DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR'S CUT

App Store Editors’ Notes

Wow!

This game is a 5 star that’s a 3 for reasons which should easily be fixed. I’m anticipating these being addressed but it’d be nice to have some communication from the devs. I’m shocked this is on an iPhone. Some people have reviewed this and said it doesn’t look good. That’s untrue. Generally it runs and looks great! Here’s what it needs: 1. Crashing must be addressed. I have to save the game every 2-3 minutes because the game goes through areas where it crashes a lot, then moments where it’s fine. Auto save every few minutes would help. The game needs graphics settings. I prefer lower graphics without metal fx because I don’t like upscaling blur. Please provide us these options similar to how resident evil did. TLDR: looks great plays great, those clowning on it are wrong. -Crashing is an issue, goes through waves of crashing, then none, then crash again putting you way back to a previous save/location. -need auto save -need graphics options, not all like metal fx upscaling. Opinion: If those needs are met this is 5 star. If not, and crashing doesn’t get fixed, it’s a cool demo of a17, and fundamentally unplayable in the long term, all while being disappointing to us who want mobile AAA to take off NOW :) Please devs, fulfill its potential.

I don't know if I should thank Tim Cook or thank Hideo Kojima.

Death Stranding is so much fun! Just before I finish the game (the power went out outside, otherwise I would have finished it already), I want to praise this game and my MacBook Pro (2021, 16-inch). This is the first time in two and a half years since I bought it that I have felt that this is a device that can get hot, has a fan, and uses a battery (it offers the same experience as the daily use Intel MacBook Pro without gaming, haha.). The gaming experience it brings is perfect: the mini-LED backlight allows for a large amount of sky and light sources to be presented in HDR in the game; although it is only equipped with the M1 Pro 16GB of unified memory, its graphics processing power can maintain almost 120Hz stably ((it seems to me is.) , at 2560*1440 with "very high" quality), w/ or w/o power connected. This also means that I can play a 3A wherever and whenever I want (on the other hand, game saves can also be continued on iPhone, which is really great). Next, I will continue playing Death Stranding without plugging in, hoping to completely drain my battery until it's below 80% health (currently at 87%) before the AC three-year warranty expires. This MBP has been the most powerful and favorite among all the Macs and PCs I have used so far. I don't know if I should thank Tim Cook or thank Hideo Kojima, but playing Death Stranding on my MBP has been the first happy event of my 2024.

One of the best pieces of media ever made

This game is so absurdly good. It works surprisingly well as a mobile game, with the ability to do a few quick missions to gradually rank up your character and reputation with different bases in quick gameplay sessions. I put off playing the game for years, because the idea of a game about being a delivery man sounded so lame, even if it was from Hideo Kojima. Turns out, it is so much more than that. It has one of the most interesting worlds/settings of any piece of media I’ve experienced, an amazing story with great characters and plot twists, tense stealth and horror mechanics, and fun combat. Yes, you do mainly deliver cargo and set up Internet connections between a bunch of bases and bunkers, but it is the most engaging thing I’ve ever done in a video game. The way the gameplay evolves as you play and changes the ways you can make deliveries make it so addictive. Somehow, this is Hideo Kojima’s best game, and it plays surprisingly well on mobile. I am on a 16e, and the performance is really good. It feels like a pretty steady 30fps while on foot, with some drops while using vehicles, but nothing annoying. The more cinematic boss battles with lots of tar and BTs got pretty choppy, but it never affected gameplay or got in the way of the fun I was having. Easily the best thing you could possibly buy on the App Store.

The game is good. Everything mac is the weird part.

In a strange turn of events apple is the user experience problem here. Most of the problems with the game are due to the mac and not the game itself. You'll have to activate apples "game center" registration. Otherwise the icon just displays in the lower app tray. Nothing happens. You'll have to force quit and then activate game center for it to work. Also, be advised that it's not intuitive playing this on a home TV. I use the xbox controller and it works fine but it's clunky getting the console experience on a tv with your laptop. Sometimes the game has the white app top bar other times the screen just goes black and I have to touch the mac mouse pad to "wake" it up. This might be due to my energy saving/screen settings. Basically I sit with the laptop half open and the screen blacked out connected to an hdmi to my 4k tv ready to stirr the laptop when the screen goes black. I want games on mac to work but I'm coming from consoles not PC's. It's a little more fuss than I'd like right now but the game seems to be worth all that. I'm sure apple could make the game vibe right it they tried.

