DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR'S CUT Reviews

I gave this game a solid chance, but after clearing a few acts, I found that I'm just not having fun. Things I liked: - The soundtrack - The experience of navigating the terrain using wits and planning Things I disliked: - Pretentious, pretentious storytelling. I call this "notice my directing." Good storytelling techniques are often sacrificed in favor of creating an edgy tone or simply attempting to be avant garde. All I can think about is the heavy hand of the writer/director, instead of getting immersed in the world. - Motivation. The game did not convince me that Sam would actually want to answer the call to adventure. Even worse, it didn't convince *me* to answer the call. I just didn't care about the main quest, mostly because the game does not give you enough information to understand the stakes. - Dialogue. Characters speak vaguely about concepts central to understanding the story and world, but constantly bombard you with tech specifics and science jargon. Sam is a man of few words, but maybe he should have been a fully silent protagonist. There are no conversations, only characters talking at Sam to spout instructions or exposition. - Menus are busy, chaotic, and hard to understand. - An overwhelming number of downtime activities/mechanics (crafting, private room stuff, resource management, etc.). Combined with NPCs endlessly talking *at* you, the time in between deliveries was incredibly frustrating for me.

I liked most of the game, it was chill to just zone out and deliver packages, build infrastructure, etc. The last ~3 hours of the game (everything after you make it to Edge Knot) completely soiled and soured the experience like it was carefully designed and crafted to just frustrate you, waste your time, and make you beg for the experience to be over so you can get back to doing literally anything else. Everything BEFORE that was Okay to Good. Traversal was never difficult, neither was combat. There is almost never any point in the game where you need to carefully use your available tools to make it to your destination. You can easily climb up anything but a 90 degree wall, and just as easily shimmy down. BTs become a non-issue with the very first anti-BT grenade you get. Human enemies are braindead and easily dispatched with the first non-lethal weapon you get. Vehicles trivialize everything even more. 5-Starring shelters and settlements don't give you any meaningful rewards. If you are interested in the story just read a wiki or watch a cutscene movie, if you want to experience the gameplay then wait until it's on a deep discount.

Reviewing (mostly) every game (or DLC) in my library, part 242: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆☆☆ (6/10) [i]Death Stranding: Director’s Cut[/i] is one of the most beautiful, baffling games I’ve ever played. Kojima’s weird, ambitious post-post-apocalyptic delivery sim is unlike anything else out there—and that’s both its greatest strength and its biggest weakness. It’s a game about carrying stuff, being lonely, and sometimes being chased by invisible ghosts while a baby in a jar cries at you. It’s also… kind of a lot. It's mainly just [i] weird[/i]. 🎒 [b]Pros:[/b] [list] [*] Absolutely stunning visuals. The game is jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Rain-slicked cliffs, ruined cities, and wide-open vistas are rendered with such detail and mood that even walking through them feels epic. Environmental effects like Timefall and dynamic weather add to the eerie beauty of the world. [*] Top-tier voice acting. Norman Reedus, Léa Seydoux, Mads Mikkelsen, and Troy Baker all give excellent performances, even when the material gets, uh, strange. Mads in particular is a highlight, oozing charisma and depth every time he appears. [*] Unique gameplay. There’s nothing else quite like it. Traversing the environment while managing balance, cargo weight, and terrain is meditative in its own strange way. The fact that the core loop is just delivering packages somehow works—for a while. It’s not for everyone, but it’s bold. [*] Atmosphere for days. Between the music, weather, minimalist HUD, and long stretches of silence, the game nails the feeling of isolation. The world feels desolate but not dead, and that’s a tough line to walk. [*] Strangely compelling traversal. Upgrading your routes with ladders, ziplines, and roads is more satisfying than it sounds. There’s a nice sense of progression: not in levels or loot, but in how much easier it becomes to move. You feel the effort of taming a wild land. [/list] 🫥 [b]Cons:[/b] [list] [*] The cutscenes go on forever and say so little. Kojima’s love of film is well-known, but here, it veers into indulgence. Some scenes are minutes long, padded with melodrama, lingering looks, or vague philosophical musings. They rarely justify their length, and they often feel like they’re trying to be profound rather than actually being profound. [*] The dialogue often tips into parody. There’s only so many times you can hear someone say “we need to reconnect America” or “you have to build bridges, not walls” before you start laughing. The metaphors are not subtle. Everyone talks like they’re delivering a TED Talk in a dream. [*] It’s confusing in all the wrong ways. [i]Death Stranding[/i] isn’t mysterious—it’s opaque. The lore is thrown at you with little clarity or pacing, and trying to make sense of it often feels like doing homework. I love weird games, but I need the weirdness to mean something. Here, it’s more aesthetic than emotional. [*] Combat is clunky and forgettable. Eventually, you do get guns and melee options, but none of it feels great. Most encounters boil down to “run away” or “spam punch until it’s over.” [*] The game is way longer than it needs to be. This isn’t just a slow-paced game; it’s a bloated one. There’s filler in both the main story and the side quests. Some chapters feel like they exist only to extend runtime. [*] Too self-serious for its own good. The tonal whiplash is real. One moment you’re watching a tragic monologue about motherhood and death, the next you’re urinating to grow mushrooms. The game wants to be both high-concept art and Kojima weirdness, but the balance is… not there. It often feels like the story takes itself very seriously while asking you to accept some really goofy mechanics and plot points. [*] Minimal interactivity in some story moments. Sometimes you just want to do something—anything!—but the game insists you sit back and watch. And watch. And watch. It creates a disconnect between you and your character. The pacing slows to a crawl and all you can do is endure it. [*] The mechanics, while unique, aren’t for everyone. If you don’t enjoy the core walking simulator gameplay loop, no amount of lore or cinematics will save this for you. The repetition, the weight balancing, the cargo management—it’s slow, deliberate, and not at all “exciting” in the conventional sense. It’s also not optional. You will walk, and walk, and walk. [/list]

