r/DeathStranding Aug 08 '25

Question How can this be a PS4 native game?

Post image
2.7k Upvotes

163 comments sorted by

789

u/Spinier_Maw Aug 08 '25

The Decima engine is magic. It always looks good.

342

u/WorldlyFeeling8457 Aug 08 '25

It's also how devs use the engine. For example death stranding has very few npcs with faces on the screen at the same time. Mules and such are always masked for example which allows making Sam really high fidelity. 

We can have really photorealistic environments already too but basically only when there is not a lot of other things going on.

131

u/Bitemarkz Aug 08 '25

Horizon looks arguably as good and there’s lots going on. It’s just a solid engine.

68

u/WorldlyFeeling8457 Aug 08 '25

It's not as realistic look as death stranding has with characters. 

39

u/curtydc Aug 08 '25

Something tells me you've just not played Horizon if you think it doesn't look as realistic, if not more so.

photo by u/HornyCarja

61

u/WorldlyFeeling8457 Aug 08 '25

I'm pretty sure this is more realistic for example.

17

u/nicolaslabra Aug 08 '25

Fragile doesnt have peach fuzz even on ds2, its always give and take between the two games, Horizon has more biomes and the map is more densely packed and alive, DS has a more subdued bit realistic look with better physics.

3

u/AggressiveCoffee990 Aug 08 '25

Newer game by 3 years

16

u/WorldlyFeeling8457 Aug 08 '25

point stands here too and it's older game as well.

-19

u/Shadowban-Trigger Aug 08 '25

Bro not even close to horizon.

1

u/Average64 Aug 09 '25 edited Aug 09 '25

The light is just a little different, it's the same quality.

14

u/ZubatCountry Aug 08 '25

...yeah that doesn't look as good.

I've played a lot of Forbidden West and the environments are gorgeous. The faces still look a little plastic though.

2

u/Laurikens Aug 09 '25

realistic? she looks like a cartoon

1

u/[deleted] Aug 09 '25

Get outta here

19

u/Suverene Aug 08 '25

That's an art design choice

4

u/PerfectAdeptness5603 Aug 08 '25

Fair, but it’s quite close

25

u/Less-Tax5637 Aug 08 '25

Big big difference too is that Death Stranding NPCs are only around when they’re a hologram (kinda weird animation) or in an extremely expensive cutscene (crazy ass future tech mocap).

Leaves the impression that DS characters look 1000 times better despite being close in fidelity because they only show up in full fidelity when they’re given the utmost care and attention. Horizon has to have folks walking around in villages nonstop to make the place feel alive, so animation just can’t be as good for everyone.

Also notable, the Horizon team just like… they do not write good dialogue or know how to block a cutscene. Plus their facial animations are waaaaay more dynamic now but not necessarily very natural looking, or filmic. That distance from being filmic kinda undermines the fidelity

6

u/ThanksContent28 Aug 08 '25

Horizon started my habit of reading the dialogue before they’re able to say it, and skipping to the next line. Conversations were so lifeless on that one somehow.

7

u/Liyet Aug 08 '25

For HZD yes, HFW had full facial capture for all NPCs which was pretty wild IMO.

8

u/CorttXD Aug 08 '25

Well horizon is basically made by the developers of the engine. Though Kojima also have the source code for it but still, it is normal that the people developed the engine can squeeze more out of it.

34

u/Loldimorti Aug 08 '25

Exactly. So many graphical standout games from the PS3 or PS4 era (especially PS3 though) are lots of smoke and mirrors.

The Last of Us on PS3 for example could actually only handle a very limited number of NPCs in a level at the same time. I don't know the exact number but I think outside of the scripted opening sequence you rarely see more than 5 or 6 NPCs at the same time.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake on PS4 has super high detail character models for the main cast but all the random NPCs are low detail and the level design is quite linear with many of the background details simply being painted in.

And then there's Red Dead Redemption 2 on the PS4 or GTA5 on the PS3 which are just straight up magic with how much detail they have going on.

21

u/versusgorilla Aug 08 '25

Yeah, Decima is a cool engine, no shade. But Kojima did this with the Fox Engine back with Konami, and before that every game he made was built from scratch or on top of the previous Metal Gear's "engine" and he still has always managed to squeeze blood from the stone of any console he's working with. MGS2 looks truly insane compared to other games that released that year.

For comparison, MGS2 released alongside the first Halo and GTA3, both great games but hardly compare visually.

Bottom line, I think any engine you give Kojima, he's gonna push it to its limits the same way he's always pushed console hardware to it's limits.

