Death Stranding Preview

Death Stranding Looks Mighty Nice On PC

I must admit, I didn’t play Death Stranding when it came out. I had no internet at that stage (thanks NBN), and I wasn’t sure if I’d love it, so I never got around to downloading it. Brodie reviewed the game initially on PS4 (you can read his review HERE). 

The game comes out on PC on July 15th, and I’ve had the pleasure of spending a few hours with it already. I must admit, it was completely bizarre seeing the ‘Sony Computer Entertainment Presents’ logo pop up for the first time on a PC, but it was super nice to have a PS4 exclusive (well, not anymore) playable with all the options that I’m used to seeing on a PC.

Death Stranding PC

In terms of options available, you can set a maximum frame rate of 240, you can set the graphics quality, model detail, memory for streaming, shadow resolution, ambient occlusion, screen space reflections, anti aliasing, depth of field, motion blur and FidelityFX CAS.

I was surprised to see that the game has NVIDIA DLSS 2.0, which basically uses AI in your NVIDIA GeForce GPU to enable better frame rates. You can select ‘performance mode’ or ‘quality mode’. I opted for quality mode, and with everything set to ‘very high’ and running at 2560 x 1440 I was able to get a stable 100FPS pretty consistently. I can’t wait until the day that DLSS 2.0 is in every game, as it’s absolute wizardry. You can find out more about DLSS 2.0 HERE. 

Death Stranding Preview

The game looked great on the PS4 Pro, and it’s obviously not a surprise that it looks absolutely fantastic on PC. The sprawling vistas that appear as soon as you get into the game will absolutely blow you away. The detail on Sam Porter Bridges and the kooky cast of characters look lifelike and the game feels more atmospheric with the better looking visuals, and I’d imagine that it’s a much more immersive experience than it was on PS4. The game supports ultrawide monitors, and I can only imagine how wonderful this would look.

I opted to play through my first few hours with a keyboard and mouse and it actually works quite well. Death Stranding is a game about maintaining balance whilst scaling mountains (with a bunch of packages on your back) and uses a balance mechanic that will see Sam needing to brace himself on either side in order to not fall over and drop your entire load. The game uses the left and right mouse buttons to do this and it actually works quite well. I was expecting it to be clunky, but my muscle memory had me clicking both mouse buttons at the correct times, without any trouble.

Death Stranding Preview

If you’ve got a decent gaming pc, and you haven’t played Death Stranding, then obviously this should be the way to do it. If you did play it on PS4 and want to experiecne it again, there will be a decent reason to (outside of the fact that it looks and runs better). The game has a bunch of Half-Life/Portal missions. Here’s how these are described:

DEATH STRANDING for PC is also receiving a hotly anticipated injection of Half-Life related content, offering surreal crossover missions with Valve’s Half-Life universe. A familiar face has crossed over into the world of DEATH STRANDING, impersonating Bridges’ employees and sending request emails prompting Sam to locate and secure companion cubes throughout the world. Completing these requests will reveal the mystery behind the friendly imposter and award Sam with useful new equipment and accessories.

DEATH STRANDING PC SPEC REQUIREMENTS:

Minimum 30fps – 720p (1280×720):

  • Operating System: Windows 10
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-3470 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200
  • Memory: 8 GB
  • Graphics: GeForce GTX 1050 3 GB or AMD Radeon RX 560 4 GB
  • Direct X: Version 12
  • HDD Space: 80GB
  • Sound Cards: DirectX compatible

Recommended 30fps – 1080p (1920×1080):

  • Operating System: Windows 10
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-4460 or AMD Ryzen 5 1400
  • Memory: 8 GB
  • Graphics: GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB or Radeon RX 570 4 GB
  • Direct X: Version 12
  • HDD Space: 80GB
  • Sound Cards: DirectX compatible

Recommended 60fps – 1080p (1920×1080):

  • Operating System: Windows 10
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-3770 or AMD Ryzen 5 1600
  • Memory: 8 GB
  • Graphics: GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB or AMD Radeon RX 590
  • Direct X: Version 12
  • HDD Space: 80GB
  • Sound Cards: DirectX compatible