Death Stranding for PC review: Is this the definitive version of the game?

Source: 505 Games

When I received the code in my inbox for Death Stranding on PC, I'll admit I was excited to hop into the game again. I played it on PS4 back when it showtime came out and I spent weeks in its sprawling, dense, and sometimes obtuse world. There was something fascinating virtually it. Information technology was partially the audacity of some of the narrative and gameplay elements — where else can yous play a game where the main character'southward claret, urine, and feces creates weapons to take on unsafe ghosts — just it was also how pure information technology all was. Whether you lot like Hideo Kojima or not, you can't deny that this is a Kojima game down to its core.

That Kojima postage means we were going to go a game that was both a technical masterclass, introducing new ideas on how games can integrate multiplayer and online connectivity, and had a story that was up to its neck in its own nonsense. Death Stranding was a game of its moment. Information technology was something that could have advantage of the PS4 to create a visual spectacle while also innovating on what was already there with unique multiplayer cooperation.

As y'all walked beyond America (yes, that is a major plot betoken), you could run into the capabilities of the PS4 in full flower — the mountains rising in the distance, the river flowing around you as you crossed it, the snowfall crunching nether your boots every bit you trudged uncomfortably to your destination. Players could see the intricacies in the mo-cap performances from the likes of Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelsen, and Tommy Earl Jenkins. They could also experience the weight of everybody else playing with you since the game had a system of "likes" that allowed yous to connect with your fellow players without the demand for co-op strategizing or communicating.

To sum information technology upward, Death Stranding is a lot of game. Then while I was looking forward to playing it once more on PC, I was hesitant. Would I want to play through all of it again? As information technology turns out, playing it on PC is non simply a great experience, merely information technology allows players to play it on a new platform, which really highlights some of the game'south greatest strengths. There are new sidequests and cosmetics in the PC version to incentivize players to option it upward, only it's worth playing again for two reasons: the power of PC as a platform and how the game is more timely than ever before.

A game for 2022

Death Stranding

Bottom line: Death Stranding came out in 2022 for the PS4, but the PC port looks to get the definitive version of the game thanks to improvements that brand it playable across any type of machine. It's also, oddly enough, more relevant than e'er.

Pros

• Runs smoothly
• Graphical improvements
• Playable on a variety of machines
• PC simply might be better overall for experiencing the game
• New Half-Life/Portal crossover content

Cons

• Not super unlike from console version

The elephant in the room: Expiry Stranding is more than relevant than e'er

At that place were a lot of jokes made most Expiry Stranding when it start released in November. 2022. The premise of the game is confusing, and the details of how this world works are fifty-fifty more than so. It posits a world where a horrible event chosen the Decease Stranding acquired everything to be overrun by dangerous ghosts called BTs, leading to the population flocking to cities or surreptitious bunkers. The one thing keeping people together is a delivery system of porters that strap large crates to their backs and cross the dangerous landscape by foot. You play Sam Porter Bridges, a man whose new job is to reconnect America while also making deliveries.

Category	GameNameXXX
Title	Death Stranding
Developer	Kojima Productions
Publisher	505 Games
Genre	3rd-person risk
Operating system	Windows 10
Minimum Requirements	See below
Game Size	80GB
Play Time	xl+ hours
Players	Single-player
Launch Price	$60

Even only a few months after Decease Stranding released, however, we realized that the game was more on the nose than we originally thought. As most of the world entered quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic, not but social distancing but remaining in their homes, it became apparent that we would accept to rely on delivery people, gig workers, and online retailers to get what we needed. Sure the people at the center of treating the illness (doctors, nurses, etc.) made all headlines, but a lot of people putting their lives and health on the line were those making deliveries.

There's also the connection attribute. The game utilizes a social media-esque like system where other players tin can give yous "likes" based on the things you lot build. For instance, if another thespian uses a ladder you left or liked a sign y'all placed, they tin give you a number of likes. You don't become much by getting more likes beyond some tiny upgrades, simply it's something that as a actor, you long for. Only similar on social media, validation of expert deeds and piece of work in Death Stranding is something you strive for even if it doesn't convert into whatsoever sort of currency. Our reliance on social media has too become stronger since the pandemic, meaning the communication in Decease Stranding not only feels more relevant merely also more in line with how we live day-to-day.