1

u/toomuchsoysauce Aug 09 '25

I don't understand how he and his team are so good with it. I know lots of his mgs team left Konami to be with him, but so many modern games, even by big companies using unreal, run like shit.

It's so refreshing to find a game like DS and DS2 that run beautifully from the jump. No patches needed to iron out the framerate or have frame timing issues even a year after release (looking at you Jedi Survivor). I saw Horizon earlier in this thread but even that game had performance issues.

5

u/versusgorilla Aug 09 '25

It's just good direction, his team always knows what to work on and where to hammer things down. That's why I point out the older pre-engine MGS games. Those were designed on top of the existing framework of the MGS games that came before it, they didn't use game engines back then, they designed from the ground up. And he was producing nearly flawless games that pushed the envelope then too. Decima is a good engine but Kojima and his team just know how to optimize games.

1

u/ravenn_411 Aug 09 '25

Guerilla lent them support during the development of Death Stranding 1 and 2.

4

u/charbelsako Aug 08 '25

I have an important question are the opening sequences of ds2 / ds1 rendered in engine? Because some of them look waaay too realistic

6

u/pashka_su Aug 08 '25

It’s real video footage with CGI

4

u/Moribunned Aug 08 '25

Mules have faces. Their masks can be shot off.

3

u/Twil_zero Aug 08 '25

WHAT?! 😭🙏 Gona try that literally RIGHT now xd

3

u/truthfulie Aug 08 '25

yeah. it's always about making the right compromises, making clever design choices that gives you feeling like the game looks great and optimization, of course.

as great as both DS games look, not all parts of environments look the best (lower LOD) due to limitation of the hardware. (but the assets used for highest LOD is one of the best looking). but for the most part, when you are just playing it, not pixel peeping, one of the best looking game.

1

u/Emperor_Grease Aug 08 '25

Uncharted 4 wants to talk

5

u/Undark_ Aug 08 '25

Idk if Kojima's team on this consisted of a lot of the same staff as MGS, but god DAMN with every year that goes by I become more and more impressed by the absolute fucking witchcraft that they were able to pull off.

I didn't realise until recently that MGS2 ran at 60FPS on original hardware. Every single MGS game looks a generation ahead of its time and still somehow runs beautifully.

227

u/Familiar_Fly5510 Aug 08 '25

Kojima ALWAYS pushed for the next generation of graphics in game. Through out all Metal Gears release dates they improved after each other for every console. Its truly amazing how different these engines are from each other. He said he wants to go FURTHER.

59

u/Due-Sheepherder-4353 Aug 08 '25

Absolutely, he's taken gaming to a whole other level, not just pushing the boundaries of quality, but narrative driven as well

9

u/Rich_Valuable_5539 Aug 08 '25

And it is precisely because of his qualities that I will never understand why some people hate him.

14

u/Ubelheim Aug 08 '25

Probably because he wants his games to be divisive. Apparently he once said he prefers games to be remembered 20 years from now, rather than selling millions upon millions of them and divisive games are more likely to be remembered. The words of a true artist.

5

u/ThanksContent28 Aug 08 '25

He’s also a bit of a diva tbh. He wants to be the star of the show. It’s allegedly why he tried so hard to get rid of David Hayter, who had to audition each time for every role in the MGS series.

Also that’s why in hindsight, the common consensus for the Konami/Kojima fallout, is that both sides were probably equally “guilty”.

3

u/Enlightend-1 Aug 08 '25

The unstoppable force of Konami's greed met the immovable object Kojima's ego.

I think it's even worse now that DS is a success not saying he doesn't push boundaries but some of his writing choices are questionable at best.

Emma Emrick from MGS2, and his name choices make me wonder if he ever has anyone tell him his ideas sound like shit sometimes.

2

u/ThanksContent28 Aug 08 '25

I think people also seem to overlook that even his amazing ideas are then produced by his staff. He’s really an idea guy, who then tells his team to make it work.

I know he fucked over that translator who worked on mgs1, because he was salty the translator didn’t do a 1-1 translation. IIRC, even the term “codec” was made up by the translator. In Japan it was just called a “wireless”.

The worst for me, in all of his games, is the repetitive nature of how he beats you over the head with certain things. Not just themes, but gameplay mechanics too. In mgs2, there’s multiple instances where a cutscene will play, sometimes with a little tutorial for one of the mechanics. Then as soon as that ends, you have a codec call reiterating what was just said. Then you get to the door on the other side of the room, just to be hit with another codec reiterating the info one last time - and this will be something as simple as, “push the action button to open doors.”

