DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR'S CUT

This game is so absurdly good. It works surprisingly well as a mobile game, with the ability to do a few quick missions to gradually rank up your character and reputation with different bases in quick gameplay sessions. I put off playing the game for years, because the idea of a game about being a delivery man sounded so lame, even if it was from Hideo Kojima. Turns out, it is so much more than that. It has one of the most interesting worlds/settings of any piece of media I’ve experienced, an amazing story with great characters and plot twists, tense stealth and horror mechanics, and fun combat. Yes, you do mainly deliver cargo and set up Internet connections between a bunch of bases and bunkers, but it is the most engaging thing I’ve ever done in a video game. The way the gameplay evolves as you play and changes the ways you can make deliveries make it so addictive. Somehow, this is Hideo Kojima’s best game, and it plays surprisingly well on mobile. I am on a 16e, and the performance is really good. It feels like a pretty steady 30fps while on foot, with some drops while using vehicles, but nothing annoying. The more cinematic boss battles with lots of tar and BTs got pretty choppy, but it never affected gameplay or got in the way of the fun I was having. Easily the best thing you could possibly buy on the App Store.

Death Stranding is so much fun! Just before I finish the game (the power went out outside, otherwise I would have finished it already), I want to praise this game and my MacBook Pro (2021, 16-inch). This is the first time in two and a half years since I bought it that I have felt that this is a device that can get hot, has a fan, and uses a battery (it offers the same experience as the daily use Intel MacBook Pro without gaming, haha.). The gaming experience it brings is perfect: the mini-LED backlight allows for a large amount of sky and light sources to be presented in HDR in the game; although it is only equipped with the M1 Pro 16GB of unified memory, its graphics processing power can maintain almost 120Hz stably ((it seems to me is.) , at 2560*1440 with "very high" quality), w/ or w/o power connected. This also means that I can play a 3A wherever and whenever I want (on the other hand, game saves can also be continued on iPhone, which is really great). Next, I will continue playing Death Stranding without plugging in, hoping to completely drain my battery until it's below 80% health (currently at 87%) before the AC three-year warranty expires. This MBP has been the most powerful and favorite among all the Macs and PCs I have used so far. I don't know if I should thank Tim Cook or thank Hideo Kojima, but playing Death Stranding on my MBP has been the first happy event of my 2024.

This game is a 5 star that’s a 3 for reasons which should easily be fixed. I’m anticipating these being addressed but it’d be nice to have some communication from the devs. I’m shocked this is on an iPhone. Some people have reviewed this and said it doesn’t look good. That’s untrue. Generally it runs and looks great! Here’s what it needs: 1. Crashing must be addressed. I have to save the game every 2-3 minutes because the game goes through areas where it crashes a lot, then moments where it’s fine. Auto save every few minutes would help. The game needs graphics settings. I prefer lower graphics without metal fx because I don’t like upscaling blur. Please provide us these options similar to how resident evil did. TLDR: looks great plays great, those clowning on it are wrong. -Crashing is an issue, goes through waves of crashing, then none, then crash again putting you way back to a previous save/location. -need auto save -need graphics options, not all like metal fx upscaling. Opinion: If those needs are met this is 5 star. If not, and crashing doesn’t get fixed, it’s a cool demo of a17, and fundamentally unplayable in the long term, all while being disappointing to us who want mobile AAA to take off NOW :) Please devs, fulfill its potential.