Death Stranding has just come out on the PC, and compared to the original PS4 version, it makes some improvements which ensure that the game is closer to the original vision of how it would be realized – and a more cinematic experience.
Firstly, as a Eurogamer interview with Akio Sakamoto, technical director at Kojima Productions, points out, Death Stranding was originally intended to run at 60 frames per second.
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When discussing what scalability the PC port offers to improve on the console version, Sakamoto said: “High frame-rate for sure! As we had originally designed the game in 60fps, this is a feature that I must say out loud! Of course, it is not locked to 60fps, and according to your hardware, it can go much higher [on PC].”
Of course, it also helps that the system requirements for the PC version of Death Stranding aren’t demanding, plus those with Nvidia RTX graphics cards can benefit from DLSS 2.0. The latter means that as Eurogamer points out, an overclocked RTX 2060 (bottom of the range RTX offering) can manage 60 frames per second at 4K resolution (in performance mode).
Ultrawide boon
On top of that, those who have an ultrawide monitor can benefit from the 21:9 support which Death Stranding offers PC gamers.
In another interview conducted by Geoff Keighley (via Wccftech), Kojima Productions art director Yoji Shinkawa enthused about ultrawide and how it delivered a much more cinematic experience.
Shinkawa said: “Of course, compared with the PS4 version, the resolution and the frame rate have been upgraded. But the biggest surprise I think that people will get in Death Stranding PC is that we supported the 21:9 ultrawide screen, and this is surely expanding the horizontal perspective to bring you into the game with the immersion and the presence with it.”
He expands about ultrawide applying not just in-game, but to the cut-scenes, and notes: “I could kind of say that you’re kind of watching a TV drama on PlayStation 4 console at the regular 16:9, but this time in Death Stranding PC it’s more you get the impression that you’re watching a movie at the cinema when using ultrawide.”
The PC port has plenty to offer, then, particularly if you have an ultrawide monitor it would seem – and in terms of the critics, the game seems to have been better received than on PS4 too, broadly speaking. Although at its core, Death Stranding of course remains somewhat divisive, and there are certainly those who aren’t digging it on PC, as was the case with the PS4.
We loved it in our PS4 review, though, in which we concluded that Death Stranding is a “wonderfully ambitious stride in design that combines affecting performances with a compellingly original narrative structure”.
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