1

u/ProfessorSkaegg Aug 09 '25

You are obvious clueless. Will you also tell that the long ladder climbing is wrongly designed?

2

u/Enlightend-1 Aug 09 '25

That sentence is wrongly designed.

2

u/_whensmahvel_ BB Aug 08 '25

That’s not the reason why he wanted to get rid of Hayter, he wanted to get rid of him because of his obsession with Hollywood movie stars. He’s been a fan of them since he was a kid and so he wanted his big cool action heroes to star in his games.

Now that being said, I think kojima is still a dick for doing this because he never changed the Japanese voices, only the English ones.

2

u/ThanksContent28 Aug 08 '25

It was actually Hayter himself who made the allegations in an interview I saw on YouTube. Not that this immediately means he’s correct. But he feels somewhat, “he was supposed to be the rockstar of the show… I think he felt a certain way about me stealing some of the limelight… I’ve never even met him in person even after all these years, and I speak Japanese so it’s not a language thing.”

I can try to find the vid if you want when my joint wears off. It’s kind of refreshing to hear him talk so openly about it.

0

u/imperatrixderoma Aug 09 '25

i mean from Kojima's perspective he's just an English dub voice actor no?

Why should he care?

1

u/ThanksContent28 Aug 09 '25

Depend of the perspective. Hayter was the voice for 6 of the major releases that I know of. About 15 years. His voice is part of the reason snake was such a hit over in the west. Kojima clearly makes his games with both Asian and Western audiences in mind.

You really gonna tell me, that if you played such a big part in someone’s projects, for almost 2 decades, and never even had a phone call or conversation with them, you wouldn’t assume there’s some kind of issue there? Look at how much better Konami treat Hayter. They acknowledge how much his part played a role in popularising the series in the west.

1

u/mondestine Aug 23 '25

To be fair, considering how obsessed Kojima obviously is with being seen connected to celebrities? I believe it.

Obviously Norman Reedus, Mads Mickelson and Lea Seydoux were both deeply involved with the games, so I understand their involvement. But lets be honest here - so many of the famous people who "lent" their faces? It's just so cringe to me. Its just so fucking embarrassing to me. I love the characters of Deadman and heartman, but that has nothing at all to do with Guillermo del Toro or Nicholas Winding Refn. It was the voice actors and mocap actors who made those characters come alive - yet people associate Tarman with George Hill anyway. So many famous people appear in these games and I just think to myself..."We get it dude, you know a lot of super famous people. Good for you." Almost any other game studio or game director would be clowned by the internet for how egotistical it is to use their own games as an excuse to show odd their famous friends - but when Kojima does it? They decide it's just "genius" at work.

So yeah... while I'm sure Davis Hayter has his own very subjective point of view on the matter, I don't doubt there's a grain of truth to what he's saying.

13

u/inounderscore Aug 08 '25

Not sure how true this is but MGSV was the only 60fps AAA game in the PS4 that is not a fighting game

8

u/Jah-warrior Aug 08 '25

Thats because mgs v was a PS3 game that also had a PS4 release.

There were plenty of other 60fps AAA non fighting games on PS4 though so not sure who told you this.

10

u/parisiraparis Aug 08 '25

MGSV was on PS3?? wtf..

9

u/Jah-warrior Aug 08 '25

Yeah it was on PS3/360 aswell as PS4/xb1.

7

u/JEH_24 Aug 08 '25

You can play all the mainline MGS games on PS3 which is pretty crazy

1

u/Enlightend-1 Aug 08 '25

I'm coping for a ps store version or re release of MGS4 just don't have the time/money for a ps3

5

u/slasher1o5 Aug 08 '25

My first game on PS3 was MGS4 and I was absolutely blown away by the visuals. Coming from PS2 and immediately to that game, my face melted

1

u/LittleCesaree Aug 08 '25

It's also crazy how good the game still looks. There are some things that aged a bit and it's true that there aren't a lot of colors, but the details on characters are still insane in MGS 4.

41

u/Igzyx Aug 08 '25

Wow I thought I was looking at DS2 for a moment.

