We’ve seen the end of the world in tons of movies and video games, we’ve seen our world being overrun by zombies before. The way Days Gone manages to innovate the genre is unlike anything we’ve seen before. It puts you right in the center of the action. If you want to survive, you’ll need to look for the right tools in your environment. You hunt, you shoot, you scavenge, you sell and you talk your way out of the madness. Days Gone isn’t another mindless zombie game, this one comes packed with pure and raw emotion.
A journey of hope
Days Gone is set in the high desert of the Pacific Northwest where you’ll play as Deacon St. John. He is one of the survivors of a global pandemic that infected the world roughly two years ago. Everything changed since then, the pandemic killed most of the people on Earth and transformed millions of others into feral creatures who thrive on their primal instincts. No longer labeled human, these creatures will hunt you down until the bitter end. Before all this madness, Deacon was riding for the Mongrels MC, he already saw violence before and it’s thanks to these skills that he managed to stay alive all this time.
Deacon considers himself a Drifter, a bounty hunter who lives in the lawless wilderness outside the civilian encampments. He doesn’t want to join those camps because he’s simply better of on his own. Deacon’s life has always been about surviving and that’s exactly what he’s doing. Surviving alone isn’t living however, something Deacon truly understands. Underneath all his rough edges lies a trustworthy heart that’s longing to reconnect with his lost wife Sarah. The hope of finding her in a place where happiness is no longer a certitude is what keeps him on his feet, day after day, fight after fight. This unique combination of devastation and hope forms the incentive for your adventure.
You’re not safe
This duality of Deacon is the reason why you’ll be invested in his (mental) health from the moment you start playing. You want him to survive, you want him to love again, you want a better world for him. Deacon forms the beating heart of Days Gone and you’ll get to know him better in every new scene. This isn’t just a mindless zombie game, Days Gone tells a story if you manage to survive before the next scene kicks off. Surviving is crucial but it’s never easy, right from the start you’ll need to adapt if you want to live. This isn’t the world as we know it, this post-apocalyptic world is overrun by creatures who long for your blood. As if this wasn’t enough already, you can’t trust all of your fellow survivors. As war proved us multiple times before, a crisis like this brings out the best and the worst in humanity. Where many will form new alliances by building new settlements and thus ensuring the survival of the human race, others will search for power. Those survivors, driven by the blinding promise of power will hunt you down. They want what you have and they won’t come knocking at your door to ask politely.
It’s easy to state that almost everything wants to kill you and during your first minutes in the game, this might be a bit overwhelming. Days Gone doesn’t care for a warm welcome, you start the game at the time the infection is raging on for two years. Freakers are walking the roads while you drive by on your motorcycle, Marauders are setting up traps to intercept you and the Rippers are pondering about new ways to convince you to join their cult. These three ‘factions’ serve as your main enemies in the game. Freakers are infected, compare them to ultra-fast zombies who like to stick together to take you down. Marauders and Rippers are human survivors, each equally crazy. Marauders want what you have and try to take it from you during the daytime. Rippers ‘deified’ the virus and don’t fear death anymore, they’ll attack with brute force and everybody who isn’t one of them better be very scared.
Craft your way to the top
Since you’re facing a multitude of potential deaths, it’s wise to prepare for the unexpected. Days Gone plays as a true survival game and includes some of the most realistic elements I’ve ever seen. Ammo, for example, is scarce, if you want to shoot down your enemies, you’ll need to track down extra ammo. In the open world, you’ll find most ammo in the trunk of a police car. At first, this doesn’t form an issue since there are plenty of abandoned police cars in your surrounding. But, once you raid those cars, the ammo is gone forever. Every bullet you shoot is a lost bullet. This is only one example of the many things you’ll need to take into consideration if you want to survive. Besides guns, your main tool to survive is your motorcycle. Not only can you drive away from deadly hordes, but you can also easily reach new places to continue the story. Your bike is of crucial importance, taking good care of it is essential. Fuel is constantly running low and if your bike is damaged, you need to fix it as fast as possible. Of course, you can ask the mechanics in the settlements to help you out but these cost money. Taking care of it on your own is a way better idea but again, it’s not always easy. I looked for extra fuel in some very dangerous places just because I got stranded there. This demonstrates how close to the real deal Days Gone manages to come. This is survival pur sang.
If you truly want to beat your enemies, you’ll need to get the crafting system under your thumbs. You can craft a lot of things in Days Gone, ranging from simplistic bandages and Molotov cocktails to special bolts for your crossbow and your very own Lucille baseball bat. Crafting is a big deal and there is an enormous amount of tools you can easily craft with the scrap you find in the wild. This also means you’ll need to scavenge for these tools almost constantly. When you’re entering new environments it’s better to activate your special hunter’s ability to highlight useful items. Thanks to this mechanic, you’ll constantly switch between gunfights and scavenging while exploring more of the game. The system goes rather deep, especially when you try to improve Deacon’s skill tree too. With new skills, you can improve Deacon’s accuracy, craftsmanship, hunter abilities, and more. This extra RPG layer fits the game extremely well as it translates into a truly realistic survival expierence. Upgrading your weapons and skills is something you’ll need to do constantly to stay alive, especially when you’re getting ready to take down a horde of Freakers.
Fight the horde
The world of Days Gone is literally filled with danger, but nothing compares to a horde of Freakers. Fighting a horde of fast zombies is unlike anything you’ve seen before. The horde is a big deal but never underestimate their power. You can’t take them down by simply shooting them one by one, they are way too fast and way too many. If you want to survive the horde, you’ll need to scout the environment and find sufficient traps to take down multiple Freakers at once. Only by combining these traps with some clever gunfire, you’ll walk out of a horde alive.
The horde doesn’t only impress with numbers, the way it behaves is unseen. Days Gone is really testing the maximum power of the PlayStation 4 but the results are there. I played this on a PlayStation 4 Pro and the way the horde moved instantly entered my top of most impressive things I’ve ever seen in a game. The game looks amazing if you look at the environments and characters separately but truly impresses when you see the horde on the move. Due to this realism, you’ll be stressed out while fighting the horde until the last Freaker drops dead on the floor. It’s also important to know that not all hordes are essential for the story progress, you can randomly bump into one while driving to a new location. As said before, always prepare for the unexpected if you want to survive!
The open world
As you might have guessed, Days Gone is an impressive game to play. Not only does it look stellar, but the emotional story will also get you hooked instantly. Keep in mind however that this still is an open world game and you’ll face some of those typical problems. I noticed some enemies behaving in ways they were clearly not intended to behave, most of those were infected animals like wolves and bears. Also note that some story missions might become a bit too repetitive but in the end, you’re always rewarded with an interesting new scene. The emotional story really elevates the overall expierence, without it, things would become boring rather fast. It’s thanks to the story that you’ll be invested in the life of Deacon, his survival becomes your responsibility.
So yes, the game struggles with some technical issues but if you look at the world the team created, it’s not that strange. Although not everything went as fluent as I would have hoped for, it never took me out of the game. Instead of focussing on those technical issues, I was occupied with my survival. This is what Days Gone does best, it makes you forget everything else, your survival is your primary goal and you’ll need to fight for it every second.
Conclusion
Days Gone is unlike any other zombie survival game out there. The Freakers are deadly and fighting them as a horde is something no other game pulled off like this before. But, Days Gone is far more than just horde fighting. It’s a game about survival and hope. If you want to live another day, you’ll have to work for it. Constantly looking for new tools and items to improve your way of life is so realistic that this game easily prepares you for a zombie outbreak in our world. It’s not perfect but thanks to its emotional story and stellar gameplay, it’s a game you simply need to experience for yourselves.
