DEATH STRANDING
Developed by KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS
Published by 505 Games
The Death Stranding: an event the completely changed the world as we know it. Beached Things (BTs): Creatures that consume the dead and create massive explosions that make travel impossible. The United Cities of America: The few cities that remain of the USA after the Stranding that are connected only by porters. Porters: Courageous men and women that ferry supplies and materials to the distant locations of the UCA. What would you do in a world like this?
This very in-depth, open-world scenario is what we have here with Death Stranding. You are Sam, a porter for Bridges, the company that helped keep the cities connected after the Stranding. You are also a repatriate, one that can die and navigate themselves back to the world of the living. You have a mission: help reconnect the cities to each other and get to the west coast.
In this port of the Playstation 4 title, Death Stranding has come over to the PC side of things and is just as great. I’ve played the PS4 version previously and have had a great experience with that. Now with the Steam release, we give it a run-through on the system. Now, while my system doesn’t have some of the greatest video setup, the visuals are stunning to see and in-game play looks eye-popping. Some of the cut-scenes seemed like it had a few particle issues however the overall look was still awesome. The gameplay graphics were all crisp and detailed, especially things like the moss-covered rocks and the BTs.
Audibly, the music and the sounds of the game were just as good in the PC port as were the original PS4 version. Since I wear a headset on the PC as opposed to just the TV speakers with the console, having that enclosed experience made it all more personal and encompassing. The voice actors were just as excellent here as it was on the original and the sounds of the environment and gameplay are crisp and exciting.
Gameplay was working very familiar and very easily as it was on the PS4. In lieu of using the mouse and keyboard, I used my SteelSeries Bluetooth controller. With the controller, it was just as easy to keep your balance as it was to scan for useful items out in the wild. Balancing your use of equipment, scanning for BTs, and keeping an eye on where your going, the default layout of the controller works great (not really much for changing presets except for inverting the y-axis). Sometimes it feels like you’re going to use all your fingers at the same time when traveling while it’s pretty basic to delve into the order system. With the PC port and updates, we get some new functions like the one added in late December called Hacking which allows Sam to hack Mule trucks and disable sensor poles just to name a couple.
Overall, Death Stranding appears to be just as great on the PC as the original release with the added bonuses of special updates. The game has the visual and audible strength with the similar gameplay that allows non-PS4 PC owners to join in on the Kojima train. With the newer update to the game we are treated with various missions, aesthetic and equipment items that feature nods to Cyberpunk 2077. Speaking of crossovers, there is an Easter Egg of both the creator of this game, Hideo Kojima, and of a very important part of Death Stranding.
Rating: 9.0/10