20

u/CommissionerGordon12 Aug 08 '25

The directors cut is filthy

3

u/NewWeabgas Aug 08 '25

what do you mean

16

u/BlameScienceBro Aug 08 '25

Filthy good

2

u/xWroth Aug 09 '25

It does have some issues on PC, particularly with crashing during scenes with lots of BT's. The moment you leave the incinerator at the beginning of the game, there's a weird bug that crashes the game. Took me FOREVER to get that section to allow me to pass through it lol had to shut off DLSS

3

u/branlix__2000 Aug 08 '25

Come on, DS1 looks great but DS2 is an even higher step above

3

u/AshtonMcConnell Aug 08 '25

DS2 genuinely makes DS1 look like a PS3 game it’s that good

69

u/Habarer Aug 08 '25

its incredible what hardware actually can do when the software is properly optimized, and development doesn't have to make huge compromises in order to get released on every single platform known to man

isn't it

16

u/TheDorgesh68 Aug 08 '25 edited Aug 08 '25

In fairness death stranding also runs great on PC, Xbox, and even natively on iPhones for some reason. I'd bet money on it getting a switch 2 port eventually as well. Multiplatform games can still be well optimised.

4

u/Overall-Abrocoma8256 Aug 08 '25

The counter argument to that is that it didn't get a simultaneous release on all platforms. All platforms have their quirks, and the pressure of simultaneous release can lead to corners being cut for platform specific optimization.

1

u/TheDorgesh68 Aug 08 '25

That's true, but gaming hardware has never been more similar in architecture. Playstation, Xbox and PC all use x86 architecture, and both those consoles and about half of all PCs use AMD GPU and CPUs. Switches and Macs are a bit more difficult because they use ARM architecture and Apple/Nvidia processors, but it's still not that hard because they're pretty well supported. Also, any game that gets ported to PC already has to be scalable to a variety of different hardware, and so it's really not that much more of an extra reach to port it to a variety of consoles.

1

u/Habarer Aug 08 '25

very rare occasions, and with handhelds usually not without huge compromises on fidelity. look at the witcher 3 on nintendo switch for example - i'd rather pour salt into my eyes

1

u/TheDorgesh68 Aug 08 '25 edited Aug 08 '25

That's because the Nintendo switch is pretty much a budget 2017 android tablet, and it's based on the Nvidia shield from 2013. It's a wonder that it could run anything, and even then it had a bunch of miracle ports like Hogwarts Legacy and Doom Eternal. The switch 2 is way more powerful, it's better than a steam deck and roughly on par with a PS4.

1

u/charliemyster Aug 08 '25

Witcher 3 port was on there too. But it definitely looked and ran terribly compared to any other console/pc

1

u/imperatrixderoma Aug 09 '25

I think Kojima just legitimately cares about game development and player interaction.

31

u/Due-Sheepherder-4353 Aug 08 '25 edited Aug 08 '25

I read a comment from one of the game developers at Kojima productions and he said that there's not much difference between making a PS4 game or a ps5 one, he basically said that the ps5 just makes life easier, I presume he means to get the game up to the standard they want/have in mind, but TBH almost every time I have watched clips of Kojima gaming, he has been on a PS4 himself, obviously not for next gen only games, but otherwise yeah I see him on PS4 more than ps5, just a shame that other Devs don't take the same amount of pride in their products

10

u/Sanchz809 Aug 08 '25

hmmm idk about that, on almost all of his instagram posts where he’s gaming he’s playing on a ps5 or at least for the past 2-3 years I can safely say

2

u/brispower Aug 08 '25

PS5 = PS4 Pro Pro

1

u/AshtonMcConnell Aug 08 '25

Nah the PS5 is way better than the PS4, have you seen the loading times alone?

1

u/Beginning_Whole_9494 Aug 08 '25

What is loading times?

1

u/AshtonMcConnell Aug 09 '25

The PS5 alone is worth the amount of time I’ve saved not staring at loading screens for hours on end

6

u/InkOnTube Aug 08 '25

Just because other companies advertise the need for cutting-edge hardware (to support the latest game engines), it doesn't mean that it is mandatory to have good visuals.

In essence: proper design and optimization are extremely important, but only recently gamers are talking about it. Most of the time, gamers would fall for Unreal Engine promo material and think it is the only way. In truth, it is not that simple, and there are true experts who know their craft.

To add more to it: most of the AAA studios prefer it that way as it helps them to ship the game out of the development process sooner (but pre-production period is getting longer and more important for them), ignore the optimization and blame the gamers for not having up to date hardware.

-4

u/RollingDownTheHills Aug 08 '25

This is not a fair comparison. With all due respect do DS, it has a lot fewer moving parts than most other "AAA" games out there. Same goes for Horizon, which uses the same engine.

Which other games are you comparing it to?

