Table of Contents
- The Ruined World of Days Gone
- A faithful two-wheeled companion
- Surviving is the only way out
- Lots of zombies (and trouble) along the way
The zombie theme is an area that has already been addressed to exhaustion by various branches of the entertainment industry. When developer Bend Studio showed off its new PS4 exclusive game, Days Gone, in 2016 many expected an adventure that would bring news to the genre. Unfortunately, the game is as generic as you can imagine. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad experience.
A Sony provided Techlifers with a digital copy of Days Gone guidance on PS4 for tests and, after a week of intense and zombie-filled gameplay, we present you with a complete analysis of this game that, despite having great potential, has not managed to escape the commonplaces of its theme, despite offering a solid and interesting experience to the player.
The Ruined World of Days Gone
Days Gone follows the same “cake recipe” as so many other zombie games. The game starts with a quick flashback of the main character, the biker Deacon, while he, your best friend Boozer and your wife Sarah flee the city after the zombie attack. With Sarah injured, Deacon chooses to leave her in the care of a medical team in a helicopter departing for a camp, while returning to save Boozer, who was also injured.
Skipping a few years, the player jumps straight into the action as the wild biker duo chases an unknown man who has essential resources for the duo's survival. Get ready for lots of cutscenes and loading sequences, plus tutorial windows popping up all the time. The game takes the player by the hand for a long time before giving them the freedom to explore the world ravaged by a deadly virus and full of zombies, affectionately nicknamed “Freakers”.
It's hard to get away Days Gone in its first 15 minutes of gameplay of the classic The Last of Us. In several interviews during the game's development, the producers insisted that the N served as inspiration for their work, but that they were in no way trying to copy the title's success. This feeling of playing a repeated game stays with the player for quite some time before Days Gone able to stand out for its own qualities.
The similarities with other games start to be put aside as we get to know and interact better with Deacon. The actor Sam Widower – the same one who lent his appearance and voice to the incredible Jedi star killer in the Star Wars series The Force Unleashed – did a fantastic job giving Deacon a voice, face and feelings. From the beginning of the game, the player manages to empathize with the character, even if his motivations and his arc of development are not very exciting.
Don't expect too many surprises in terms of the plot of Days Gone. In terms of story, the game is just another title that addresses an apocalyptic scenario in which zombies dominate the world and humans live in hiding or in camps trying to survive. As always, there is a government organization shrouded in mystery studying the consequences of the virus that infected a large part of the world's population, but the Nero corporation does not go beyond the clichés of the genre.
At various times in the game it is not uncommon for the player to choose to carry out side missions or explore the devastated world instead of continuing the main story. the weak plot of Days Gone does not motivate the user to search for answers by completing the most important quests. Fortunately, Deacon's dialogues and scenes with his friend Boozer are always at the right moments to break the monotony of the game's cliché story.
Deacon is not just the protagonist and main hero of Days Gone, but also the element that prevents the game from being totally forgettable once the credits roll across the screen. To take advantage of the content the game has to offer, it is highly recommended to invest in side missions (as repetitive as they may be) before proceeding with the main campaign. You'll want to be by Deacon's side for as long as possible before discovering the disappointing outcome the game has to offer.
A faithful two-wheeled companion
The great highlight of Days Gone It's down to the most important item in Deacon's survival inventory: his motorcycle. It is with her that the character crosses the vast region of Oregon quickly and escapes from any kind of trouble with the undead. The motorcycle's controls and driving mechanics are very simple and precise, making the player much prefer using the vehicle than walking.
Although Deacon loses his turbocharged bike at the beginning of the main campaign, you will be able to acquire a simpler bike later and gradually improve it with modifications. In addition to always keeping an eye on your financial resources when you need the assistance of a mechanic, you will need to take good care of your companion on the road.
The bike needs gas and wears out over time, so Deacon will need to stop from time to time on his travels to fill up the tank and fix the vehicle. Gas tanks can be found in abandoned buildings or stations, but be careful, flammable liquids are not toys! Also, you need to enjoy and collect broken car parts as they are essential to fix the bike.
How much and how fast your bike will deteriorate depends on two big factors: what you do with it and the types of upgrades you have. For example, running over zombies in the middle of the road can be a practical and fun way to get rid of the undead, but it wears out the bike and if it breaks while you're surrounded by enemies, just running won't help.