Death Stranding is perhaps the most Hideo Kojima game of all of Hideo Kojima's video games. This is either an amazing or absolutely terrible thing depending on the type of player you are. When this game came out in late 2019 (pre-covid annihilation of the world), I waited in anticipation about how this game was going to play. I have played 2 playthroughs of this games entire campaign, plus another 30+ hours of endgame content. What I can say, is that this game is def one of a kind. Those dismissing it as a "walking simulator" barely played an hour of the game and gave up. Death Stranding, at its core, is a delivery sim, yes. You deliver packages from bases and bunkers to other bases and bunkers. That is the entire gameplay loop. While doing this you must balance Sam's delivery load. Too much stuff on his back makes walking and climbing harder, and he gets tired faster. Traverse the open world and make your delivery in the most efficient way possible. However, while you attempt this, you have to balance basically everything. The terrain is divided into 3 levels from blue to yellow to red, and these are Flat, Risky, and Dangerous. What this means, is while walking, Sam can walk just fine on Flat terrain, can manage Risky terrain, but if his load is heavy enough he can slip, and dangerous terrain is not suggested to be traverse on foot. This sounds needlessly complicated, but essentially, Yes, you are doing a lot of walking in Death Stranding, but it makes walking a gameplay mechanic. Trying to force Sam up steep cliffs or down steep inclines will make him slip, lose balance, or otherwise fall over, damaging not only himself, but his cargo, and any items on his person. This is not a "walking simulator" in the vein of Layers of Fear, or Dear Esther. You have to respond to the games pathing while walking. THAT is the loop of Death Stranding, and what I found so interesting about the game. Sam also has access to vehicles to expedite the hiking gameplay, however, they are unorthadox to control, and can get stuck on the terrain far easier. Compared to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain's open world, Death Stranding shits on it from all angles. There is many hidden areas, and things to find while roaming Death Stranding's world, compared to MGS V's barren and deserted world in between bases. The world was pointless in V, as there was absolutely 0 reason to explore outside of the guard and command posts, and actual bases. Here, you are directly FORCED to interact with the open world, and it feels rewarding taking on multiple orders from one base, and combing through 3 sometimes 4 or 5 locations all at once. Along the way, you have several enemies against you. The largest of these, being the BT's (Beached Things). These are nearly invisible limbo creatures, that you cannot see with the naked eye clearly. When encountering a BT area, Timefall, which degrades any and all things inside of it, begins falling. Continue deeper and you will enter the BT area, where anywhere between 12 and 30+ BT's roam around. These monsters present 3 options to you 1. Sneak through them without engaing 2. Stealthly take down all of the BT's inside the area, and you will clear that area for a while of gameplay time 3. Get caught on purpose, and fight a big Boss (hehe) BT, that when destroyed, clears the area and rewards you with a healthy amount of Chiral Crystals. Your methos of attacking this creatures are severely limited in the early game, so much to the point, that sneaking through them is usually the best option. Sam can hold his breath if he starts getting to close, but getting even closer will agro the BT. At that point, You have a limited amount of time to get away or brace yourself. If Sam agros a BT, and then falls over for any reason, he will be dragged a random distance away from where he was grabbed (sometimes insanely long distances from where you were), to fight the Boss BT. On hand to deal with them are 4 different types of grenades made from Sam's Bodily Fluids. Blood Firearms, and much later in the game, a stealth kill option. The combat is serviceable in this game, and still feels as tight as Phantom Pains third person shooting. Outside of the BTs, you also have to deal with Humans. MULEs are bandits that live only to steal cargo. They do not attempt to kill Sam, but attempt to knock him out and steal his cargo. Later in the game, you meet TERRORISTS, which actually want to kill Sam. However, there is absolutely no reason to use Lethal weapons to humans in this game, as killing a human forces you into a critical situation. When a human dies, you must cremate their body at the closest furnace within 48 in game hours. If you don't do so, or ignore it completely, a Void-Out will occur, and you will be handed a game over. Void-Outs can also occur if you are caught by BT's, and then consumed by a Catcher, but these Void-Outs allow you to continue the game. The area where Sam was consumed will be a giant crater, BT's will spawn there more frequently, Sam will float in said area and be unable to continue through said area, and BT's spawning at that location, will be sent to other players games, and they will be gold and twice as strong. A great addition to DS's gameplay loop is the co-op system. Death Stranding has cooperative gameplay elements, but only in the form of, every single buildable you put down, other players can see. Other players can even help and upgrade your buildables and vice versa. This gives the game an immensely enjoyable sense of progression as you play from day to day. Players can put down signs, which other players may then like and receive bonuses from. You can form contracts with people in your friends list, or random players, and their buildables will always show up in your world and vice versa. Overall, Death Stranding is a very interesting and fun Third Person Action Adventure game. Calling it a walking sim is dishonest. If you can stick through the extremely long cutscenes, there is an absolutely unique experience here, and that's what AAA games should be doing. This game is not for everyone, but I suggest giving it one full playthrough at least once, as there is not a single game that is similar to it at all.