This attachment to current events elevates Death Stranding, making its otherworldly and sometimes confusing story seem more palatable. The gameplay and technical aspects take always been its stiff suit, not and so much the story, which gets as well caught up in worldbuilding details and repetitive exposition dumps to exist truly relatable. At present there's a real-world connection that seems to change how nosotros perceive the game entirely.

It'south funny because nothing foundational about the game has changed in the eight months since its first release. It's just that the logic obstruction course players had to jump through to sympathize what Kojima was doing is now a lot easier to conquer. It also makes the bulletin at the middle of the game more powerful. Despite any nonsense near umbilical cords and pre-historic evolution that characters tell you are fundamental to agreement Death Stranding, it's a story most connections, and how the little things we do can have wide-ranging consequences. Even something as small every bit a parcel tin brand a person's day or requite them hope for something better. It'due south a direct counter to many mail service-apocalyptic games where humanity is expected to be cruel, which might be what players could employ.

This, in turn, might make the game highly-seasoned for those who've either never played it or might be thinking of a 2d playthrough.

Death Stranding: As smooth every bit you desire information technology to exist

Source: 505 Games

Every bit I wrote in my preview of the game, Death Stranding is a powerful game that needs a powerful system to run. Whatever you might think of the PS4 at the cease of this current generation and how capable information technology was, it was a stiff-plenty system to run the game with minimal issues. I recollect the game crashing maybe twice in the 40+ hours of gameplay and that was on my regular, close to kickoff-generation PS4. I got 1080p and 30FPS with little event, and that's normally enough for most people.

It's obvious that this game needs powerful tech to run. There's a lot of visual item in both the landscape and in the close-up conversations between characters and it all needed to be rendered smoothly. The player every bit Sam needs to exist able to run across the land without worrying about avails loading in as he goes. There need to be obstacles in his path and so that walking feels as inconvenient as it actually is. You need to be able to meet the minutiae in the mo-cap actors' performances or there wasn't a signal in casting all the top-tier talent to deliver monologues or heavy exposition.

Therein lies the primary trouble with Death Stranding on PC: Yous can only play it if y'all have the proper specs. You lot can see them beneath.

Category	Minimum Specs (30FPS)	Recommended (60FPS)
Operating Organisation	Windows 10	Windows 10
Processor	Intel Cadre I5-3470 or AMD Ryzen three 1200	Intel Core I7-3770 or AMD Ryzen 5 1600
Graphics	GeForce GTX 1050 or AMD Radeon RX 560	GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 590
Memory	8GB	8GB
Direct X	Version 12	Version 12

For reference, I take a PC with an Intel i7-9700K CPU, 16GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660. They're non the most tiptop-tier specs, just they get the chore in most cases. On the Death Stranding build I played for review (which was not the final i), I did feel some functioning lag and some crashes. I had to put settings mainly on medium in order to go the game to run for more than a few seconds.

The amount of options for the PC port ways information technology's easier than ever to hit a place where you feel comfortable playing.

Luckily the game, which is running on Guerilla Games' Decima Engine on PC, all the same looks incredible even on lower settings. Even on my settings, I could admire a looming mountain in the distance and if I fix my listen to it, I know I could walk over to and climb that mount. I didn't see any assets loading incorrectly or slowly, nor did I come across much departure in the details and textures. There was maybe less grass in some areas, just I didn't feel taken out of the earth at all. H2o still flowed, rocks were still plentiful plenty to trip me upwards, and trees were still properly tree-like. This was also the case with the console version, and then it's prissy to see how well the game runs transitioned over to PC.

An interesting characteristic that I played around with quite a scrap was in the frame rates, which could be adjusted all the style up to 240FPS. This made the game when I commencement booted information technology up look similar a soap opera when you weren't in cut scenes — good ol' motion smoothing. This is most readily apparent when Sam moves. A shine frame rate is important for ensuring that he moves the way you lot want to. Information technology makes his walking more realistic, but information technology too allows the player to properly react when he trips or when he needs to arrange his balance. I put it on 120FPS during my run, and while sometimes his motion felt as well smooth, it did requite me the advantage I needed to not harm any deliveries with my clumsiness.

