a simple impressions post about the game’s new content. The Gravity Gauntlet sure is nifty and the race track is fun enough, but I wouldn’t say the new content alone is a reason to buy Death Stranding Director’s Cut. At the same time, I think you should play Death Stranding if you haven’t, and the Director’s Cut only reinforces that opinion. My impression is that no matter what form you choose, this game needs to be experienced.
What makes Death Stranding great and why I consider it one of the best games of the last generation has less to do with one single aspect and more to do with the overall package. As a triple-A video game published by Sony, Death Stranding is a confusing product. Not in the sense that his lore is confusing – it isn’t; It is remarkably simple in its fiction. Instead, Death Stranding doubles as a masterclass in holistic game design – make no mistake, the game is literally about going from here to there – combined with one of the most thematically chaotic stories I have ever experienced. Kojima is wild with what he seems to think about any given subject, resulting in many conflicting ideologies. But by all accounts, Death Stranding’s seriousness oozes from every pixel.
Playing Death Stranding gives you the feeling that Kojima has everything on the table – his ideas about the video game industry, climate change and for some reason the westward expansion and the dream of an America that might never have existed. That the majority of the game is a running simulator in the purest sense, where you manage balance, endurance, and the weight on your back is a daring gameplay choice that’s rumored to alienate some players. And in 2021, a game about a world-shattering event that forces everyone to force themselves inside and away from human contact, hits harder than when the game was first released in 2019. I think Kojima stumbled upon that coincidence, though it gives the events of Death Stranding more gravity independent.
I love Death Stranding for everything it is. More so than almost any game in the last generation (except maybe Nier Automata) it’s a game I think about and remember; I often pull up YouTube videos just to see it in action or to hear someone talk about it. Part of this depends on the core gameplay. Walking from A to B, delivering packages is a meditative and calming experience for me. I enjoy planning my routes, assembling my cargo and traveling through the vast expanses of nothingness. I love this nothing more than anything else in the game. Finally, when Death Stranding dips its toes into action, I don’t like it that much.
I admire the way the game goes against trends. While many games try to fulfill all of the player’s wants and needs, Death Stranding requires you to fulfill it on its terms. Playing the game is challenging and dull. Mastering the game requires patience and dedication. You’re not running around, clicking on the baddies’ foreheads, watching blood and sparks splatter everywhere. You are largely alone in this world, putting one foot in front of the other in a way that is often tedious and monotonous at the moment, but immensely rewarding at the end of any journey.
As a body of work, Death Stranding largely stands on its own. There really aren’t many other games quite like this one from a narrative and mechanical point of view – and that includes Kojima’s other work. The story’s attention to detail down to the last detail, the way it builds its lore and universe is fascinating. While it doesn’t always stop at the landing – Kojima has a habit of thinking his concepts are harder to grasp than they actually are, leading to a lot of over-explaining – the commitment to world-building in a way that’s believable, when you’re willing to engage in his fiction creates something different from many other video games. There’s an almost literary quality to the way Death Stranding takes the time to capture every minute detail in its long history. It can be argued that Kojima’s previous Metal Gear series did the same narratively, but these games don’t quite go as far as Death Stranding when it comes to blunt game design. If anything, the closest it could come to is Death Stranding PT, the “playable teaser” for Kojima’s infamously canceled Silent Hill reboot that was similarly inscrutable at times.
The fact that Death Stranding exists is not surprising. The fact that Death Stranding exists as a Sony first-party release, costing untold millions of dollars, with an extensive marketing campaign reserved for only the biggest games, and celebrities who can’t afford many games, is one of the most surprising things that I think have ever happened in the gaming industry. But I’m so glad he exists.
If you’ve never played Death Stranding, I think you should. Whether it’s the original release or the new director’s cut, the game is worth experiencing. Not to say it’s perfect in any case (read game informants checking for a second opinion). But nothing beats Death Stranding. And maybe never again; I can’t imagine Sony or any other publisher ever releasing Kojima like that – at least not on this budget. That’s what makes Death Stranding so worth seeing. Gravity gauntlets, racetracks, and cargo catapults are just the icing on the cake.
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