The extinction isn’t just an ending. It’s an opportunity. Even if we aren’t together, we will always be connected. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3513688597

Death Stranding may be an acquired taste but i do fully believe that you should give it up to 3 attempts if you're not enjoying yourself. Quit the game and try again a few months or a year later and you may really start loving and appreciating it. This was what happened to me. I disliked this game, i was constantly thinking how i would never be able to enjoy this game but a year later i went in and while it still didn't click for the first few hours, I ended up loving it and appreciating the gameplay of it as well. This game takes a bit to get going so keep in mind. This game really is something special and unique.

This game was definitely one of the most unique and beautiful experiences I've ever had. Ever since it came out, I had been prejudiced against it calling it a walking simulator or a cargo simulator but now I realize how wrong I was. With its characters, story, atmosphere, and graphics, it had me hooked from start to finish, and I played it without getting bored for even a single minute. The only thing that occasionally bothered me was the car and motorcycle getting stuck, but everything else was so perfect that I didn’t really mind those minor issues. If you’re like me and haven’t given this game a chance yet, you absolutely should. I truly hope Death Stranding 2 comes to PC soon, so I can relive this amazing experience all over again. If I had to rate the game, I’d give it a 9/10. I only deducted a point because of those little flaws. Huge thanks to everyone who contributed to this masterpiece. ❤️

Death Stranding (a Hideo Kojima game) was a perfect work in every sense with its music, atmosphere, story and Hideo Kojima. As I walked in the rain, I was surprised by what affected me the most — the touch of the music on my soul, the enchantment of the view, or the burden I had to deliver with care and protect. Every aspect of this game is unique, from the emotions it stirs to the deeper meanings it conveys. It absolutely deserves to be experienced. I’d like to thank Hideo Kojima for giving us the most Hideo Kojima game ever... Created by Hideo Kojima Written by Hideo Kojima Directed by Hideo Kojima That was not just a game — that was an experience. Hideo Kojima by Hideo Kojima 10/10 A Hideo Kojima Game

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Strange, beautiful, unforgettable Death Stranding is unlike anything else I’ve played. It’s slow, deliberate, and deeply emotional — a meditative journey about connection, persistence, and hope. The story is weird and moving, the world is stunning, and every delivery feels meaningful. Not for everyone, but if you’re open to something different and thoughtful, this is a masterpiece worth experiencing. — 41 hours, story complete, still delivering

This is not a game for everyone, but if you give it a chance it won't let you down. I think ppl were unfair calling this game a walking simulator. Sure the core gameplay is about deliveryng stuff, but there's more than that. After helping some people, they will improve your equipment, making the gameplay more fun. You begin the game in a world in ruins, alone, and start to rebuild/re-connect it, this is something unique in this game, seeing the "before and after" and knowing you were part of it feels pretty good. The story keeps you engaged from minute 0 till the end. Even when you barelly interact with npc in death stranding, u will never feel alone, and the world being a postapocalyptic one, doesn't feel dead. If i would critizice something, that would be the abuse of cutscenes, im fine with the cinematics ones, but there are cutscenes for things you do 24/7 and it can get annoying... Play it on highest difficulty and enjoy, thank me later ;)