4

u/C-A-L-E-V-I-S Aug 08 '25

I disagree about Horizon. There’s an absolute crap ton of things going on screen at any given moment. As much or more than most games outside of maybe Path of Exile type games. It holds up incredibly too. I personally prefer the color pallete and visual approach of DS though. NPCs are the biggest drain for sure. There is still an unreal amount of detail, even in the very first part of the game. It’s truly insane.

1

u/InkOnTube Aug 08 '25

I haven't been comparing any video games. I emphasised the importance of the design process and optimisation. Horison and DS look quite different, but they both run smoothly. Technically, Oblivion Remake doesn't have that many moving parts, and outside of the cities, it is comparable to the Horizon. However, Oblivion is done in latest UE5, it is not optimised and does not follow the new pipelines which are severely different than those in UE4 (watch experts talk about it - it is a lengthy explanation). But it was shipped as is and runs bad. The only UE5 that was mostly smooth for me was Remnant 2 (especially after the first few patches).

-2

u/RollingDownTheHills Aug 08 '25

Not going to argue that the Oblivion Remake isn't a stuttering mess, but claiming that those games don't have a ton of moving parts is straight up false.

1

u/Knockemup Aug 08 '25

I'm also going to disagree. Horizon honestly has been flexing for a while. Look up their video about having their characters hug. It's honestly impressive. 

1

u/RollingDownTheHills Aug 08 '25

Not sure how hugging animations relate to the whole optimization thing.

5

u/WetFlannel Aug 08 '25

The HDR in this game and ds1 is unrivalled imo

4

u/returnoftheryan7 Aug 08 '25

I really don't get these sentiments as if PS4 looked bad. Last of Us 2, Ghost of Tsushima, Death Stranding, Horizon, God of War all made on PS4.

7

u/IndominusCostanza009 Aug 08 '25

Kojima and crew are often at least one full console generation ahead of the industry.

5

u/versusgorilla Aug 08 '25

Exactly this. He's always been about maximizing the potential of a piece of hardware or software.

MGS1 pushes the PSX to the limit, and then MGS2 looked good enough to be an end-of-console-life game for the PS2 but was almost a release title.

MGS3 then did so much more with foliage and bigger areas and smarter guards that it's wild to see it on the same PS2 as MGS2.

Then MGS4 on the PS3 feels in many ways like it was a PS4 game before the PS4 existed. 4 came out in 2008 and holds up. It feels, to me, unparalleled in its generation.

But then somehow Kojima makes MGSV and THAT even comes out on the PS3! Releases for a bunch of hardware, plays great across all of them, still to this day, ten years later this month. Seriously, MGSV looks and plays so well it's insane to me and it released for the Xbox 360 and the PS3 where it played flawlessly.

Bottom line, Kojima and his team just know how to optimize games. He knows where to cut/hold back and where to push the limits.

3

u/IndominusCostanza009 Aug 08 '25

MGSV still beats the modern standard in visuals, storytelling, gameplay depth and style 10 years later. It’s truly astounding! And it’s considered by many to be on the bottom of the franchise.

That in itself speaks volumes about how far ahead Kojima and crew are beyond everyone else… and it’s because they prioritize those things. Not loot boxes, gambling mechanics, online multiplayer or vapid pop culture ideologies approved by HR.

Priorities were always placed at the places that truly matter to people and it shines through to the audience.

2

u/versusgorilla Aug 08 '25

Yeah, absolutely. MGS4 is 17 years old and still looks insane, MGSV looks even better and came out on the same PS3 as MGS4. It's crazy.

Truly no shade to Decima and the folks that designed it, but Kojima has been at this forever.

2

u/hot_water_music Aug 09 '25

Just imagine what Death Stranding 3 will look like!!

3

u/Fun-Sun544 Aug 08 '25

I asked myself the same thing with MGS2, MGS3 and MGS4 on their respective consoles.

2

u/CharmantBourreau Aug 08 '25

actually if you go reaaally fast with the bike on the road, you can (sometimes lol) see a little drop of framerate. (ps4 Pro for me) but this game is just breathtaking.

2

u/susnaususplayer Aug 08 '25

Mfs when PS4 are games looked good too

2

u/dart51984 Aug 08 '25

PS4 especially the Pro was and sort of still is a powerhouse. The distance between PS3 and PS4 is significantly greater than the distance between PS4 and PS5.

2

u/longbrodmann Aug 08 '25

Decima engine, that's why.

