Playstation porting games to PC is a relatively new thing. Their exclusive titles have been strictly on Playstation in the past and porting it over is a great testing ground for what could happen with their exclusives in the future (at the time of writing this, Horizon Zero Dawn is also coming to PC very soon!) While the Playstation 4 has delivered some incredible graphics, particularly in their version of Death Stranding. There was a lot of mystery surrounding the game before the release as to what it was about and the story. Fortunately though upon release it garnered some fans and won over the skeptics with its innovative gameplay, weird aesthetic and surprising missions that saw the game infiltrate pop.culture and become a classic on the PS4 originals.
While this review won’t be a full in depth game review like we would normally do (for that you can read it here https://www.gameonaus.com/reviews/death-stranding-review/) I will be diving into how it runs on a PC and if it is worth your money to buy another version or explore it as a PC master race gamer.
I installed the game with my system running on the following specs :
Intel I7-3770
8GB Ram
GeForce GTX 1060
This are the recommended specs to run the game at 60fps, and while I did change the settings to do this at several times, I changed the settings to deliver more of a balanced experience. This game looked amazing on my Playstation Pro through a 4K Sony Bravia TV, I was completely unprepared for who drop dead gorgeous this game looks on PC running through my Samsung 4K monitor. The game looks so much better than the console version and this is something that I was not prepared for. The cut scenes escalate the cinematic nature of these scenes and add a depth and saturation that it is noticeably missing from the PS4 version.
If you are part of the replay crowd, it does suffer a little from knowing what exactly the BT’s are and what is coming. There was less of a shroud of mystery this time around that my enthusiasm and motivation to keep playing came from the visuals and not having to use the terrible DualShock controller to move around.
Using the mouse and keyboard to control Reedus and navigate my deliveries was a much more immersive experience. I even connected my Xbox Elite Series 2 Controller and found it a massive improvement over the DualShock 4 on the PS4 playthrough.
There really is nothing bad to report with this port. It is using the Decimal Engine (also worth nothing that Horizon Zero Dawn is using the same one to port) and it does an incredible job of bringing this world to life. If you are a newcomer to the experience or a veteran keen to see it with better graphics, Death Stranding is well worth diving into on PC and should tide you over till Horizon Zero Dawn comes out next month.
