Death Stranding Director’s Cut Review: New Content and Updated Graphics at 60 FPS

Under the leadership of Kojima Productions, the director’s cut of Death Stranding was released in September. In it, the developers promised the players updated graphics with 4K resolution and high smoothness of the picture in a stable 60 FPS. And, so that the paid update did not seem so insignificant, and the players had the motivation to return to the exciting universe, a significant amount of content was added to expand the lore. Indeed, there are many innovations. I will tell about them in this review.

Updated graphics

Of course, the main distinguishing feature of Director’s Cut is the improved clarity of the picture and the details of the world. The graphics quality for the next-generation console has come very close to the desktop level, in which PC performance was limited only by the budget.

The new quality mode is now available in the image settings menu, and in 4K resolution at 60 FPS, the console behaves stably in most scenes, sagging only to 45-50 FPS in very action-packed moments. However, there is also the “productive” mode, which is activated by default in the game. In this case, the frame rate does not drop below 60, but the resolution is 1920 × 1080 with subsequent upscale to 4K.

Even in the display parameters, a special 21: 9 widescreen mode appeared, which makes the picture cinematic, adding black stripes at the top and bottom. For large monitors or TVs, this format looks very nice, while increasing the viewing angles and making the picture smoother, but in the case of small screens, the image looks small.

The developers have announced an increase in the range of drawing and detailing the landscape

Owners of the new generation console will also receive a pleasant bonus in the form of accelerated loading of locations. While on PS4 Pro it took about 1.5 minutes to load, on PS5 from the main menu the player will move to a location in just 3 seconds. This is a very big difference, which is certainly a significant plus for the director’s cut.

Updated gameplay

Changes have also been made to Sam’s combat arsenal. The addition of a new electromagnetic emitter will immobilize and stun enemies in missions where you need to go stealthily. And the boss battles got the opportunity to be replayed to get achievements and set new records.

The launch of battles is carried out in the personal room of the protagonist

New missions with dynamic delivery of goods will complement the lore of the game and shed light on the tainted plot, and on the training grounds the player will hone the skills of countering the enemy.

In the director’s version of the game, the developers decided to make life easier not only for beginners, but also for experienced players. To overcome rough terrain, special catapults have appeared, allowing you to shoot a load close by, which will gently land on a jet parachute. Now you can not run around small mountain rivers for a thousand kilometers, but throw a special bridge over them, which, by the way, will not function during rain.

In addition to completing missions, Death Stranding Director’s Cut has a new racing mode, where you can choose from a rich selection of tracks and vehicles. Here the player competes in riding skills with other couriers around the world.

In his free time, it is proposed to have fun performing jumping on trampolines, performing tricks in parallel, and pampering with the photo mode.

You can’t ignore the main PS5 pass – DualSense. With him, the gaming experience takes on a completely different color: each step of Sam Bridges responds to his hands, raindrops are transmitted by a pleasant vibration, and when the hero is overloaded, the triggers are squeezed with additional effort. Work was also done on the sounds emitted by the joystick – they became clearer and louder

How to transfer saves?

To transfer saves from a previous generation console to a new one, you need to walk to the nearest terminal with tasks on the PS4 and select the menu item called “Export data”. After uploading the last save to the cloud, you need to upload it to the PS5.

It is worth clarifying one very important point: for a successful transfer, you must close all active orders. But the difficulty is that not all orders can be canceled. Therefore, to implement the transfer, you will have to spend some more time in the regular version of the game.

Review

It would be reasonable to ask the question, and for whom is the director’s cut most suitable? For PS5 players who have not yet purchased Death Stranding, I recommend taking Director’s Cut. In it, the developers have done an amazing job and significantly improved the appearance of the game. So, this is the most pleasing to the eye 4K pictures with stable 60 FPS, and additional content with new missions is well worth that surcharge up to 4599 rubles against 4299 rubles for the regular version. But for those who already have the standard version of Death Stranding on PS5, the upgrade to Director’s Cut will cost 700 rubles, which is not such an unbearable amount if the above innovations were a weighty reason to return to the amazing world that came from the pen of the genius Kojima.

pros

  • Updated graphics and improved picture smoothness.
  • New game modes with racing and training ground.
  • Boss replay value.
  • Updated combat arsenal and customization.
  • New missions to complement the plot.
  • Late game content in the form of catapults and trampolines.

Minuses

  • Inconvenient transfer of saves from consoles of the previous generation.
  • Not a big plot addition.

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