Review: Days Gone ( PS4 )

Review / Thoughts:

“ Days Gone ” ( PS4 )

"Better to be late than never"…..

📷

Developer: SIE Bend Studio

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Released: April 26,2019 for PS4 Exclusive

Time Played: 47 Hours

Difficulty: Normal

Indeed do click that follow button on my Instagram page “ @_CapGaming_ for more reviews, news and my screenshots of the playthrough of a game 👍

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Days Gone is an action-adventure survival horror video game developed by SIE Bend Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation 4 on April 26, 2019. Days Gone is played from a third-person perspective, in which the player can explore an open world environment. Players can use firearms, melee weapons and improvised weapons, and can use stealth to defend against hostile humans and cannibalistic creatures known as Freakers. A major game mechanic is Deacon's drifter bike, which is used as the player's primary mode of transportation as well as mobile inventory.

When i went in to “ Days Gone” i thought that this is gonna be the same old zombie survival game we have seen for many years now. “ JOE, YOU WANNA PLAY A ZOMBIE GAME “ Joe says to AngryJoe ( Youtuber ) is all i could remember when i went in AND HOW DID I CAME OUT, Happy, and loved the game….. Here is my Review / Thoughts on “ Days Gone “ Played on PS4

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pros:

+ Story:

Each Zombie game nowadays have one story. “ OH A VIRUS HAPPENED AND EVERYONE IS A ZOMBIE NOW “ is the main story of every zombie game i have seen / played till day. Days Gone on the other hand have that but its narrative and the way the developers tells the story was unique in this zombie world. Story starts as it is Set in a post-apocalyptic Oregon two years after a global pandemic, former outlaw-turned-drifter Deacon St. John discovers the possibility of his wife Sarah still being alive, which leads Deacon on a quest to find her. Now how he find her, what he encounters, why the infected world happen is all told in a really nice narrative with excellent cutscenes which gives you sadness during some, happiness during others and tension when there is tension in the story. Now There is a issue with how the game starts as well as the story starts and i will discuss it in “ CONS “ Section.

+ Main Character ( Deacon St. John ):

Deacon St. John, the main hero of the story and the only character you control in “ Days Gone “. He was a mixbag for me as during the start of the game, I hated him a lot cause of how dick he was to everyone. He was basically like when you are a kid and you are playing your favourite game and you mom downstair shouts that “ Son, Take out the trash please “ and you are like AHHHHH! OKKKKK MOM. That's basically what Deacon was at the start of the game, someone asked him to get something and he was like…. *heavy breathing* AHHH! OK I GUESS.

But later as the story goes on, you start to understand why the developers chose to make him to hate at the start and later love him. He changes after a event and becomes a lovable character. I loved him, i love Sam Witwer ( who voiced Deacon ), i loved that he was mostly talking to himself when doing something like clearing out the camp, killing Hordes ( which i will talk about ) OR simply when driving his bike. He was easily a good character Bend Studio have made and he is going to my Top 10 characters of 2019 list.

📷

+ Characters:

Now the characters in “ Days Gone”. There are again some characters that are used at start and than ignored as well as side-characters not so good ( I will talk about it in CONS Section ) but the important characters are really well written, really well voice-acted and character development is done in a good way. Boozer is fantastic IMO, i loved his jokes he did when he was happy.

+ The World:

The world in “ Days Gone “ is really well hand-crafted. I can see the developers working HARD on the map of Days Gone. Every broken car is really well placed with trees, houses, hordes and rocks. The developers really made the world feel like it is post-apocalyptic with zombies. Really hand of applause to them for putting the hard work on the environment.

📷

+ Skills System:

The Skill System in “ Days Gone “ is actually really well made. It gives you updates to your melee abilities ( like more damage to melee so you don't need to swing around your axe for 3-5 times before it is died ) to more damage with sniper rifle and much more. The skill tree is organized into five, tiered vertical columns each with three skills each. At the start of the game, the first column is unlocked and the others are locked. To access the subsequent four columns, players will need to unlock two skills in the first row to unlock the second, four skills total to unlock the third row, six to unlock the fourth row, and eight skills to unlock the last row. It is divided into 3 parts ( Melee, Range and Survival ).

The Melee skills range from melee damage buffs to giving players the ability to perform actions like automatic takedowns after successfully escaping from a grapple, being able to repair weapons (which can break from combat) by using scrap found in the world, and quicker movement abilities to escape tricky situations such as facing off against Freaker hordes. The Ranged skills start off with a Focused Shot ability that will slow down time for a short duration to allow for more accurate shots. The other skills in the tree provide increased accuracy and stability, the ability to aim better and reload while moving or sprinting, and improved bullet penetration through multiple enemies, among others. Finally, the Survival skills will focus on scavenging and collecting in the open-world of Days Gone, including a longer duration of the game’s Survival Vision, which is a kind of focus mode that shows objects of interest in the world. The skills in this section also involve improvements to the players’ character as well as increasing the stamina bar or allowing for quieter movement.