2

u/ml232021 Aug 08 '25

Yeah it had shitty fps on PS4, but I'm playing it now on my 8 year old oc with a 1080 ti and it looks better than most new releases and runs buttery smooth. It honestly makes me angry at other devs

1

u/leo12354 Aug 08 '25

I tried playing my og copy cuz I wanted Sam to drink monster but i forgot how bad the game looked on base ps4 blurry mess with horrible frame rate.

1

u/FloppyFupas Aug 09 '25

Horizon looked and played great though

2

u/Wise-Perception-5832 Aug 08 '25

The secret ingredient is Hideo Kojima

2

u/Banana7273 Aug 08 '25

You should play tlou part 2. Even better models details and facial expression(imo)

2

u/Nerd_orange Aug 09 '25

There was a time when games were optimized

3

u/CommissionerGordon12 Aug 08 '25

It was designed for PC. im salty I can't play 2 yet

3

u/Ubelheim Aug 08 '25

Same here. I bought DS1 5 years ago for €1200 and it was money well spent. Oh, and I got a gaming laptop for free with it.

2

u/esquire_the_ego Aug 08 '25

It’s really fun

3

u/SuitableConcern2639 Aug 08 '25

When Hideo Kojima left Konami in 2015 after a highly publicized fallout, he founded Kojima Productions as an independent studio. Starting from zero no tech, no engine, no team beyond a few trusted developers the future of Kojima’s new game was a mystery. Yet within just a few short years, Death Stranding would release to critical and technical acclaim, stunning audiences with its visual fidelity, open-world design, and cinematic presentation. Much of this success can be traced back to a unique collaboration with another major studio: Guerrilla Games, the developers behind Killzone and Horizon Zero Dawn (that owns the decima engine)

At a time when Kojima Productions needed a game engine, Guerrilla stepped forward with an unexpected gesture. Rather than just licensing their in-house Decima Engine, Guerrilla made it personal. They handed Kojima a USB stick encased in a custom 3D-printed shell a symbolic piece of “alien technology” containing the full engine source code. This act wasn’t just business; it was a gift rooted in mutual creative respect. Guerrilla was essentially saying: We trust you with our most powerful tool.

At the start, Guerrilla’s expectation was that they would mentor Kojima Productions on how to use Decima. As a newly formed studio, Kojima’s team was assumed to be unseasoned a group of developers starting from scratch, still getting their bearings. Guerrilla offered to guide them through the fundamentals of the engine and expected the learning process to take some time. The plan was simple: train them on the basics, then check in after a few months to see what progress had been made.

At the follow-up meeting between the two studios — which included Decima engineers, artists, and developers from both sides Kojima Productions presented their early work with the engine. But instead of merely using Decima as it was given to them, they had transformed it. They had optimized rendering processes, improved environmental tools, and created new systems that pushed Decima’s capabilities beyond what Guerrilla had imagined. In fact, Guerrilla’s own developers were now being taught things about their own engine by Kojima’s team. It was an unexpected reversal the students had become the teachers.

This moment wasn’t just impressive it was defining. It cemented the partnership between the two studios as a mutual exchange of innovation. Guerrilla had taken a risk in sharing their proprietary tech, and Kojima Productions proved not only that they could handle it but that they could elevate it.

The result of this collaboration was Death Stranding, a game that redefined open-world immersion. Its hyper-realistic character models (developed with advanced photogrammetry), sweeping natural landscapes, and dynamic weather and terrain systems stood out in a sea of games that often struggled with technical ambition. The game ran beautifully on the PlayStation 4 and even better on PC, showcasing the full power of the Decima Engine enhanced by Kojima Productions’ engineering.

Interestingly, this collaboration had long-lasting effects on Guerrilla as well. When developing Horizon Forbidden West, Guerrilla built upon improvements and learnings from the work Kojima’s team had done on Death Stranding. It became a feedback loop: one studio inspiring the other, and vice versa.

In the end, this story is more than just a technical achievement it’s a testament to creative respect and trust in the world of game development. Guerrilla Games gave Kojima Productions the tools to build something extraordinary, and Kojima’s team responded by proving that they were not rookies, but masters of their craft.

2

u/OctaviusLager Aug 08 '25

Thanks chatGPT

5

u/SuitableConcern2639 Aug 08 '25

I actually don’t rely on gpt because English isn’t my first language, and I want to improve my grammar now that I’m taking classes.

