Death Stranding is a strange game to revisit. My first playthrough was a weird and wonderful journey through a post-apocalyptic world defined by a creative vision that wasn’t afraid to be both frighteningly poignant and laughably outlandish. It’s a beautiful game, and to this day there is nothing else like it. Despite my initial praise, however, it’s also an experience that loses much of its lustre upon a second outing. I’m already familiar with the nonsensical plot, and the joy found in the mundanity of delivering packages across endless mountain ranges has somewhat worn out its welcome.
Yet there’s still something magical about it, something that keeps pulling me back to distribution centres again and again to pick up resources and set out on a voyage to help those in need. The director’s cut provides a perfect way to relive this excellence, either as a returning player or a newcomer who has watched the polarising response to Death Stranding from a distance while being too afraid to dip their toes into the pool of timefall. Your mileage may vary, but this remains one of the most unique titles of the past generation, and with its arrival on PS5, there’s no better time to step into the weary boots of Sam Porter Bridges and walk forward into the unknown.
If you’re like me and have played several dozen hours of Death Stranding already, the director’s cut feels like a modest upgrade. It refines the existing package instead of overhauling it completely. From the main menu you’re encouraged to transfer your existing save, providing a way to earn existing Trophies and gain access to new content without slogging through the opening hours to unlock necessary skills and equipment. It’s immediately welcoming, which is a stark contrast to similar next-gen enhancements that require a steep upgrade fee or a few extra hoops to jump through. Coming in at £5 or $10 for existing owners, the director’s cut is easily worth the asking price, especially in the aftermath of Ghost of Tsushima and Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade in recent months.
But before jumping back into the endgame, I decided to start a new save, subjecting myself once more to the wonderfully surreal life and times of Sam Porter Bridges. Much like Hideo Kojima’s own Metal Gear Solid, Death Stranding spends several hours setting up its world and characters, unafraid to hurl you into endless self-indulgent exposition as figures like Die-Hardman, Deadman, and Heartman divvy out dialogue about BBs, Chiral Density, and the Death Stranding that brought this world to ruin in the first place. It’s a dystopian picture of the future that is deliberately opaque, wishing to soak the player in a shower of mystery as they dig through interview transcripts and journal entries in search of answers.
While Kojima’s signature wackiness is on full display, the themes at the heart of Death Stranding remain resonant. Kojima Productions happily critiques the growing distance between human beings in the age of social media, and how our needless greed and chaotic approach to capitalism will eventually bring society to its knees. When all is said and done, there will be a few remaining people wanting to reconnect humanity, to form alliances in the midst of a wasteland where organic life itself has become unsustainable. It’s saccharine and cheesy, but Death Stranding is an emotionally honest examination of our societal flaws that doubles as a love letter for its creator’s obsession with films, games, and literature. You could call it hubristic nonsense - it is - but it supersedes its own ridiculousness with a creative vision that never falters. There are few games nowadays that can earn that sort of praise.
Death Stranding strikes a tonal balance much like Yakuza. Kojima Productions juxtaposes the quiet melancholy of wandering its ruined countryside with quirky equipment to be constructed and adorable dialogue exchanges as Norman Reedus stumbles across structures built by other players that make his turmoil much more bearable. I’ll never tire of stumbling across an energy generator or postbox that saves me from absolute devastation, a feeling of relief immediately twisted into one of accidental hilarity as Bring Me The Horizon begins bursting out of the very piece of technology that just saved my life. It’s irreverent rubbish in the best possible way, with Kojima Productions stuffing this game with everything he loves while somehow still managing to tell a story that means something to so many people. Goodness me it’s stupid, but I can’t help but love it.
Starting the game from scratch gave me a handful of hours to appreciate how Death Stranding slowly introduces these ideas, encouraging you to conquer summits and navigate rivers with little more than your own two feet before handing out tools that make being a glorified Amazon courier that much more fun. The director’s cut additions are filled with cool bonuses like this. A Buddy Bot can now be summoned that essentially acts as an Uber - hop aboard him with a load of cargo and he’ll carry Sam wherever he needs to go.
It’s impossible to earn maximum experience this way, given how much easier it makes things, and you’ll still need to consider harder terrain and enemies you might stumble across - it’s far from a cheat, instead acting as an entertaining way to sit back and take in the luscious environment without accidentally yeeting yourself down a ravine and losing all your packages. The catapult serves a similar purpose. It doesn’t make deliveries a breeze, it just makes them more manageable. Now I can construct one and have all of my valuable equipment hurled across the map, landing on the other side of hostile territory so I don’t need to worry about having things stolen or damaged.
Outside of the extra equipment there’s a firing range filled with optional challenges and a way to familiarise yourself with weapons outside of real-world scenarios, something the original game sorely needed given how lacklustre combat can be. Speaking of which, Sam now has a couple of extra moves up his sleeve that make the act of dispatching Mules a breeze. Sprint toward an enemy and you can dropkick them into oblivion, or execute a series of lethal blows that had me taking out entire camps with no trouble at all. You can also discover a race track to craft your own courses in pursuit of the top times and score. Like I said, all of the new features feel like silly bonuses as opposed to game changers, which makes the subtitle ‘director’s cut’ hollow. I imagine many of these things would have been added to the original if Kojima Productions had the budget and resources to make them possible. Here, it’s just building upon what already exists to justify a second purchase, and for some, that will be enough.
New missions place a greater focus on combat and stealth than we’re used to, therefore feeling out of place, but they’re still enjoyable if you’re after a change of pace away from being chased by ghosts and falling down cliff sides. To me, they felt like a playful homage to Metal Gear Solid, as if the studio is toying with gameplay ideas we might see emerge in a future sequel or whatever it decides to tackle next. Despite all of these new features, the main campaign remains the biggest attraction, and is the core reason to pick up Death Stranding Director’s Cut whether you’re a hardened veteran or a hesitant newcomer.
Death Stranding remains a bizarre masterpiece on PS5, and the director’s cut only further cements that reputation with a number of worthwhile new ideas that enhance the act of delivering packages across a picturesque landscape of nothingness. The story of Sam Porter Bridges is overblown and wondrous, taking hold of you and refusing to let go as you’re dragged into an adventure that takes the medium to places it has never been before. It’s mindless self-indulgence of the highest order, and it’s rare to see a game deliver upon its overarching ambition in such a bold, uncompromising way in the modern era. For that very reason, it deserves to be celebrated.
Review code was provided by the publisher.
Death Stranding
From the mind of Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima, Death Stranding is an action game that first launched in 2019. Set in a world devastated by unknown explosions and supernatural consequences, Sam Bridges must travel the country and reconnect society.