Death Stranding Director’s Cut Is Worth Another Trek Across America

Although it would be very easy for me to join a Death Stranding director’s cut, I’m not sure how much. You only had to have more Death Stranding for on meHideo Kujima’s most recent vanity project is worth revisiting. Fortunately for me, this is exactly what Director’s Cut looks like. The original is my favorite, so this gives me the perfect excuse to rewatch it. You should also play it. Maybe not for what you believe. 

The Death Stranding director’s cut is marketed as an enhanced version of the game’s base in 2019. It’s the final version of Kojima’s original vision. After 26 hours – and much, much more still to go – my knee-jerk impression is that the Director’s Cut moniker is marketing spiel more than anything. However, the Director’s Cut offers some new and exciting ways to improve your overall experience.

For new players, all the bells and whistles you’ve come to expect from PlayStation re-releases are present in Director’s Cut – performance/resolution modes, unbelievably fast load times, 60 frames per second, and all that good stuff. It’s also interesting to note that new missions, deliveries and other content have been seamlessly integrated into the game. 

These additions will be more beneficial to returning or revisiting players if they are based solely on their previous experience. Some of these additions, to be honest, are quite good. Cross-overs with Valve’s Half Life Alyx were my favorite. This allows you grab any item in the world and not have to actually walk to it, as well as the Gravity Glove. The Maser Gun, which quickly incapacitates human enemies with a bolt of electricity, is also a great touch – though the game’s wonky aiming makes the weapon better for stealth than combat. Although the new track is a great diversion from the main route, the poor controls can make it frustrating as you crash into walls all the time. The Jump Ramp is a great place to do crazy stunts with your motorcycle. The new songs that are part of new porter missions remain solid. And as an aside, the way the game – both Director’s Cut and the original release – implements licensed music into its mission structure is so good; I wish all games were as clever in their use of music as Death Stranding. 

By saving a PlayStation 4 game, you have instant access to many of the latest content in Director’s Cut. You can still start another Death Stranding playthrough if you are like me. The new stuff is distributed throughout the campaign. At 26 hours into my playthrough, there’s still a lot, if not a majority I haven’t found – I cannot wait for the Cargo Catapult in Chapter 5. This method is smart and allows for new aspects to be added to the game. I find it more enjoyable to just stumble upon the information than to go through the checklist. When I come across something that wasn’t in the base game – sometimes after hours and hours of old content – it makes the game feel fresh and new, even if it’s not. 

For new players, the Director’s Cut provides the best experience of Death Stranding in certain aspects. However I would recommend purchasing the base game if they are not available. Both have their advantages. I haven’t personally found anything in Director’s Cut that radically changes the core Death Stranding experience in such a way that it’d be impossible to play anything but – especially if you want to save a little money by buying the original release. 

This doesn’t really get at the essence of why Death Stranding should be played.

The Holistic, Messy Experience

The more time I spend with Director’s Cut, the less interested I am in running down a list of new or old mechanics – which sits at odds with my assignment: write a simple impressions piece on the game’s new content. While the Gravity Glove and the Race Track are both fun, I don’t think any new content is enough to convince you to buy Death Stranding Director’s Cut. However, the Director’s Cut is a strong endorsement of Death Stranding. This game should be played in any form. 

What makes Death Stranding great, and why I think it’s one of the best games of the last generation, has less to do with any individual aspect and more to do with the entire package. Death Stranding, a Sony-published, triple-A video game is confusing. Not in the sense that its lore is confusing – it’s not; it’s remarkably straightforward within its fiction. Instead, Death Stranding is simultaneously a masterclass in holistic game design – make no mistake, the game is Literally about walking from here to there – combined with one of the thematically messiest stories I’ve ever experienced. Kojima can be wildly inconsistent in his opinions on any topic. But in all respects, Death Stranding’s earnestness seeps out of every pixel. 

Playing Death Stranding, you get the sense that Kojima put it all on the table – his ideas about the video game industry, climate change, and for whatever reason, westward expansion and the dream of an America that maybe never existed. The majority of the game, which is in its purest form, a walking simulator where you balance and maintain your stamina is an intriguing gameplay choice that was supposedly meant to offend some players. A game that depicts a devastating event in the future, which forces people away from each other and makes it more difficult to play in 2021 is a tougher game than in 2019, when the original game was released. While I suspect Kojima made the mistake, this gives Death Stranding more gravitas. 

Death Stranding is a wonderful game. It’s my favorite game of all time, even Nier Automata. I think about Death Stranding often and remember how much I loved it. I also love the YouTube videos that show it in action. The core gameplay is part of the reason. It is very relaxing and peaceful to walk from A to B while delivering packages. It’s fun to plan my routes and assemble my cargo before setting out on my journey across vast expanses of nothingness. That nothingness is my favorite part of the game. It’s not something I like as Death Stranding when it does finally get into action. 

It is refreshing to see the game go against the grain. Although many games aim to satisfy every player, Death Stranding is different. It requires that each person fulfill their needs according to its own terms. It is difficult to master the game. The game is difficult to master and requires dedication. There’s no running about, clicking on the heads of bad guys, or watching sparks fly everywhere. This world is largely yours alone. You put one foot in front the other, which can be tedious and repetitive at times but extremely satisfying at the end. 

Death Stranding stands as an individual piece. There are, truly, not many other games like this from a narrative and mechanical standpoint – and that includes Kojima’s other work. It is remarkable for its attention to detail and the manner it creates its world. Even if it doesn’t always stick the landing – Kojima has a habit of thinking his concepts are harder to grasp than they actually are, leading to a lot of over-explanation – the commitment to world-building in a way that’s believable if you’re willing to buy into its fiction creates something unlike much else in video games. Death Stranding has an almost literary quality in the way it takes time to detail every aspect of its long story. Although Kojima’s Metal Gear series was able to do the same narratively, those games aren’t as forward-thinking in terms of obtuse design. P.T. might actually be the closest to Death Stranding, as it is the “playable teaser for Kojima’s Silent Hill reboot which was also inscrutable at times.” 

It’s not surprising that Death Stranding exists. Death Stranding’s existence as a Sony First-Party Release, costing millions, coupled with an aggressive marketing campaign for celebrities that not many games could afford is among the most amazing things in video game history. It is a wonderful thing that it exists, however. 

Death Stranding is a game you must play if you haven’t already. The game, whether it’s the original or the Director’s Cut version, is well worth the effort. It’s not perfect, but it is still worth playing (read Game Informer Review for a second opinion There’s no Death Stranding. And there may never be again; I struggle to think Sony or any other publisher will ever let Kojima be this free a second time – at least not with this kind of budget. This is what Death Stranding is worth seeing. The icing on this cake is Gravity Gloves and Cargo Catapults.