Take good care of your motorcycle, because having it in good condition can be the difference between living or dying. If you find yourself surrounded by zombies or with hunters or any other kind of threat, don't think twice and get on your bike and put your foot on the board! Motorbike assistance for quick escapes is essential to face the hordes of zombies, massive groups of undead that are fast and voracious and not even your entire arsenal of weapons can stop.
Surviving is the only way out
Despite many missions Days Gone being repetitive and lacking in depth in terms of story, they are essential if you want to get a lot of experience and trust points as quickly as possible.
While experience is necessary to gain new skills, trust points are useful for establishing friendships with the different survivor camps. The more a camp trusts you, the more resources you can get in terms of weapons and parts for your bike.
And speaking of weapons, variety is not lacking in Deacon's arsenal. In your inventory the protagonist can carry up to three weapons, in addition to grenades, Molotov cocktails and healing kits. In addition to the different types of weapons you can choose from (rifles, machine guns, rifles, pistols, crossbows), you can also modify the equipment to make it more deadly and accurate.
You may prefer to put a suppressor on your pistol for quieter kills, or even add a telescopic sight to your rifle for more accurate shooting. Even melee weapons, which have limited durability, can be modified for faster kills.
This type of modification is essential, since direct combats should be avoided as Deacon is vulnerable to other enemies and the opponent will hardly fall with just one blow or punch.
Although zombie behavior is often unpredictable, rest assured that you will encounter human enemies along your journey. Therefore, it is always best to opt for a stealth approach. As you will always be in open places for most of the game, take advantage of the advantages that bushes and trees give you to hide and plan your strategy. Sneak attacks are capable of killing enemies with just one hit, and you'll want to save ammo when encountering hordes of zombies, for example.
Despite appearing a few times during the game (a sad irony, because in the trailers they were highlighted), the hordes of zombies are the most challenging enemies in the game. Days Gone, after the stronger Freaker types that need a lot of ammo to take down. Against the hordes you'll have two options: use your weapons and elements of the environment to get rid of the zombies or just get on your bike and accelerate! You'll have to run anyway, as Freakers are fast and voracious.
Lots of zombies (and trouble) along the way
With so many interesting elements that highlight Days Gone as a well-constructed third-person shooter (with RPG elements) in the context of a zombie apocalypse, the game was expected to provide a more interesting experience. Unfortunately, the game suffers from the large number of bugs and clichés that fill the story of this post-apocalyptic open world so big, but so empty at the same time.
Among the technical flaws, the one that draws the most attention is the artificial intelligence of the zombies. Freakers behave in very bizarre ways and their behavior borders on unpredictability. It is not clear if this was the real intention of the developers, but it is difficult for the player to come up with a combat strategy when he does not know how his enemy will react.
At various times it was possible to pass in front of the zombies or make loud noises and simply not be detected by the monsters. In other situations, even using stealth strategies you could find yourself surrounded by several zombies in a matter of seconds. This problem is exacerbated when ammunition and other types of direct combat weapons are so scarce, even playing the game in "Normal" mode.
It's a shame the developers don't take advantage of the beautiful visual and graphical recreation of the US state of Oregon to populate this post-apocalyptic world with more interesting elements and challenges. There are several kilometers crossed by motorcycle through landscapes that seem very similar, several communities and abandoned cities and zombies that are found very sporadically. Such a dangerous world has never felt so empty.
The icing on the cake on the mediocrity of the lost potential of Days Gone it certainly depends on its main story and its characters. Aside from all the cliché aspects you might expect from a zombie apocalypse plot, the character arcs are very poorly developed.
The romance of Deacon and his wife Sarah fails to capture or captivate the player, the personal motivations of each character are shallow or little explored and the end of the story (which develops reasonably) is exchanged for repetitive and overly challenging gameplay, in contrast. with the rest of the game.
Days Gone it was a game that had every opportunity to break out of the zombie genre's curve and become a standout in the PS4's library of exclusives. Unfortunately, fearing to risk new mechanics and more elaborate plots, the developers of Bend Studio opted for the simpler path, producing a solid game that delivers an experience that is too simple and uninteresting to remember. Killing zombies has always been fun, but only from hordes of the undead a game is not able to stand out from the crowd.