+ Graphics / Weather system:

The Graphics in “ Days Gone “ is fantastic and can easily be my 2nd best looking-game of 2019. I simply can't describe the beauty of Days Gone on this review and you simply have to experience it yourself to know what awesome it looks ( especially play it on PS4 Pro to see it at the best )

With that been said, “ Days Gone “ has one of the best rain animations i have ever seen till date in a video-game. Rather it been the same old drops of water going in straight line, its little bit angled and makes it look like realistic. Rain makes Mug on the ground and as you drive in it, you start to see your character and your bike get dirty. When it starts to wind, you see your characters clothes move as well as trees. At night, you can see how well made Skybox is also ( Skybox means how sky is made ). With amazing Rain, there is fog which looks great and the SNOW. OH MAN! THE SNOW is amazing as well and nearly comes to awesome snow we had in “ God Of War “. When it snows you see the environment changing slowly as it gets covered by snow. You see the trees covered in snow, roads, your bike and characters. Again everything can be awesomely experienced when playing yourself SO DO IT!.

+ Impactful Cutscenes:

“ Days gone “ has some impactful and “ The Last of us “ level of cutscenes in it. There were some in the storyline which made me wanna cry, other made me look badass and other gave me chills. That's how great the cutscenes in “: Days Gone “ are in a really good storyline ( i can name some without spoiling anything: Like the one with boozer, other the truck one and the church one and so many other more )

+ Combat:

Days Gone combat blends familiar elements of third-person shooters and stealth games, which makes perfect sense given Bend’s portfolio. The stealth approach is generally something that’s always worth keeping in mind since even when dealing with human bandits there’s always the risk of drawing the unwanted attention of nearby Freakers.

+ Boss Fights:

The Boss fights in “ Days gone “ were also pretty good. Of Course they were not the level of boss fights we have in nowadays game but than stand out for me. I especially like the mechanic used for getting the boss fights ( example can be given as when killing the horde which also can be considered as boss fights, you have to use every weapons and everything you own to cravily take then out ). My favourite if i think as i am writing the review is the Jesse one ( no spoilers again ).

+ Bike Riding:

Riding your bike is the only way to travel in the world of “ Days Gone “ ( Except of fast-traveling ) and i personally like that there is no cars or such in Days Gone. The Bike has great controls even on playing with a controller, It has many customization you can do as you get them via mission completes and helping the camps and it always require you to fill it up with fuel cans or stopping near a refuel station as well as you need to have scrap with you to fix the bike as it brakes down by hitting it OR getting hit on bullets.

+ Soundtrack:

The Soundtrack in “ Days Gone “ can also feel like the same we had in “ Red Dead Redemption 2 “ as when you roam around you get that chill relaxing music playing and as soon as you enter a combat you get that badass rock music and my favourite been the “ Hell OR High Water by Billy Raffou “ as it plays only once in the game and that is when you are crossing the mountains. I would recommend to listen to “ Days Gone “ Soundtrack on youtube or something cause…. IT'S GOOD.

+ Horde:

The Horde is a new system in “ Days Gone “ where there is like more than a hundred freakers in one area and they are stronger than the regular zombies and are faster. It was first shown at that E3 gameplay trailer and looked awesome. Here in fully released “ Days Gone “ you have it as a sidequests to take them all down by any means you can ( shoot, throw grenades etc... ) and if i remember right, there is one main-story mission where we do something to stop them. It was for me a new system in a zombie games i have played and personally liked it.

📷

+ Zombies ain’t the same like in other games:

In “ Days Gone “. the zombies are not the same as we have in all recently and old zombies games. Here actually we learn how it started, why it started as well as why they do this or have this power. We actually learn them all in the main-storyline which i personally enjoyed learning about it as well as You do get to find and listen to NERO’s audio logs and these provide some insight into the Freakers and the virus itself, though it’s not quite the same thing. All the zombies do some intesteretd shit which i have never seen in any other game ( Like zombies eating other zombies and also eating kids zombies ) And there is one particularly scene in the game ( who finished the game would know what i am talking about ) which setup something in it which was jaw dropping for me.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cons:

- The first 7 hours of the story are BAD:

The first 7 hours of the story you do in “ Days Gone “ is just the worst part of the game and the story is just bad. I believe the reason this game got many poor reviews was that those who reviewed it based it on that first 7 hours and i don't like that at all.