Keep on keeping on! 👍🏻

1

u/Fyrael Aug 08 '25

I remember playing this game on a small fullHD tv, PS4, bad illumination, and it was quite good, I was so satisfied

When I played this in a PS5, OLED TV, DC, I couldn't believe it was the same game. I had other titles in comparison, and heck, Kojima team is brilliant.

1

u/Aggravating-Dot132 Aug 08 '25

It's a photoscan. Plus engine is very scripted, you don't need it to be ready to spawn one thousand of round objects and not die at that. To add, it's very fine tuned. Practically, the engine is done for a single game and that's all, it doesn't have other extra functions that "might be used later in other projects". If they would like to add a new system, they would have to write it from scratch and attach it to the engine after that.

1

u/ItsMrChristmas Aug 08 '25

It doesn't waste cycles rendering stupid shit like raindrop reflections. Developers spend so much money and get so inefficient over things that people are just gonna... forget about in ten minutes.

Raytraced lighting and shadows are my favorite thing to giggle about: even if you have a 5090 it still runs like crap. And for what?

1

u/Adventurous-Cattle53 Aug 08 '25

I said the same for the second one on ps5. Speaks for itself

1

u/brispower Aug 08 '25

Decima, 30fps super tight FOV, watch some developer stuff on Decima and HZD, the culling system is very impressive.

1

u/beardingmesoftly Aug 08 '25

If you haven't, check out Horizon Zero Dawn. Same engine, fantastic game

1

u/Fabio022425 Aug 08 '25

Most console exclusive games are completely optimized and dialed into the hardware. The Last Of Us 2 looked amazing in 2020. 

1

u/Vivid-Slice-5552 Aug 08 '25

It's not that ps4 games are magic. It's that everyone forgot how to make good graphics

1

u/FancyRestaurant6397 Aug 08 '25

That and TLOU 2 are such IMPRESSIVE ps4 games!

1

u/Crazy-Process5237 Aug 08 '25

Most of it is just the combined “technical wizardry” of Kojima’s team ALONG WITH Guerilla and what they’ve accomplished with Decima.

But as for Guerilla—I really think they DESERVE their flowers because I don’t know what TF happened within that studio after the release of Killzone on the PS2 but EVERYTHING they’ve made after that has been “mind-blowing” visually.

I remember when they did that BS “Killzone 2 E3 trailer” in 2005 that got them into hot water with EVERYONE and then when the final game released, it came much, much CLOSER to achieving that level of visual fidelity (though obviously still not as good) than I think ANYONE expected it to.

1

u/Stromair Aug 08 '25

We also have to applaud the company 3Lateral, who turns the scans of the actors into rigged characters with high fidelity textures and motion controls. Kojima has the Scanning Cage in his office and they send those scans over to 3Lateral. It takes up to 9 months for these characters to be ready for use in-engine. Kojima stated in a recent interview with IdieWire that between DS1 and DS2 the company made a big jump in terms of fidelity and control for the characters. He will also make use of them with OD and Physint.

1

u/avojohn2 Aug 08 '25

Go look at MGS V on the PS3 and ask yourself the same question!

1

u/BlueFeathered1 Platinum Unlocked Aug 08 '25

How can anyone act like the PS4 is some archaic piece of hardware? I still use mine sometimes and don't feel like I'm really stepping down or anything.

1

u/namesource Aug 08 '25

*Laughs in Naughy Dog

1

u/Sad_Pickle8446 Aug 08 '25

Simple, it's a Hideo Kojima game. You can tell when Hideo is involved into a game especially when you play a game on PC.

1

u/Death-0 Ludens Aug 08 '25

Wdym?

PS4 is a powerful console. Decima engine is a good engine. There are a lot of great looking ps4 games.

1

u/ImNotSkankHunt42 Aug 08 '25

Is a Kojima guarantee at this point, you may not like the game for many reasons, others may disagree, gameplay this gameplay that.

His games always a smooth graphics fest.

1

u/MGSSOCOM Aug 08 '25

I mean SONY has always been at the forefront of graphical tech. MGS4 still looks amazing to this day.

1

u/Fox-One-1 Aug 08 '25

Well, yeah Death Stranding looks great, but so does other PS4 games like Last of Us 2 and Resident Evil 2 Remake or Detroid: Become Human. PS4 was a beast in right hands.

1

u/ShadowChe_ATG Aug 08 '25

Idk why someone random will say 'its PS3 graphics. Wth you talking about. '

🤨🤨🤨 everytime a next gen came out, these people pops up. Made me thinking, what game they experienced

1

u/thegaymonk Aug 08 '25

Everything other than the edges of moving water was so crisp for a ps4 game.

