First unveiled back at E3 2021, the initial trailer for Death Stranding’s Director’s Cut had very distinct Metal Gear Solid vibes, and left many of us (msyelf included) wondering whether it was some kind of stealth-based expansion. As it turns out, that Metal Gear-esque sequence will likely be one of the new story missions in the Director’s Cut, which you can see glimpses of in the new trailer below. According to Kojima Production’s head of publishing Jay Boor, the new content “isn’t simply bolted on” to the original game. “It’s been carefully woven into the core game experience and will be made available through discovery as you play,” he writes on the PlayStation blog. “Most of the new content is fairly easy to find, though there are some bits and pieces that will take some time to find and unlock.” Kojima’s Metal Gear DNA can also be seen in Sam’s new arsenal of weapons, too, giving him more tools to take down those pesky MULEs than the original version. There will be a firing range to try out new guns as well, letting you get a feel for them without running the risk of causing a massive BT invasion and potential in-game explosion (the ghostly BT enemies are attracted by human blood, you see, which is why so many of Sam’s original weapons are non-lethal). There will also be new vehicle types to truck around in, which will no doubt form the backbone of Death Stranding Director’s Cut’s other, rather intriguing new feature: the racing mode. Dubbed Fragile Circuit, this will see Sam take to a range of different race tracks to face off against… Fragile? Dead Man? Mads? Who knows. I just hope I don’t have help build them in order to unlock new courses, because holy moly, pumping the main road full of resources was time-consuming enough, let alone several bespoke race tracks. Of course, the idea that Death Stranding even needs a Director’s Cut in the first place is mildly preposterous. There is no way Kojima wasn’t involved in literally every decision that went into making the original game, so this being the true ‘director’s vision’ of the Death Stranding experience just doesn’t quite compute for me (did my BB Boys road trip mean nothing, Kojima?). However, as you may remember from our travels into Death Stranding’s ultrawide graphics settings, Kojima takes his film knowledge very seriously, as he used the proper cinematic 21:9 aspect ratio (3360x1440) instead of a traditional monitor resolution (3440x1440). I’d imagine the Director’s Cut moniker is a similar nod to the language of film rather than anything else, but still. That doesn’t stop it being daft in equal measure. We don’t know yet whether PC folks will also be getting the Death Stranding Director’s Cut just yet. At time of writing, it’s only announced for PS5 so far, and will cost $10 / €10 for existing owners to upgrade when it launches on September 24th. The PS5 Director’s Cut will also have all the Half-Life and Cyberpunk 2077 missions that are currently available in the PC version, too. I’d imagine we’ll get it on PC eventually, though. It might just be we have to wait six months or so like we did originally (and I’ll be very sad if we don’t). I’ll also be sad if we have to pay to upgrade, but we’ll keep you posted as soon as we know more.
