Death Stranding

DEATH STRANDING

Developers
	Kojima Productions
Publishers
	505 Games
Engines
	Decima
Release dates
Windows	July 14, 2020
Reception
Metacritic	86
OpenCritic	83
IGDB	83
Taxonomy
Modes	Singleplayer
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Open world, Adventure, Action
Vehicles	Motorcycle, Truck
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Sci-fi, Post-apocalyptic, North America

Death Stranding is a third-person open world action-adventure game developed by Kojima Productions and published by 505 Games. Directed and designed by Hideo Kojima as his next work after Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, the game features a cast of film and TV actors, including Norman Reedus as the protagonist. Death Stranding is the first Kojima Productions game built on the Decima engine created by Guerrilla Games.

Originally released for PlayStation 4 on November 8, 2019 to generally positive critics reviews and subsequently announced for PC with a release date of June 2, 2020, the date was later moved to be July 14. Similarly to its console counterpart, the PC release was met with critical acclaim.

The PC version of the game is available for Windows and distributed through Epic Games Store and Steam, making use of Denuvo Anti-Tamper DRM on both platforms at launch. It features 21:9 ultra-widescreen support, DLSS 2.0, high frame rates and adjustable graphics options, along with a new difficulty and bonus in-game content.

General information

Official support page

Publisher Discord server

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
Publisher website
Amazon.co.uk		Day 1 Edition
Epic Games Store
GamersGate
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Steam

All versions require Denuvo Anti-Tamper DRM.

Version differences

Pre-orders include HD wallpapers, Chiral Gold/Omnireflector Sam sunglasses and cap (color variants), Gold and Silver speed skeleton and armor plate lv2 and above. The in-game items are unlocked through story progression.

Day 1 Edition contains a game code for Steam inside a steelbook and a slipcase, as well as all the digital pre-order bonuses.

Half-Life and Portal extra missions are exclusive for Steam release.^{[citation needed]}

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\KojimaProductions\DeathStranding\<user-id>\profile\ <path-to-game>\settings.cfg
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1190460/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\KojimaProductions\DeathStranding\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1190460/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher
Steam Cloud

Video

Graphics settings

HUD settings

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Limited to 16:9 and 21:9 resolutions.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen		Hor+ gameplay. Contains both Hor+ and Vert- cutscenes. Common ultrawide resolutions are pillarboxed to 21:9. See Ultra-widescreen for a workaround.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Full Screen is borderless.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Always set to 16x.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		FXAA or TAA toggle, DLSS.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Options for 30, 60, 120, 144, and 240. Cutscenes are limited to 60.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		HDR must be enabled in Windows. Luminosity Settings slider is available.

Ultra-widescreen

Modify the game executable to force any aspect ratio
Open <path-to-game>\ds.exe in a hex editor (e.g. HxD). Search for 55 55 15 40 as hex. Replace it with 26 B4 17 40 (for 2560x1080) or any other aspect ratio in hex. Save the changes. Run the game and select the 21:9 aspect ratio in the Graphics settings menu. Some cutscenes will remain affected by Vert- scaling.

Input

Keyboard & Mouse settings

Controller settings

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		Horizontal and Vertical Camera Speed sliders under Keyboard & Mouse Camera settings.
Mouse input in menus		Right mouse button is used to return.
Mouse Y-axis inversion		Vertical Camera Movement and Horizontal Camera Movement inversion options.
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion		Vertical and Horizontal inversion.

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

Generic/other controllers		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Additional information
Button prompts		Button Prompts can be manually changed via [Change Button Icons]. ("Auto-Assign" is set by Default)
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback		Vibration Function toggle.
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M		Button prompts can be manually locked via [Button icon Display] ("Auto-Assign" is set by Default) to avoid Input Switching Stuttering.

Steam Input
Steam Input API support		Gyro Sensors is supported and is used for [Controls for Smoothing BB], similar to the PS4 Version.
Official controller preset(s)
Steam Controller button prompts

• 

  "Perform action"
  key assignments

• 

  "In vehicle"
  key assignments

• 

  Basic gamepad controls

Audio

Audio settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound		Up to 7.1 output.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Language settings

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Arabic
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Czech
Dutch
French
German
Greek
Hungarian
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Latin American Spanish
Turkish

Network

Game settings

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
Local play
LAN play
Online play		Co-op Limited to asynchronous interaction primarily with objects placed by other players.
Asynchronous multiplayer

Issues unresolved

"Death Stranding requires Windows 10 version 1809 or later"

The Windows operating system version check can fail when compatibility mode settings are enabled on the Steam client's executable, even when using Windows 10 build 1809 or later.

Disable Windows Compatibility Mode settings
Go to <Steam-folder> Right click on Steam.exe, disable any of the Windows Compatibility Mode settings in the "Compatibility" properties tab, and then apply the changes. Restart the Steam client.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	12

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Wwise
Cutscenes	Bink Video

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5-3470 AMD Ryzen 3 1200	Intel Core i7-3770 AMD Ryzen 5 1600
System memory (RAM)	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	80 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 AMD Radeon RX 560 3 GB of VRAM DirectX 12 compatible	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 AMD Radeon RX 590 6 GB of VRAM
Other	Requirements for 30 FPS at 1280x720.	Requirements for 60 FPS at 1920x1080.

A 64-bit operating system is required.

Official recommendations for 30 FPS at 1920x1080 are also available.