2% Chance of Working

The first paragraph of this review is strictly for the developers at Kojima Productions. Death Stranding is a beautiful game that feels like a movie at times while touching on key themes like existentialism, community, good vs evil, and humility. I’ve played it on my PS5 and now on my Macbook. It’s the sort of game you can come back to play again and again which brings me to my next paragraph. My second paragraph is for the criticism of 505 Games and whoever else ported this game to mac and the absolute mess you all have created. When I click to open the app it barely works, and when I say barely I mean that most of the time the app never opens, it bounces once and just sits at the dock only to end up (not responding). I have found guides online claiming that you must be logged into game center within your mac settings for the game to open. I’m not sure why that is but it’s irrelevant as I can assure you that is not my problem and I’m already logged into game center. And after my 10th problem report to apple, I have decided to warn others here because this is absolutely ridiculous. I decided to run my own test to see how unreliable the booting of this game is and it worked for me once out of 50 open attempts and force quits after my mac marked it unresponsive. If you’re a numbers person like I am, this game has a 1:50 ratio of actually opening, meaning the app works 2% of the time. Honestly a crash is no big deal, that happens with any game, and the same applies to glitches. But to not open at all is inexcusable, do better 505 Games. Lastly, I am running a 2023 Macbook Pro M2 Max with 64GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, so my computer is not the issue.

Very well made game

If you would have told me 5 years ago that and iPhone and/or iPad would be able to run AAA games like this, I would have laughed and walked away. Here we are in 2024 with one of the best titles available for exactly those devices. I’m blown away at how smooth my M2 iPad pro 12.9 inch runs this game. I hear many complaints about the clarity of the game on both iPhone and iPad but lets get really people, this game is running on devices with nothing but passive cooling to keep your devices from vaporizing. Sacrifices must be made to achieve this goal and I must say Kojima Productions have done a beautiful job. I really hope this game starts the trend for more AAA releases on IOS and Mac OS. The one complaint I do have is with the virtual controller, I find it very hard to use so I use a PS4 controller instead, which I prefer anyway. That said, I’m really not sure how you can do the virtual controller better without making it harder to select the correct action you want. Keep up the great work and I look forward to future titles landing on IOS and Mac OS.

Ridiculous

The first paragraph of this review is strictly for the developers at Kojima Productions. Death Stranding is a beautiful game that feels like a movie at times while touching on key themes like existentialism, community, good vs evil, and humility. I’ve played it on my PS5 and now on my Macbook. It’s the sort of game you can come back to play again and again which brings me to my next paragraph. My second paragraph is for the criticism of 505 Games and whoever else ported this game to mac and the absolute mess you all have created. When I click to open the app it barely works, and when I say barely I mean that most of the time the app never opens, it bounces once and just sits at the dock only to end up unresponsive. I have found guides online claiming that you must be logged into game center within your mac settings for the game to open. I’m not sure why that is necessary but it’s irrelevant as I’m already logged into game center. After my 20th problem report to apple, I have decided to warn others here to save their money because this is absolutely ridiculous. I decided to run my own test to see how unreliable the booting of this game is and it worked for me once out of fifty open attempts and force quits after my mac marked it unresponsive. If you’re a numbers person like I am, this game has a 1:50 ratio of actually opening and allowing you to play it, meaning the app works 2% of the time. Honestly a crash is no big deal, that happens with any game, and the same applies to glitches. But to not open at all is inexcusable, do better. Lastly, I am running a 2023 Macbook Pro M2 Max with 64GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, so my computer is not the issue.

Beautiful & Cinematic

I’ve somehow kept myself from knowing much about this game until now. And with the rain falling outside, this beautiful and eerie adventure seems a perfect vibe for right now. So far the story is very compelling and the way it’s told is stunning and cinematic, even on my iPhone 15 Pro Max. The music and score fit the mood perfectly. And the challenge of traversing the landscape is the exact slow pace I’m in the mood for. Plus, when moments of tension arise, the juxtaposition feels even more intense. My only issues so far have been when installing. It kept pausing saying I was out of memory despite having 135 free GB before installing. Thankfully when I just hit A a few times and continued installing a few times, it eventually finished. Having the prologue be free might entice more people to try this and persevere through the game’s huge download/install. Glad I kept at it overnight. This is going to be a story that stays with me, I can tell. Especially, right now as America faces an unknown future.