There was a lot of hype for Death Stranding at Gamescom this year. Part of it is 100% because anything Kojima does gets fans, like me, super excited. The other part is simply it’s Kojima and he normally has something up his sleeve….
Turns out there was nothing too big to announce, but Death Stranding Directors Cut for sure has me hype to get back into the game.
The trailer shows off all kinds of cool stuff, and if you never really jumped into the game yourself you may be thinking what is so great about it. Well the most exciting part for me is the new ways to traverse the world. The entire game focuses on getting around this new world, but a lot of it deals with hoping someone else created somewhat of a shortcut for you to get across the vast lands. Simple mistakes made the travelling rather grueling and lengthy. The new ways to prevent fall damage and skip entire sections rather quickly is why I plan to buy the Directors Cut and jump back in myself.
Other things seem so simple, but anyone that has played the game should be absolutely thrilled to see the Buddybot. I don’t know why, but I’m getting excited over something so simple! The buddybot allows you to offload equipment and have it traverse with you. Other ways to offload equipment also included launching packages around the map too.
Other features seems a little quirky for me. There is a whole segment involving the new race mode, and honestly the entire time I was playing Death Stranding I never thought I needed this. The driving is a little clunky, and you can see in the trailer even that feels a bit off. I’ll give it a try, but i’m just hoping no trophies are tied to it.
Other aspects really got me excited though. Some new combat sections and basically “dungeon” like areas are now added to the game to involve more sneaking and combat missions. Kojima is amazing with these types of games, and one of the levels still totally has a MGS feel to it. This may be as close to Metal Gear as we get for now and I’m hoping there are dozens of levels to explore here.
I’m not entirely sure why this was the big highlight of the Gamescom opening sequence, beyond the great Hideo Kojima being behind it, but I am excited to get my hands on the new revamped Death Stranding. The game will release for PS5 and be available as an upgrade from PS4 players with a $10 fee on launch.
