Days Gone review

Reviewed on: PS4

So the anticipated, or not so much, Days Gone arrived, full of controversy over something so common in games today: lack of polish. What would one more month of development have done for this game? It would certainly have much higher scores, since the game, for what it sets out to be (despite some flaws), is very good, and I’ll say that right away. So if you’re thinking of buying it, don’t waste time reading this review and go get your copy. Are you a fan of The Walking Dead? Do you like the series’ setting? Do you like the character Daryl, the badass biker from the series? If you answered yes, you can dive right in, because Days Gone will be your thing.

A proper old-school singleplayer with a campaign lasting 50+ hours between the main quest and side quests, with a jaw-dropping setting, every place is a reason to stop and take screenshots, because, in this game, your life will be a flash! I think the developers, seeing the game at launch and seeing the path they’ve taken to fix most of the problems and start adding new content, must imagine: how much more fulfilled we’d be with one more month to test the game and fix the problems pointed out in the reviews. Damn it!

The game is not perfect, I’ll say it straight, but for those who enjoy a very well-built post-apocalyptic vibe, being able to explore 100% of the buildings, which are very well made, I’d say the game would be a tremendous success, which it still is, since despite the average reviews, reports point to commercial success and certainly the successful start of a new franchise for Sony. The guys formed a small studio in the middle of nowhere and only 6 people were responsible for creating the extremely detailed open world, with the freakers spread everywhere, besides the wildlife, where wolves, bears, birds, mountain lions, deer, anyway, a ton of animals are found during your journeys. I confess that getting the platinum didn’t stop me from wanting to keep playing around in the Days Gone universe.

But what’s this fuss about Freakers? Simple: zombies have no needs, such as eating, sleeping, drinking water, whereas freakers are infected people who have all these needs, and animals can be infected too, so out of nowhere you can come across a group of freakers chasing an animal, or drinking water, or during the day sleeping in a cave or a place without light; moreover, at night they are present on the map in greater numbers because that’s precisely when the hordes leave their dens.

The Horde is something freaking awesome in the game, it’s desperate to face and the adrenaline goes through the roof, you quickly become an easy target and a lot of strategy is needed; although you can kill them going all out crazy, strategy is usually necessary and preparing the environment with traps will help a lot. Something that really wasn’t well implemented in the game, and the criticism was truly deserved, concerns the artificial intelligence of human enemies, who at times are so dim they seem like the freakers; this weighs heavily on the game’s immersion, it even breaks immersion, since the difficulty would be much more in facing several humans at once because one on one it’s ridiculous, weighing negatively on the game’s quality and deserving the criticism it received.

I won’t talk much about the campaign, because I don’t want to give spoilers in this review, a sort of chat, especially since I’m known for doing that often, so I’ll avoid it, but I can say the story, although cliché, is well told and satisfying and the characters are interesting; Deacon St. John is very charismatic and well built and the supporting characters are also interesting, however, at some point the campaign can feel a little drawn out, but since I was having so much fun with the game, I didn’t want it to end anyway.

Riding the motorcycle is extremely fun and it’s a matter of getting the hang of it to want to conquer that world with your inseparable companion; at times having to repair the bike and refuel can be a bit much, however as you make upgrades the need for repair decreases, the same goes for refueling and it gets more interesting; in fact, in the upcoming DLC, the challenges also involve the motorcycle.

If this chat is about the score, then 10 will certainly not be Days Gone’s score, especially for the sins of the rushed launch, of a game almost, but really almost finished, lacking only fine adjustments, but 7 wouldn’t be the fair and deserved score either for a game with such care from a studio that worked its tail off to deliver a Walking Dead-style experience in the best way, a crafted story, a well-built world, deserving, to be fair, an 8 for the whole package, with the caveat that this score is deserved at this moment in which the review is being written, but certainly a 7 would have been the score at the time of the rushed launch. Score 8, Daryl Simulator, you deserve it, now stop bugging me and go become the horde exterminator!

Final score: 8.0