Death Stranding: Director's Cut Review
The haters aren't wrong about the pacing. They're wrong about the total. An 8.7.
The Good
- Connection as a mechanic, not a cutscene
- The long hikes become genuinely peaceful
- The Director's Cut sands down the meanest edges
The Rough Edges
- Pacing that will lose half its audience by design
- Product placement that yanks you out of the mood
Death Stranding is the most love-it-or-hate-it big game ever made, and the Director's Cut is the version to argue about. You are a porter. You carry boxes across a haunted, empty America, and the walking is the game: route planning, balance, weather, and the strange peace of a long hike with a baby in a pod burbling at the rocks.
Then other players' ladders and bridges start appearing in your world, strangers helping strangers they'll never meet, and Kojima's point lands like a truck: connection as a mechanic, not a cutscene. The Director's Cut adds roads, weapons, a racing mode and quality-of-life fixes that sand down the original's meanest edges. It's also a flagship native Mac release, proof the platform can run a real AAA world.
The haters aren't wrong about the pacing or the product placement. They're just wrong about the total. An 8.7.
Other players' ladders appear in your world, strangers helping strangers they'll never meet.
The haters aren't wrong about the pacing. They're wrong about the total. An 8.7.
The Good
- Connection as a mechanic, not a cutscene
- The long hikes become genuinely peaceful
- The Director's Cut sands down the meanest edges
The Rough Edges
- Pacing that will lose half its audience by design
- Product placement that yanks you out of the mood
Quick Answers
Death Stranding: Director's Cut review score: what did it score?
Moe Train scored Death Stranding: Director's Cut a 8.7 out of 10. The haters aren't wrong about the pacing. They're wrong about the total. An 8.7.
What platforms is Death Stranding: Director's Cut on?
Death Stranding: Director's Cut is out now on PlayStation, PC, Xbox and Mac. Moe played and scored it on PlayStation.
Is Death Stranding: Director's Cut worth playing?
The haters aren't wrong about the pacing. They're wrong about the total. An 8.7. Read the full Death Stranding: Director's Cut review above for the breakdown.
