What The Frell Is A Death Stranding?

Speedy Delivery!

Going outside is likely to kill you?  Check.

Couriers almost the only human interaction many have?  Check.

Got your special baby in bottle?  Umm, not yet 2020 but give it time.

Death Stranding is a game, out on PS4 for a while but now arriving on PC and looking gorgeous, if maybe somewhat confusing.  It is an open world full of bizarre ways to die and the main thing limiting your exploration is the giant parcel on your back.  The game is part walking simulator, part inventory management, a bit of base building, with a fair bit of stealth and some combat in a bizarre world that was unmistakably designed by Hideo Kojima.  It is no wonder that many are confused with what the game actually is, but whatever it is it is getting great reviews.

There was obviously some effort put into porting it to PC, as there are nods to Valve and Half Life in the game, and after all everyone should have the choice to don a headcrab as a hat.  As well there is an indirect multiplayer component, with structures created in game by other players sneaking into your game to give a sense of multiple couriers delivering packages and taming the wilderness. 

The game looks beautiful and now supports the features you would expect, high definitions, high refresh rates and ultra widescreen support, but as it is a console port the graphics options are somewhat sparse.  That said, there is still features to tweak to get the best performance at your chosen resolution and the Guru of 3D has spent some time investigating those options for  you. 

If you are aiming for 1080p you have no worries, even a GTX 1650 or RX 480 will provide you playable frame rates with all the options turned up.  1440p is a bit more demanding, you will want at least an NVIDIA GTX 1060 or RX 590 to have acceptable performance with high quality graphics options.  For those needing 4K you will still be able to play on an RX 5700 or RTX 2070 Super which is not too bad for a  game that looks this pretty.  The game can make use of both NVIDIA’s DLSS 2.0 and AMD’s FidelityFX Contrast Aware Sharpening to improve your visuals and performance if you have compatible hardware.