So while most players won't discover a huge departure betwixt 30 and 60FPS, the amount of options for the PC port ways it's easier than ever to hitting a place where you feel comfortable playing. It'south besides much easier to get to 60FPS, for case, since even I was able to reach it easily on my mid-tier setup. Other options like the power to apply NVIDIA's DLSS (if you take a compatible graphics card) or FidelityFX CAS (if you lot don't) allow even lower-tier machines to reach comparable performance. It all ensures that no affair your machine, yous tin can play the game, and sometimes even become spectacular performance as a consequence.

Playing Death Stranding on PC is to play it in its utmost course

Source: 505 Games

This all leads to why I think that the PC might exist the best platform for Death Stranding. It might be the almost difficult to play the game on because of how much of your arrangement it demands, but because of how most of us play on PC, the risks are worth it.

I've been thinking a lot about how we play on PC vs. panel can modify our perspective. I spoke with developer Sam Barlow well-nigh Telling Lies, originally on PC, hitting consoles, and how that platform alter can twist how the player engages with the scene. It's a game about eavesdropping on intimate conversations, and he noted how watching them play out a reckoner monitor was completely different than doing it on a TV.

I was wowed by the game on PS4, simply fifty-fifty more so now that I was seated directly in front of my monitor instead of a Goggle box across the room.

I had that in mind while I was playing Death Stranding on PC. I was wowed by the game on PS4, but even more and then now that I was seated directly in front of my monitor instead of a TV across the room. I could pick out the details on the cryptobiotes, for example, and how the bugs' design is actually filled with a texture that makes eating them experience grosser. It was much easier to see rocks in the distance that I could swerve to avoid. I could pick out the subtleties in the actor'southward performance better, whether information technology'due south a change in their mood only by the expect in their eyes or a slightly off piece of body language that reveals more nigh them before their backstory dump does.

On a more than concrete level, there's also the difference between a mouse and keyboard and a controller. Expiry Stranding has a lot of inputs to remember, and with a keyboard, y'all have more than options for key binding. This could be confusing for some, merely I constitute myself being able to remember the controls easier on a keyboard since I could have a push for everything I wanted to do, which isn't exactly the instance with a controller. The PC version does permit y'all to play with a controller though, then you can nevertheless play whichever way feels more comfortable.

A lot of whether you'll buy Death Stranding or PC plain comes down to platform preference, but at that place'southward something to be said about being just a few inches from the action on your reckoner monitor, to detect all the tiny details that were key to this game, that makes the PC port special. The fact that the game can exist run on a lot of machines despite the high specs required means it tin can reach fifty-fifty more than players.

At that place are a couple content differences betwixt the two versions. The PC one has the Valve crossover content, which includes cosmetics, sidequests, and a piffling backstory that ties both Valve and the world of Expiry Stranding together. They don't change up much of the foundation of the game, merely some of the cosmetics are fun, and you become a version of the Gravity Gloves that allow you to pick upward objects up to 15m away.

Bottom line: Should you buy Death Stranding on PC?

I can sympathize not wanting to get dorsum into Death Stranding, specially if you're played it already. It's a huge game in terms of the size of the mural you have to cross, the telescopic of the narrative, and just how long it is. It's heavy and dumbo, and for some, the story might come beyond equally besides nonsensical to be worthwhile.

All the same, The game has only become more relevant in the eight months since its initial release on the PS4, and therefore comes off differently. The PC port too manages to make it fairly easy to play, even if you don't take the most powerful machine. Whether you want to experience information technology for the offset time or want to replay information technology on a different platform (the Half-Life and Portal tie-ins on PC don't change a lot of the game's foundation, simply are charming nonetheless), at that place's something here for yous.

A game for 2022

Death Stranding

A PC port to define all PC ports

Death Stranding came out in 2022 for the PS4, only the PC port looks to become the definitive version of the game. If y'all haven't played this championship withal, it's worth trying out on PC.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/death-stranding-pc-review

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