Death Stranding: Director's Cut

An expanded and updated version of Death Stranding. The game features even more storylines, new missions, and expanded locations. As you progress, you will be able to use additional weapons and vehicles, battle new types of enemies, and explore new places, including the "Shooting Range" and the racing track area, where additional missions and mini-games await you.‎

The story is presented through numerous excellently directed scenes in a chamber thriller format. All cutscenes involve well-known Hollywood actors and are recorded using advanced motion capture technology. The philosophy of the game is to understand the true value of establishing relationships between people.

In the near future, a catastrophic event occurred — the "Death Stranding," which caused our dimension of living people to merge with the dimension of the dead and demons.

A grand apocalypse took place, the USA ceased to exist, people are fragmented and scattered across its territory, and what happens in the other corners of the planet is unknown. The few survivors have taken refuge in cities deep underground.

In our world, chiral creatures have broken through — the restless souls of people, as well as various demons (serving as bosses). When a chiral entity absorbs a person, living or dead, a vortex forms, pulling all matter into another dimension, leaving a huge crater in our world.

Chiral rain poses a great danger, its drops, like a time machine, accelerate the passage of biological life — a person caught in such rain ages rapidly. It also causes metal corrosion and plastic degradation, gradually eating away everything it touches.

The story of Death Stranding is presented unusually. Initially, the player is dynamically immersed in the essence of events in the first two chapters, after which the scenario leisurely introduces new characters and reveals their backstories until the entire map is opened.

A strong point of the plot includes missions where the player ventures into the fields of the First and Second World Wars, as well as the Vietnam War — but it's better to experience them firsthand.

Only after the midpoint does the plot unfold fully: the picture of what happened begins to fill in with new details, characters develop story arcs, intrigues are revealed, several cool plot twists occur, and the number of dialogues and cutscenes, as well as their length, increases.

The main character, Sam Bridges (Norman Reedus), successfully masters the role of a courier, and his sensitivity to the dimension of the dead and ability to return to our world after death help him navigate the most hopeless situations.

Therefore, the President of the USA tasks Sam with transporting cargo between survivors, gaining their trust, and connecting them to the Chiral Network, the "spiritual successor of the internet." The network will unite all cities and settlements in the USA, allowing data transfer, experience exchange, and solving the problem of world merging.

There are many characters, and it's interesting to talk to them, while the star cast and cool direction keep the player's attention until the very end. At the same time, the game is linear and actions will not affect the ending — Death Stranding is not a role-playing game.

The chiral rains literally wiped out human civilization — in cities, there are only mountains of rubble and trash, and around are barren rocks, mountains, rivers, and snowy peaks. In this regard, Death Stranding has a dead game world — no simulation of life, static placement of dangerous and safe locations, lack of side quests and NPCs.

Formally, the locations are small, but they entirely consist of rugged terrain of varying degrees of difficulty, making the game world simply vast. There are no direct routes or sprinting; one must find paths for climbing and descending, detours and fords, going down by rope or climbing up a ladder.

The surface itself in Death Stranding serves as a playground, and the main gameplay mechanic is walking and controlling it. While Sam moves from point to point, the player constantly controls the direction, speed, and balance of the character. One can trip over a rock, lose balance from a shove, and fall, breaking the cargo and failing the mission.

An excellent physics engine changes the character's position, taking into account the slope of the surface, whether it is flat or bumpy, what lies on it, grass and snow, whether the hero is ascending or descending, as well as the speed of the current and the depth of the water. Strong currents can simply sweep Sam away, and the cargo will sink or be lost.

At the same time, the player needs to maintain a balance between mobility and carried weight. Carrying more is more advantageous, but a character with a tower of cargo on their back slows down and has a harder time maintaining balance. They also need to sleep, eat, go to the bathroom, wash, and take care of their footwear.

Moving boxes from point "A" to point "B" makes up a large part of the 100-hour gameplay. The process becomes more diverse due to threats. The first — deranged couriers, MULEs, who will try to take the hero's cargo if they spot him. One can run away, knock them out in a fistfight, or stun them with a shocker.

The second danger is chiral creatures capable of sensing the player and dragging them into their dimension — then the player will end up in a supernatural world from which they will have to escape. One can either hide from the creatures or go into battle with special weapons (grenades or firearms).

For delivering cargo and completing storyline missions, Sam receives likes, which accumulate into levels and points. The latter are spent on minor upgrades for the character. As the game progresses, more content becomes available — delivery robots, platforms levitating above the ground, motorcycles, and even cars. There is an opportunity to build structures in the open world.

The main development is designed for progressing through the storyline and connecting cities to the Network — for this, players are rewarded with resources, gameplay opportunities , and equipment, like a leg exoskeleton.

With the connection of this area to the network, asynchronous multiplayer is activated, where players help each other while each is in their own world. Gameplay possibilities expand, for example, if you lose cargo, it can be delivered by another courier. And you can build a passage through the pass that other players will use in their world.

In return, likes that encourage the character increase stamina, the amount of cargo carried, and improve movement-related stats.

In such an asynchronous game, it is much easier to construct buildings — bridges, roads, car charging stations, rest stops, and generally improve the game world. The more of this there is, the easier it is to progress through the game — you can enter a world where wide roads are laid out, cars are scattered, and charging stations are available. Under the influence of chiral rains, this also gets destroyed, but not very quickly.