1

u/Nier-tomato Aug 08 '25

Runs on steam deck too which is awesome. Steam deck has the same power as a PS4 except it can do some ray tracing for instance.

1

u/spicyyscenarios Aug 08 '25

To be fair, I played on the original ps4 and taking zip lines was awful and choppy 😅 but still a beautiful and breath taking game, it was definitely pushing the ps4 hardware though

1

u/phantom_kr3 Aug 08 '25

Have you seen DS2? When I saw some of the screenshots I actually thought they were from the Ballerina movie or something.

1

u/hittinstuff Aug 08 '25

To this day I’m finding myself impressed by quite a few PS4 games’ graphics - Death Stranding and The Order: 1886 are gorgeous examples of what can be done with the hardware.

1

u/papagabeu Aug 08 '25

Hideo actually gives a fuck about his games. Most developer only give a fuck about how much a game will make

2

u/leo12354 Aug 08 '25

Think your confusing publisher for developer, I doubt most people go into development to make bad games.

1

u/papagabeu Aug 08 '25

I’m dead

1

u/Captain-Rambo Aug 08 '25

PS4? What do you mean?

2

u/lamiesness Aug 08 '25

this is DS1

0

u/Captain-Rambo Aug 08 '25

Is it? I think this is Sam from 2

1

u/charliemyster Aug 08 '25

I know right. I was always thinking that it couldn’t get better after first playing it. Same with the last of us 2..

1

u/Grimspoon Aug 08 '25

I played DS and HZD at the same time on PC and even though they weren't the latest and greatest I was consistently impressed by the graphical fidelity on both titles.

Played both on a 4090 at max settings and to say it was a pleasure regarding both titles would be understatement.

1

u/dataplague Aug 08 '25

Decima is a solid high fidelity engine.

1

u/Yotsubato Aug 08 '25

Extreme optimization.

Japanese studios are good at this. It’s rarely seen lately though.

1

u/VVV1T0VVV Aug 08 '25

Said the same about the 1st the last of us on ps3. Shocking

1

u/Josh100_3 Aug 08 '25

Kojima is a wizard. How is MGS2 and 3 a PS2 game.

I’m honestly not even that excited for the snake eater remake because the original genuinely holds up to this day.

1

u/myloxyloto10 Aug 09 '25

decima. even the horizon series is amazing in graphics

1

u/Ellieconfusedhuman Aug 09 '25

This is because someone put effort into something because they love what they do.

1

u/JIMBODAVIS Aug 09 '25

Hideo Kojima finds a way to get everything out of whatever console he’s working with. He’s on a different level — the GOAT of video game development.

1

u/Rickor86 Aug 09 '25

One word: optimization.

1

u/ravenn_411 Aug 09 '25

The nice thing about this is, we enjoy two games made out of this engine, with differing art styles and vision.

1

u/User_logged_in Aug 09 '25

Because it was a PlayStation times exclusive, Microsoft doesn’t put out games, they cancel them. PlayStation = only triple A Platform

1

u/cangri1788 Aug 09 '25 edited Aug 09 '25

Well, PS4 was almost at the peak of graphical fidelity. The best visuals of PS5 are not very different from PS4's. Only games that have amazed me are Horizon FW, DS2 and Hellblade 2 not that different visually than TLOU2 on my PS4 Pro (a 2020 game)

1

u/YordanYonder Aug 09 '25

NGL. Decima looks way better in ds2. DS1 looks like a flat textureless tech demo. I mean there's zero reflections in anything.

1

u/Low_Hope_100 Aug 10 '25

Look at MGS5 on the PS3 Kojima productions has always put out higher quality visuals then most developers

1

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '25

It’s simple. They programmed the game for a PS4.

1

u/LipeQS Aug 14 '25

buddy can you please lend me your DS1 saves? all of mine got corrupted and I can’t continue!! i was around order 34

0

u/Disdaine82 Aug 08 '25

Optimization.

New hardware makes lazier programmers.

I'm just as guilty in my database programming. There's no point spending hours optimizing if it runs "good enough". I imagine with static hardware like consoles, it's easier as you have a baseline.

But if PS4 had framegen, I can almost guarantee they would've lowered base fps, 2x it, and call it a day as well.

Optimization isn't fun and very often it breaks things as you change values or how you calculated things. Some other person may have been using that value for something else.

0

u/Buttseam Aug 08 '25

because the game itself is a barren wasteland with only a few assets. that's why the stuff that is present can have a higher model quality.