Death Stranding Director's Cut Review

Trekking across thousands of miles, I've gathered the supplies requested by the facility. After recovering some cargo stolen by a pack of MULEs (a group of thieves that take packages from porters), I make my way back with a tall stack of supplies to help, even if they will solve only part of the problems that the Death Stranding has caused. Day after day, I tread closer to reuniting a shattered world, though my legs are sore and my muscles beg for surrender.

Take control of Sam Porter Bridges, the protagonist of Death Stranding that has set his day-to-day life to deliver important cargo between facilities. However, not everything is as simple as it seems, as soon enough Death Stranding introduces you to the overarching story about reuniting the world by establishing the UCA — the United Cities of America. But is the story and gameplay enough to rope you through a 40-hour storyline?

The most charming part of Death Stranding for me was its gameplay. As you travel through a broken USA, you'll acquire multiple orders to complete; these work as your quests (both main and side varieties), where you'll have to go to a designated location, acquire some cargo, and return it to the facility. 

This system sounds incredibly boring, but it surprisingly is not, as Death Stranding manages to make the gameplay far more charming. Planning a route, preparing for your journey, gathering supplies, and taking them to their delivery spot is incredibly fun, despite its simplicity. Yet, nothing is simple with this game, as soon enough you'll be facing groups of enemies, all of which need various playstyles to get past them.

Fighting MULEs and preventing them from stealing your cargo requires the usage of a strand (a literal rope that Sam carries with himself) and some well-timed blocks to be able to execute them, as you'll be able to divert their attacks and make them faint. Although I didn't have a problem with this system — and found it rather enjoyable — I can see how this battle mechanic isn’t for everyone. Stealthing through packs of MULEs to take them down without being noticed is an option, but it isn't necessarily easy with Death Stranding's balance mechanic, which is meant to be an obstacle for delivering cargo.

On the other side of things, BTs (Beached Things) are invisible supernatural creatures created by the death of humans that were not incinerated 48 hours after their death. These creatures mostly demand a stealth playthrough until the third chapter (of 15), where you finally acquire weapons to be able to fight them. Avoiding BTs and delivering cargo was fun, as a handy type of robot named the odradek tells you how close you are to these creatures without needing to see them, so you'll have to plan accordingly and manoeuvre through them.

Fighting MULEs and BTs was a very fun task, and even simple orders were a joyful journey, as traversing through the destroyed country is a relaxing and enjoyable task, especially with the phenomenally placed music that makes Death Stranding feel like a movie.

The game's enjoyable delivering mechanic opened up room to forgive the multiple vague menus and intense tutorials teaching me how my health bar works for the fifth time in the middle of combat. I get it! Yellow means consciousness, red means health! LET ME SEE MY SCREEN, THEY'RE KILLING ME!

A joy to play, but not so much a joy to experience, as the game's storytelling left a lot to be desired. Despite a phenomenal performance by Norman Reedus (best known for his role as Daryl from AMC's The Walking Dead), I found the story to be lacking. 

The relaxing gameplay and the storytelling are far too contrasting, as I often felt like I needed to progress the story by force to see the next big thing, which often interrupted me from the enjoyable aspect of trekking through the mountains. Yet, not advancing the story felt like punishment, as an already long plot felt even more dragged out when I did spend time helping the facilities, which is what I actually wanted to do. These systems failed to complement each other, and either the gameplay would have benefitted from a more straightforward story, or the story would have benefitted from a more quick-paced gameplay.

Despite heavily enjoying delivering cargo to facilities in need of my help, I decided to abandon that side of the gameplay in favour of giving Death Stranding's storyline an opportunity, but time and time again I found myself uninterested. I didn't share Sam Porter's desire to help his sister reconnect North America and form the UCA, as the story felt significantly lacking and very ego-stroking for the USA — something it doesn't need any more of.

Continuing down the story netted me some results, but nothing hooked me in the way I was hoping. For what is essentially a 40-hour-long movie, I found myself bored and uninterested in most of the characters and stories I was following. Themes such as multiverse and time travel were added to the mix that broke the enjoyable immersion of a post-apocalyptic world.

Even disregarding the boring plot, after finally reaching a conclusion and understanding everything, I was still left dissatisfied with the way the story unravelled. Regardless of how elaborate and intricate the story feels and connects, a lot of plotholes made it seem like the story wasn't very well thought out. 

Worst of all were the numerous end credits and a very irritating gameplay choice that broke the flow, broke the immersion, and managed to kill the final bit of interest I had in the game. What great gameplay there is was severely brought down by unamusing and boring storytelling, ultimately making the experience unbearable.

Death Stranding is an oxymoron. The seemingly mundane task of collecting cargo and rebuilding the world turned out to be more fun than the enticing, intricate, and in-depth storytelling, as the game manages to turn everything upside down and make what should have been the most enjoyable feature into a snoozefest.