Shortly after the surprise release of Death Stranding Director's Cut on Xbox, we put out a quick comparison of the game running on Series X and S - and now the folks over at Digital Foundry have taken a closer look at the Kojima Productions title.
The good news is that the tech outlet is very impressed with how the game plays on both Microsoft machines, particularly the all-digital Xbox Series S, which more than pulls its weight here. In fact, DF says that the game is "quite remarkable" on the lower-powered Xbox console, especially when it comes to frame rates.
"Xbox Series S is absolutely fascinating. It's an accomplished port that scales very, very well indeed to the junior console. The quality mode doesn't resolve as much detail and from the resolution metrics, we can see why - it's using a dynamic resolution scaling range between 900p and 1080p.
What's quite remarkable here is that the drop to pixel count for the 4TF machine results in output frame-rate that's faster than the quality mode equivalents on Series X and PS5. And maybe that's a good thing, as the chances are the Series S owners are less likely to have VRR displays - so the closer it gets to a locked 60fps, the better."
Of course, Xbox Series X is running at a higher resolution overall — which you definitely spot — but even from our own early comparisons, the Series S version looked surprisingly similar to the more powerful Series X. This more detailed DF analysis certainly backs that up - Kojima Productions has done a fantastic job on this port.
That technical job matches the game in general as well - Death Stranding is a must-play Xbox title that scored a rare 10/10 in our recent Pure Xbox review. For more on our general thoughts of the game, and to see how the game runs on both Xbox consoles, check out our coverage down below.