Death Stranding was an undeniably gorgeous game when it originally came out in November of 2019, especially on the PS4 Pro. So it’s no surprise that the Director’s Cut upgrade for the PS5 makes it one of the best-looking games — at least as far as photorealistic landscapes — that I have ever seen. This game is a freaking joy to gawk at.
Typical of the current landscape of console gaming, Death Stranding Director’s Cut offers two modes — which either favor framerate over graphical detail, or vice versa.
The game defaults to Performance Mode out of the box, meaning it strives to consistently hit 60 FPS at the expense of some graphical flourishes. This isn’t to say this mode makes the game look like crap; it just means that an already-pristine-looking game delivers an almost impeccable 60 FPS framerate, thus enhancing the overall experience with more fluid character animations.
And although Quality Mode will cause the game to take a minor hit to framerates at times, you won’t be seeing any huge, consistent dips. So really, whichever you prefer, you will get a solid experience regardless — one that looks incredible across the board.
But where things really get interesting is the Director’s Cut’s ultrawide mode. This effectively adds letterboxing to the top and bottom of the screen, as the image is sort of set back and widened at the margins. This really does add a more panoramic, wide-scope presentation.
And for a game like Death Stranding — which is all about taking in your surroundings and marveling at the world at large as you pass time during deliveries — this is the absolute best way to experience the beauty of this game world.
And when you couple ultrawide with Quality Mode, as detailed in this Digital Foundry video, you will get all of the graphical fine tuning of Quality Mode, coupled with the breathtaking scope of the wider screen margins. It’s quite the spectacle, if I do say so myself.
I’ll pin a handful of screenshots below to show off the sheer beauty of Death Stranding Director’s Cut with ultrawide turned on, letterbox and all.
