When Death Stranding came out in 2019 on PlayStation 4, many gamers and critics didn’t know what to make of it. This was the first non-Metal Gear Solid game directed by Hideo Kojima since Zone of the Enders and was his first venture away from Konami. While it had familiar elements from many of his past games, Death Stranding set out to defy genre conventions and agonize over minutia.
Death Stranding is an unusual game that can be a tough sell when describing it. The experience left gamers divided. Some said it was boring, while others found it utterly engrossing. While it did find its audience, it eventually found its way to PC and got an upgraded rerelease on PlayStation 5, Mac, and iOS devices as Death Stranding: Director’s Cut.
Hideo Kojima has finally brought his avant-garde, surrealist sci-fi action-delivery game (with a horror twist) to Xbox Series consoles. What have Xbox gamers been missing out on all these years? How well was this technical powerhouse ported to the modest Series S? Find out in our Death Stranding: Director’s Cut on Xbox Series S review!
This is a review coupled with a supplemental video review. You can watch the video review or read the full review of the below:
Death Stranding: Director’s Cut
Developer: Kojima Productions
Publisher: 505 Games, Sony Interactive Entertainment
Platforms: Windows PC, Mac, iOS, PlayStation 4 (as Death Stranding), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S (reviewed)
Release Date: November 7, 2024
Price: $39.99
The plot and lore of Death Stranding run deep and are an elaborate web of philosophical concepts and supernatural phenomena. At some point in the modern day, a cataclysmic event disturbed the balance of life and death. This event became known as the “Death Stranding”, and from it, the fabric of nature became distorted.
From the Death Stranding emerged “Beached Things” (BTs), ghostly entities that consumed corpses leading to terrifying explosions (void-outs). Other bizarre phenomena include Time Fall, a rain that accelerates aging/decrepitude.
A critical side effect of the Death Stranding was the spread of DOOMs. This condition causes constant nightmares and visions, while also vaguely connecting the afflicted with the dead. Some people with high DOOM levels are endowed with supernatural abilities and can interact and see BTs.
Death Stranding‘s protagonist, Sam Bridges, has a low-level case of DOOMs, which makes him an ideal porter in a post-apocalyptic America. He may not be able to teleport like Fragile or summon and control BTs like Higgs, but he can return from the dead, even from a void-out.
America is on its last legs as the Death Stranding takes its toll on the world. Humanity is on the brink of extinction and the only way to save it is to get people connected to work together. Networking is everything and Sam is the one to restore the network by gradually connecting every city and shelter across the states… while making sure weebs get their nerdy shit delivered along the way too.
Death Stranding‘s core gameplay is delivery packages. On paper, this sounds mundane and maybe even boring, but the execution is done so well that Kojima has redefined what it means to be a “walking sim”. The act of walking is made into a complex journey.
While Sam controls a little bit like Venom in Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain, there is a greater emphasis on shifting weight and inverse kinematics. You feel every step Sam makes while hauling multiple containers. As the weight piles up, Sam’s footing and the surface he’s walking on matter more. Steep slopes with jutting rocks on a snowy mountain becomes a boss fight.
Actual fights are standard third-person shooter fare. While combat is always an option, Kojima urges players to forsake the stick for the rope. Avoiding combat is crucial since Sam can easily lose all of his packages which get hijacked by raiders. Stealth is always the first choice with confrontations being a last resort.
Sneaking around goons like a snake works like how you’d expect. When sneaking around BTs, things are different and Sam has to rely on his Bridge Baby (BB). This is a stillborn fetus that connects Sam to the world of the dead, giving him greater clarity to detect BTs so he can avoid them. Getting around these phantoms is extremely tense while carrying over 100 kilos of containers through a river.
Getting around is what makes Death Stranding such a compelling experience. Sam gets an expansive tool kit to navigate the terrain. He will have access to basic things like ropes and ladders at first. As connections are made, better stuff like battery charge stations, hover platforms, zip-lines, exoskeletons, bridges, and time fall shelters become available.
As players connect the rest of the cities and shelters in America to the network, other players’ tools and accouterments will spawn in the world. This is called the “Strand” system, and it ties to the games’ theme of connecting everyone to help one another. It feels good to leave something for someone to use and the “likes” serve as good feedback to know how helpful it was.
The pace is deliberate and slow at first. Gamers must earn the cool toys Sam gets to feel a sense of progress. In the late game, it is like being an overseer of a massive logistics network. You’ll feel proud of the system you’ve built and see how far you’ve come, but it must be earned.
If all of these terms and the story sounds strange, it’s because it is. The plot gets surreal and focuses on relationships, almost feeling like an indie movie at times. The monsters and supernatural elements are surprisingly downplayed and maintain their allure due to their vagueness and lack of complete explanation.
Interestingly, Kojima agonizes over every detail in this world but smartly holds back on the mechanics of ghosts and monsters. There is a logic to the madness that makes sense in context. He came up with a reason why everything is electric and why everyone has weirdly specific names but chose not to explain the skeleton soldiers or what is an extinction entity.
It can be a lot to take in and if you aren’t paying attention, major plot elements will slip by. The story is also told with very surreal imagery and implies a lot. Kojima’s writing sometimes gets very heavy-handed and densely expository while crazy stuff happens, making it hard for casual gamers to follow along.
If there is anything that will captivate players, it is the spectacular vistas in Death Stranding‘s America. The time fall has caused all structures and civilizations to crumble to dust, leaving a verdant world of overgrowth. Erosion moved faster under the conditions of the Death Stranding phenomenon, making the world look primordial and in constant flux.
America doesn’t even look like America anymore. The landscape looks more like Iceland than anything. You can almost smell the loam and radiant nature in the rolling green hills and moisture on the crags. The Death Stranding experience involves trekking and navigation with spikes of tension and chaos. It’s a meditative game that has player reflect on their actions.
Death Stranding: Director’s Cut adds some new content which range from minor tweaks to surprising left-field additions. Things like Sam’s drop-kick or faster climbing are welcomed, and the shock gun is great for stunning raiders. Kojima’s boys added a race car and a race track, complete with different courses and times to beat.
The story is the same as it was, but there have been a few minor scenes added, but unless you know them well, you might not even notice anything was changed. Adding a few roads to build turned out to be the biggest content addition.
The technical aspects of Death Stranding: Director’s Cut will impress newcomers and veterans. On the modestly specced Xbox Series S, gamers can expect 60 frames per second on both quality and performance modes. The draw distance is basically perfect and load times are comparable to the rates on PlayStation 5. Kojima and his team have masterfully optimized their game.
Xbox gamers who never got a chance for the vanilla release are in for a treat. Death Stranding: Director’s Cut on Xbox Series X|S is an impressive port of one of the most interesting games ever made, plus it looks and runs great.
Death Stranding: Director’s Cut may not resonate with everyone who plays it. This is not a typical action game. It’s pensive for long stretches with bizarre instances of humor and sudden bouts of action. Death Stranding: Director’s Cut blends several genres into an epic surrealist sci-fi epic. Kojima’s message may be aggressively in-your-face, but at least it is a message worth having.
Death Stranding: Director’s Cut was reviewed on Xbox Series S using a code provided by 505 Games. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Death Stranding: Director’s Cut is now available for PC (via Steam), Mac, iOS, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.