Basically the story for the first 7 hours is that “ GO NORTH “ and that's it. There is nothing else that motivates you to keep playing and i almost was about to quit it in that hours of the game but thankfully i didn’t. The first 2 camps you meet in that time is just useless, there is some upgrades you can get but its story makes you a servant of those camps and I FREAKING HATED THAT OLD WOMEN in the first 2 camps you go to. And after getting past that awful 7 hours, you don’t get a single hint that what happened to those camp. I can say it in others words that the first 7 hours of the game feels like you doing a side-quests and those side-quests are the bad once. If you get past that boring hours than the game gets REALLY GOOD after it and i recommend ignoring the first 7 hours of the game.

- AI is not so great:

The AI in “ Days Gone “ IMO is not so great, i always had my partner stuck in one place or another. As well as some of the boss fights got too easy as they got stuck somewhere and i just had to throw grenades and shoot them to kill it ( The Bear one is an example here ). I wished they would have improved the AI for “ Days Gone “.

- Side-quests:

The First 7 hours of the game is basically playing like a side-quest to an really good storyline. Here it is basically go get that stuff OR go kill it OR go clean the camp over and over again at the start with no story in sight. This continues on even after 7 hours but rather it been the main-story like in the start, it gets side-quests and makes player chose to do them or ignore them. The Side-Quests in “ Days Gone “ is not so well made and gets repetitive soon after. Wish it had different virecity like in Witcher 3.

- Have Glitches and Performance Issue ( Before patches ):

Days Gone have a lot of performance issues where my PS4 PRO could not handle it at some parts of the game BUT especially at the places where there was a horde. The FPS would drops to 20. This performance issue indeed made some of my enjoyment drop down as well as i would focus on one part 100% and suddenly FPS would drop and piss me off. This performance issue caused a lot of bugs and glitches in the game and lot of them were actually really funny.. Like the one where i shot a person and his head got stuck in a door, i was laughing for like 5 minutes straight. THAT WAS HILARIOUS.

- Loading time is bad:

The Loading time in “ Days Gone “ is not so great and it is especially not great when you start the game up cause it takes around 5-7 minutes to get to the menu and than another 1-2 minutes to get into the game. IT JUST SUCKS. And don't worry, i will not knock any points due to this issue

( P.S: i played it before the patch so i don't know if future patches has fix it, i heard it was fix in a new patch but made the resolution of objects less which is not acceptable )

- Holding Square to loot:

I really hate the way when games make you to hold a button to pick something up than just pressing the button to pick up or auto-looting stuff. Days Gone has this same issue, while you can pick up the ears from freakers just by walking on them BUT to pick up oil or scraps you have to hold “ Square “ on PS4 Controller to pick it up and it was not that big of an issue at the start of the game but at the end when you have lot of stuff to pick up, It got a little bit repetitive to do it over and over again.

AGAIN, I am not gonna knock points out of the overall score just for this but i have to mention all the issues i had and as it is my option on games so it was a problem for me

- Bike combat issues:

Melee combat feels satisfying when connecting your club or axe with your enemy’s face, while vehicle combat on the bike is perhaps a bit undercooked compared to something like Mad Max. The majority of it happens during bounty pursuits and isn’t quite as exciting as you would expect; for some reason, it’s also not possible for Deacon to throw bombs or Molotovs when on his bike, even if NPCs can do it.

- “?”: Choices were removed on the release:

So Apparently there was a system before the release which would let you make some choices during the main storyline but was removed as to make the story more immersive. I actually wonder how that would have worked IF it had made it to the final release and how would the story be affected by it. It's not a Con of this game but just a thought about this topic.

- Nest burning ain't fun:

I am sorry to those who liked this feature BUT i did not liked the nest burning side stuff. I loved that that zombies jump on you as you burn the nest but later it got Repetitive and plain boring to do them, i simply left them after getting to the meat of this game. With that been said, i loved the places where as you start the generator the speakers start and attract all the zombies. THAT WAS COOL!.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thoughts / Review: “ Days Gone “ ( PC ):

FINAL VERDICT:

8 / 10 ( Excellent )

( MUST TO BUY )

📷

Days Gone IMO is the best zombie game we have as of now released in 2019 with i Believing that all the reviews on the web about it been simply wrong and them not getting past that awful first 7 hours. If you get past that, you will get a great storyline with great characters, Best weather of rain i might have ever seen, beautiful snow, great soundtrack, good bike control, good boss fights and excellent Hordes system with tons of zombies chasing your ass. Days Gone is an really great game to play if you can oversee the issues it have and i simply can not wait for Days Gone 2 after that one scene at the end and to see where they take this * possibly * franchise

Game is available to get on Playstation Store Only for $59.99.