Now on mobile, is it still that visual and cinematic masterpiece? | Review - Death Stranding
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✨Overview
Death Stranding is an action-adventure game developed by Kojima Productions and directed by Hideo Kojima. Initially released for the PlayStation 4 in 2019, with a subsequent release for Microsoft Windows and now for iOS/iPadOS/Mac Apple devices, the game has garnered attention for its unconventional gameplay mechanics, immersive storytelling, and cinematic presentation. The game is currently being sold in the App Store for $19.99, 50% cheaper than current other offerings.
Death Stranding is renowned for its departure from traditional gaming norms and what adopts what I would like to call an “anti-game” approach. Players assume the role of Sam Porter Bridges, portrayed by Norman Reedus (known for his role as Daryl Dixon from the Walking Dead), navigating a post-apocalyptic world to reconnect isolated cities affected by the mysterious "Death Stranding" event. The gameplay emphasizes the journey itself, with a focus on planning routes, managing cargo, and traversing challenging terrains.
🟩Pros
+Stellar cinematic experience
+Beautiful visuals
+Deep complex narrative
+Unconventional fresh gameplay mechanics
+Unexpectedly Immersive async multiplayer components
🟥Cons
-Frame rate issues, occasional freezes and crashes
-Touch controls still not recommended, similar to other recent AAA ports to Apple
⭐️Score: 7/10
📊Technical Performance (iOS/iPadOS/Mac Port, Controls, Performance, Visual Quality)
Since this is an Apple port of a rather technically impressive AAA game, I opted to discuss this first for those curious about how the port is, and my verdict is that its… Acceptable. If you’re looking for a more general review of Death Stranding, skip to the next part of this review.
The implemented touch controls in Death Stranding are marginally better than Capcom's implementation with RE Village and Resident Evil 4 on iOS due to a more customized layout. However, they remain challenging to use as they essentially function as a glorified on-screen gamepad without native adaptations to the controls. For example, the game heavily relies on both L2 and R2 to balance your character while moving, and it’s hard for me to consistently do that with the touch controls, so with that I would still strongly recommend using physical controllers, and if you have played the game before with controllers, you will have an intense urge to do just that.
Performance is kind of a mixed bag. It targets a 30FPS frame rates just like the original PS4 version, but I’ve encountered heavy frame drop issues on my iPad Pro M1 test device and sometimes even going as far as freezing the game that would sometimes require a full relaunch of the app.
As for the visuals, it runs at a lower resolution than its console counterparts, but by no means does it look bad. It still looks impressive, especially during cutscenes and character close-ups, the details still stand out and you’re still getting a stellar cinematic experience. It's just one of the last major games released for the PS4/PS5 now running on a phone, much like RE4 and Village. While not perfect, it's certainly a good start.
📖Story and Premise
The narrative of Death Stranding is set in a desolate unfamiliar world affected by the eponymous Death Stranding, a mysterious event that has resulted in otherworldly consequences. The entire premise is challenging to describe and, even more so, to digest, but it revolves around themes of human connection, loss, and the exploration of the consequences of scientific experimentation. These themes are accompanied by stellar performances from a star-studded Hollywood cast.
The game is brim-filled with heavily directed cutscenes and dialogues that will literally take hours to experience. Checking YouTube compilations alone, all cutscenes span around a total of over 11 hours, and that's only the cutscenes and not gameplay. The game is simply a cinematic masterpiece of an experience that is as much a movie as it is a video game, and blurs the line between the two medium.
The storytelling is characterized by its complexity, gradually revealing a narrative puzzle that engages players on both intellectual and emotional levels. It’s a very deep game, one that might require multiple playthroughs and perhaps watching youtube video analyses to fully understand, but one that has affected me profoundly and is current one of my five favorite video games from the last five years recently. ( https://www.taptap.io/post/5863861 )
🎨Visuals and Art
Powered by the Decima Engine — the same engine that powers the stellar Horizon Zero Dawn, Death Stranding boasts stunning graphics that capture the haunting beauty of its post-apocalyptic landscapes. Death Stranding has probably the most realistic and immersive landscape visuals that I’ve seen in video game recently, and with its Apple port it continues that trend only on a lower resolution and graphics setting. It doesn’t look as good as the PS4 version when compared side by side, but on a smaller screen such as iPhones and iPads, the visuals look are acceptable.
The art style is a blend of the hyper-realistic and the surreal, creating a believable world where the lines between natural and the supernatural are blurred. The attention to detail in character models, environmental effects, and the design of otherworldly entities known as BTs contributes to the game's overall atmospheric experience. The Hollywood actors truly resemble their real-life counterparts, and instead of breaking the immersion, as is often the case with popular actors in media, it has the opposite effect, further immersing me in the story.
🎮Gameplay
Unique in its mechanics, Death Stranding has been improperly described by many as a "delivery simulator", mainly because of the traversal and delivery aspects of the gameplay. The weight of cargo affecting your balance and ability to move across the map; the planning of routes and gizmos to bring in; and ultimately the navigation through challenging terrain are central components of the gameplay. But the game is much more than that.
There are asynchronous multiplayer elements similar to games like Dark Souls, where players indirectly interact through a shared server/universe with player-made structures and items from simple ladders to as complex as community made highways appearing in other players worlds, helping each other traverse the landscape. Thus making the world feel alive and desolate both at the same time. This social aspect is actually one of my favorite aspects of Death Stranding and one that has immersed me in the game even further more than I expected.
There are combat and stealth encounters with BTs and hostile factions that mostly follows standard third-person shooter mechanics and they complement the traversal aspects very well by not focusing too much on them and rather haUnlike traditional games where the main gameplay and action take place in cities or destinations, where fast travel is obsessively needed and used by players, Death Stranding is the exact opposite and focuses on the actual journey. ve them happen organically.
🌍Travel
Unlike traditional games where the main gameplay and action take place in cities or destinations, where fast travel is obsessively needed and used by players, Death Stranding is the exact opposite and focuses on the actual journey.
The desolate landscapes, punctuated by hauntingly beautiful scenery, evoke a sense of isolation and solitude. The absence of traditional cities or bustling hubs shifts the focus to the journey between waypoints, transforming the environment into both an ally and an adversary.
The gameplay revolves around these aspects, rather than the actual destination or cities. Upon reaching these destinations, players will find that there is mostly nothing there but another hologram to interact with. It serves as a quintessential example of an anti-game in many respects.
⚖️Conclusion
Death Stranding is quite a ride, both literally and figuratively. It's true that the game is polarizing and commonly labeled as a FedEx simulator and surely looks like that on paper, but it offers much more than that. With its fresh unique gameplay and deep narrative, it's an introspective exploration, a visual masterpiece, and the quintessential example of an anti-game. While its iOS/iPadOS/Mac adaptation introduces technical challenges, it serves as a promising start for major games on mobile platforms.
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