Console Corner: Review of Days Gone

In case you were living under a rock, zombies are a major thing in the past decade of entertainment. A common device in books, tv series, films, and yes video games, the undead are everywhere. Their sources are myriad—viruses and plagues, asteroid strikes and fungi, but ultimately the dead walk, slavering after red human blood through ravaged and despoiled landscapes. In the video game world, The Last of Us has, in most ways, set the bar for what a zombie game is/can be. What then could the industry hope to add to the genre? Let's see what Days Gone (2019) by Bend Studios is all about.

Days Gone is a single-player action rpg set in the near future after a pandemic has destroyed the majority of humanity and loosed a flood of “freaks” onto the world—zombies yearning for meat, any meat. It is the story of a former motorcycle gang member, Deacon St. John who, at the outset of the pandemic, makes the fateful decision to put his wife on a helicopter to safety so he can tend to his best friend, Boozer, who has been stabbed in the chaos. While successfully keeping Boozer alive, he never sees his wife again. Roaming the rainy Oregon wilderness together, Boozer and St. John have managed to stay alive for two years when the game begins. The pair now are now Drifters, bikers who make a living hunting freaks for bounties. Things take a sideways turn one day when Boozer is attacked by a cult, severely injuring his arm. Needing to do what he never wanted to do again, St. John must settle down in order keep his friend alive, and that means taking on the most dangerous jobs.

Given they are both zombie games, it's inevitable to compare Days Gone to The Last of Us. So how do they compare? The short answer is: the games are more different than similar. Yes, both are zombie stories set in post-apocalyptic worlds. Yes, both are third-person action rpgs dependent on shooting and melee combat. Yes, in both games players must tightly control resources, med supplies, etc., all the while while crafting weapons, ammo, bombs, etc. And yes, neither have a jump button. But beyond these high-level similarities, they are easily distinguishable.

Unlike the linear experience of The Last of Us, Days Gone is an open-world game, complete with main and side quests, a map peppered with points of interest, bandit camps requiring eradication, fast travel points, and other accouterments of open world games. The storyline of Days Gone is also different. Where Joel and Ellie are part of the cure in Last of Us, Days Gone accepts its apocalypse, and features humanity just trying to survive. On top of individual zombie encounters, Days Gone also requires players to deal with freaks/zombies in large hordes. A different mentality and style of gameplay are needed to kill the hive-mind en masse. These encounters truly get the hairs on your arms to stand up. While buildings can be entered, almost all the action takes place outside in the beautifully rendered Oregon countryside, complete with rain. And lastly vehicles, specifically St. John's motorcycle, which plays a critical role in the game, from story to upgrades to traversal to combat. Days Gone is its own game.

No open world game would be complete without fetch quests it seems, and Days Gone has its share. And they can sometimes be repetitive. The player does a lot of: go to this location to get/investigate something, which results in encounters with freaks (zombies), Rippers (cultists), outlaws/bandit camps (rogue humans outposts), or bounties (special bad guys). But in the end, it's often the same: sneak in, take out as many baddies as you can without alerting anyone, then hang on for the final wave of rippers/freakers/bandits. Breaking up the side quests are random animal attacks, the hordes of freaks (which are something unto themselves), and the main storyline, which is good.

The upgrades of Days Gone deserve mention. While industry standard in terms of application (buff this, buff that, double this, extend that, etc.), their application in the context of gameplay is not. To explain. There are many, many games which offer upgrades. Trouble is, most games also upgrade the enemies health, damage, etc. parallel to the main character's. Improvement analogous, the player rarely feels the power of their double-damage shotgun given the enemy also now has double health. Days Gone does not do this. Players start under-powered, gain strength, and become powerful. In the process, blasting zombies and bad guys gets easier. With powerful weapons and abilities and a souped up motorbike, the end game feels satisfying seeing your effort reflected in domination.

One small detail to love about Days Gone is that the dead bodies remain! From wolves laying in the roadway to piles of freaks near caves, the player will encounter their past dirty work upon returning to locations. I know this is petty, but it's awesome, and lends the game a sense of realism and consequence compared to games which remove killed enemies from the environment after a reload.

No game is perfect, and Days Gone has a few blemishes. As mentioned, there is a bit of busy work. Collecting the points to buy top-tier weapons or motorcycle upgrades can be grindy at times. The voice acting is not always in line with the scene or moment. Emotionally discordant, St. John will shout something while in stealth mode, or grunt like he's been shot climbing over the lowest fence. Furthermore, there are moments when something unexpected randomly kills St. John. Also, there are several inflection points in the story that leave the player thinking “Huh? Really? Was that an organic shift in narrative? Not really... But on we play.” There are also some inconsistencies in enemy spawning. But none of these issues distract from the overarching experience. The game never crashed or froze, St. John never got stuck in an unending loop, and nothing happened to completely destroy the immersion. In the context of most AAA games on the market today, Days Gone has clearly gone through a rigorous QA process, meaning most everything works as it should.

The Last of Us is well known for its singular story and characters, and I think Days Gone is relatively comparable. The Last of Us has better emotional resonance due to better actors and script, but in terms of story itself Days Gone keeps its humanity intact almost as well. Backstory is edited nicely into the main story and the relationships between the main characters are well-developed. When the credits roll, the player will have an ache in the pit of their stomach—for different reasons than The Last of Us, but emotions nonetheless.

Days Gone was met with mediocre praise upon release three years ago. And it's tough to see why. While not being innovative in any major way, it's a solid game all around that takes the lessons learned from good games and converts them into a quality gaming experience. The story, characters, gameplay, graphics, control, open world—all give the player an immersive, consistent, escalating experience on par with or better than most other AAA games on the market. The horde mechanic offers a unique challenge, riding the motorbike around the environment feels great, and the variety and usage of weapons is complementary. Head shots never get old. Throw on top a surprisingly human story and the game should have been more popular than it was. My only guess is that perhaps players were getting tired of open-world games, or perhaps zombie games in general?

In the end, Days Gone is a strong, underrated game—a game where its clear love and care went into the details with the integrity and competence to realize the vision. It feels like the healthy, central point that results from triangulating several good games of the PS4 generation. It has: the regional map, driving, and vehicle combat from Mad Max, the rpg system and post-apocalyptic environment similar to The Last of Us, and the open world terrain and combat of Far Cry 5. Days Gone brings its own ideas to the table in the form of zombie hordes, the beautifully realized Oregon setting, and the unique manner in which all the elements are synergized. The game is worth a playthrough for anyone who enjoys single player action rpgs with stories that gel at the character level. While I personally think The Last of Us remains the better game, it's only because of its focus and linearity. Players who want a more open world zombie bashing experience may find Days Gone superior. If Sony greenlit a Days Gone 2, I would absolutely play.