"Days Gone" is generic and repetitive, but still entertaining
3.5.2019
Translation: machine translated
A bit of "Far Cry", mixed with a pinch of "The Last of Us", flavoured with a dash of "Mad Max". "Days Gone" has few ideas of its own, but is surprisingly fun despite its shortcomings. Simon and I face the zombie horde in the livestream at 11am.
My expectations of "Days Gone" have sunk lower and lower in recent years. After the first trailer at E3 2016, I was still suitably impressed by the huge hordes of zombies and the promising gameplay dynamics that could result. Then followed three years of increasingly negative and cautious preview reports. Nevertheless, I tried to approach the game as impartially as possible. After all, tastes differ and I'm a sucker for open-world and zombie games.
Jack of all trades, master of none
Ok, after the intro it's already clear that the criticism of the PS4-exclusive "Days Gone" is justified. What was supposed to create an emotional impact like the intro to "The Last of Us" only makes me shake my head in amusement. And these inconsistencies run through the entire game. "Days Gone" is set in a typical zombie apocalypse with an open game world. Zombies are called Freakers because that's somehow better. You take on the role of a tough biker who is a nice guy at heart and acts according to strict principles. For example, he never kills unarmed women. I would have assumed that you generally don't kill unarmed people, but what do I expect from someone called Deacon St John?
The gameplay is a mixture of "Far Cry" and "Mad Max". You complete missions for the various camps and increase your reputation as a result. With more reputation, you can buy better weapons and equipment or pimp your bike. Your bike requires a lot of attention. It is constantly running out of petrol or you have to repair it if you have taken on too many zombies - sorry Freakers - again. But unlike in "Mad Max", where the vehicles were the absolute highlight and could be tuned really fat, the bike upgrades are barely noticeable and even less visible. The actual upgrade fun is reduced to a checklist and the snapper isn't even particularly fun to drive.
With your self-made sawblade baseball bats and automatic weapons, it's a lot of fun with Zom... er, Freaker heads and roughing up bandit camps. Freakers are dangerous even in small groups, which is why there is an unexpected amount of sneaking in "Days Gone". This is almost essential, especially with the hordes. Against 100 or more undead, there is practically no getting away. But that doesn't stop me from trying again and again. Thanks to the generous save function, you are usually right back in the same place.
"Days Gone" is a relatively long game. After around 30 hours, I'm about halfway through and the gameplay loop hasn't yet spoilt me. The world is dark, the locations are varied and the inhabitants' behaviour is reasonably believable. Which is more than can be said for the main character. Most of the problems are also connected to Deacon St. John.
Inconsequence everywhere you look
"Days Gone" is an ambivalent game. It tries to create the emotionality of "The Last of Us", but fails miserably. Deacon is okay at first glance, but his decisions are often completely contradictory. He presents himself as a tough guy who only looks out for himself and his mate Boozer, but still helps anyone who asks him. Even a forced labour camp where he diligently sends unsuspecting people. His comment when he finds out is an unintelligible grunt. I'm still not quite sure what to make of the English voiceover either. Deacon comments on all his actions, often with a completely weird intensity that I don't know whether to laugh or shake my head. Ok, most of the time I have to laugh because it's just so stupid.
But it's not just the main character who is flawed. It's also annoying that you can't strap a petrol canister to your bike or that you need more materials to repair weapons than to build them from scratch. Or why you can trade Freaker ears for money and why you can only store purchased weapons in the universally accessible weapon locker.
Despite its shortcomings, "Days Gone" motivates me time and time again. Because it wants to be a bit of everything, it doesn't do anything right, but it doesn't really do anything wrong either. The result is an entertaining open-world game where the detailed world attracts me and after 30 hours even the story slowly gets going. Only the main character remains a simpleton.
"Days Gone" is available for the PS4 and was provided to us by Sony.
We stream every week on Youtube. You can also check out our Discord channel.
This is how we stream
Philipp Rüegg
Senior Editor
Philipp.Rueegg@digitecgalaxus.chBeing the game and gadget geek that I am, working at digitec and Galaxus makes me feel like a kid in a candy shop – but it does take its toll on my wallet. I enjoy tinkering with my PC in Tim Taylor fashion and talking about games on my podcast http://www.onemorelevel.ch. To satisfy my need for speed, I get on my full suspension mountain bike and set out to find some nice trails. My thirst for culture is quenched by deep conversations over a couple of cold ones at the mostly frustrating games of FC Winterthur.
Gaming
Follow topics and stay updated on your areas of interest
5 comments
later