Death Stranding on PC Overshadows Console
Sony has largely been a company that's concentrated on keeping its exclusives truly exclusive. While you might see a fair number of Xbox games cross over to the PC, most players have had to shell out for a PS4 in order to play Sony's highest-rated games. Things seem to be changing recently, though, with some major Sony exclusives finally showing up on PC. One of the more surprising titles to make the jump from the console to computers is Death Stranding.
While the open-world game was a big release on the Playstation 4, it wasn't exactly a title that set the world on fire. Its strange premise, unique movement system, and overall surreal nature made it a tough sell for console fans - but that's precisely why it's such a good fit for PC players. What's unexpected, though, is how much better the game is on PC. In fact, the best way to play Death Stranding is to play it on PC.
Related:
The Technical Edge
Death Stranding on PC | Credit: deathstrandingpc.505games.com
While the Playstation 4 is an impressive console, it's not exactly going to stand toe to toe with high-end gaming systems. Death Stranding was designed with the strengths and limitations of the PS4 in mind, so a great deal of the game's presentation was handicapped by the system on which it premiered. The PC release, however, has no such limitations.
Though the game was originally optimized for the Playstation 4, it feels like it was really designed to be on the PC.
As with most PC games, the kind of performance you're going to get out of Death Stranding is going to vary based on one hat kind of computer you're using. If you own a computer that's capable of running modern games with high settings, though, you're going to be amazed by the difference that you see in this game. Though the game was originally optimized for the Playstation 4, it feels like it was really designed to be on the PC.
Death Stranding on PC | Credit: deathstrandingpc.505games.com
You're going to notice that the game runs much more smoothly when you're playing on a gaming machine. A modern machine should be able to go above and beyond the 60 FPS mark, giving you an experience that feels a lot smoother and less jerky. This is a huge benefit when you're moving around the game's world - it makes everything feel a lot less disjointed than it was in the original release. While the in-game cutscenes are capped at 60 FPS, you're still not going to feel the same kind of lag that pervaded the original game.
...in-game cutscenes are capped at 60 FPS, you're still not going to feel the same kind of lag...
There are lots of little quality of life issues that get solved in the PC release as well. There's some pop-in that goes away, and the places where the original game struggled to run seem to be mostly smoothed out. This is an iteration of the game seems like it really benefits from being able to run on machines that have a little bit more horsepower, to say nothing of having a second chance at figuring out the bugs that kept the original version of the game from reaching its highest level of potential.
A Beautiful Game
Death Stranding on PC | Credit: deathstrandingpc.505games.com
If you played Death Stranding on the Playstation 4, you already know that the open-world game looked great. It leveraged some fantastic celebrity likenesses for its main characters and the game managed to portray its post-apocalyptic atmosphere fairly well. If you were playing on the Playstation 4 Pro, you even got an upgraded experience that allowed you to see the game in something rather close to 4K. The PC version leverages all that the original game did right and adds a lot more power under the hood, allowing players to get the best-looking version of the game without having to sacrifice usability.
... players to get the best-looking version of the game without having to sacrifice usability.
Simply put, the PC version of Death Stranding just looks better than its Playstation counterpart. The better the system that you run the game on, the better it's going to end up looking. There's simply no point in comparing the Playstation version of the game with what you'll see on a high-end gaming PC, and even the Pro version of the game doesn't hold a candle to what you're going to see if you have a dedicated gaming computer. It's really nice to see that the game isn't held back by being port, with plenty of little graphical upgrades available on the PC version.
Keeping What Works
Death Stranding on PC | Credit: deathstrandingpc.505games.com
Perhaps most importantly, Death Stranding is better on PC because it keeps everything that worked on the Playstation 4. The mouse and keyboard controls are perfectly adequate for this game, but you don't actually have to use them. Instead, you can pick up your Dual Shock 4 and use it on your PC, seamlessly replicating the controller experience that you might have had the first time around. It's nice to know that you have the option to play a better-running, better-looking version of the game without having to sacrifice the ability to actually play the game.
...play a better-running, better-looking version of the game...
That, in a nutshell, is what the PC version of Death Stranding is all about. It's a version of the game that's not as constrained by a single system, one that's meant to be as good as the game can possibly get without sacrificing what made it special in the first place. All of the controls and menus work just as well as they did the first time around, but now you're going to get to see everything work just a bit more smoothly. This is a masterclass that is not breaking what didn't need to be fixed.
A Great Game
Death Stranding on PC | Credit: deathstrandingpc.505games.com
No matter what system you play it on, Death Stranding is going to be an incredibly weird experience. If you have a PC capable of running the game, though, you really ought to give it a shot. The enhanced ability of a good PC to run the game will give you a little bit more breathing space to really enjoy the game as it was meant to be enjoyed. Death Stranding might have been on the Playstation 4 first, but it feels an awful lot more at home when played on a PC.