Anyone here interested in this game?

When the game was announced I don't think I was all that interested, and gameplay videos, to this day mind you, make it look derivative in many ways. That said, now that I have a PS4 Pro and with the upcoming release of the game it has piqued my interest a little more. From the get-go, Days Gone was never a 'must have' looking game, but a 'hmm, it could be good, maybe!' I am interested to know if the story is any good and if the characters are likable, but most of all, I hope the game isn't repetitive, and the environments are nice to explore with competent gameplay mechanics (does that make sense?) So far, it looks somewhat like The Last of Us from a gameplay and setting perspective just in a more biker-y open world way, and that's an itch I want to scratch if you will.

From the sounds of it, it seems like those that have played it enjoy it, but call it, like I said, unoriginal. I'm guessing the game will rate around the sevens, while some say higher and some say lower. I think it looks better now that I've seen some videos recently, but something tells me it could go either way: surprisingly great in more respects than I imagine, or unfortunately worse than I'm hoping. Small slices of video to go on shows that it looks competent, but as an entire package, I worry it might not hold up. I guess we'll see. Lastly, I could be wrong, but I think Courtnee Draper is in it? She plays Deacon's (the protagonists') wife, Sarah. She's the actress that played Elizabeth in Bioshock Infinite. I guess I felt it was worth pointing out because she did a good job in Bioshock, and I don't think I've ever seen her in any other game before (as well as I'm not sure if anyone had noticed [or cared?])

It's all about the reviews at this point. While I believe the game will turn out good, I don't know yet if it's a day 1 buy.

in a post-'The Last of Us' world, just speaking honestly- it's an uphill battle getting me to care about this game. the story would have to do something unique with the characters and setting...and from coverage it seems competent, but not particularly interesting.

I haven't followed it too closely, but from what I have seen it looks like it has the vibe of Sons of Anarchy but with zombies. I remember trying to watch Sons of Anarchy and being disappointed at how weak and tame it felt because, just prior to watching it, I had read Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson and, by comparison, Sons of Anarchy seemed fake as hell. A game that looks to be based on that vibe seems boring to me. Adding zombies to the equation makes it seem even more trite. And the lead character looks like an idiot. And the art design seems really boring. And I don't think I need anymore open world games and hearing that it has survival mechanics, which I generally don't care for, might be the final nail in the coffin.

I remember watching Game Informer's coverage...a year ago? My main takeaway was the zombie encounters seemed kind of original and unique but maybe not my cup of tea, while the story looked like some hot soap opera trash. I remember the dialogue specifically standing out as some flaming hot trash with lots of weird unnatural slang and stilted profanity.

Which means I'm kind of interested after playing Andromeda, I learned that I can get some perverse joy out of playing a game that has very little going for it. Plus I consider Sony's first/second party track record over the past decade damn near flawless, with even the games I haven't liked like the Quantic Dreams projects providing a unique novelty. So...I dunno.

My interest is growing in it tbh, think I'm ok with a simple single player biker/zombie game. These days there are few enough single player games that I really don't need it to be a 5* or even 4* game to get some value out of it.

Not gonna get it day 1 or anything but I'll most certainly pick it up down the road.

When they first teased the World World Z zombies, it looked cool but they haven't been able to hold my interest passed that moment. I haven't felt the need to dunk on the game like some of the staff seem to 'cause it really doesn't look that bad but the problem is maybe Sony's 1st party bar is set really high and this game seems far below it, closer to Drive Club or The Order.

The previews that dropped this week make it sound better than I was expecting, but the idea of yet another open-world marathon just doesn't appeal to me at this point.

I'm like meta-interested in it. The din of apathy from critics and consumers has been SO loud that I almost want to play it just to say, "Hey, it's actually pretty cool in X,Y,Z ways."

The main character seems like the least interesting person in the world, but I also said that about Arthur Morgan pre-release and he became one of my favorite protagonists of all time. I’m tentatively excited to see how this game turns out if only because it’s the Syphon Filter studio (probably in name only but hey, that’s cool) and because Sony’s line of exclusives has a tremendous track record this generation. We’ll see how it goes!

@jasonr86: Yeah, it's basically Sons of Anarchy meets The Walking Dead. I didn't watch Sons of Anarchy nor do I really watch The Walking Dead, but still, I don't mind it being a source of inspiration for a game.

I’ll have to wait for reviews, the little I have seen in terms of videos looks great, but everything I hear sounds...not great, mainly here on GB. I’ll wait and if it’s mediocore, I’ll probably pick it up later for an appropriate price.

I'm interested in this game. It looks like it's right up my ally, if the developers can pull it off. I like open world games. I like motorcycles I like single player open world games.

Unless pre-release coverage starts coming out in the next day or two talking all sorts of mad shit about how buggy and terrible it is, I'll probably be playing it this weekend; otherwise I'll wait until it's on sale and, hopefully, fixed to give it a whirl.

When I first saw it I was like 'this is Ride to Hell meets Last of Us' it looks more interesting than that though.

It might be good, but that first showing was EXTREMELY rough, they made it look so generic and boring.
Then they took to not really showing it much again for years, which usually isn't a great sign, so my expectations are low.

The biggest issue this game is suffering from right now is the review embargo. Who ever decided reviews can't come out till the day before release made a terrible decision. It has made the gaming community question the game based on hearsay and biast. I'm interested in this game but before buying it I just want to see a couple of reviews from trusted minds and see a bit more gameplay footage, as opposed to the crumbs so far. They've been so cagey with it - just show off the dam game already!

Very interested. Although I am not getting Friday. With MK11 koming out today, that takes priority. I will more than likely pick up Days Gone when its $15-$20 off. I feel like it isn't going to reinvent the wheel but it's going to be pretty good amalgam of things we've seen before.

Would've been perfect for drop in/drop out co-op though

Probably the first PlayStation exclusive I really feel indifferent about. Can’t even say why because it’s not just that it’s more zombies because those can be interesting when done well. The whole package just doesn’t seem all that interesting. I’m not especially curious about neither the characters nor the world.

For some reason I have a feeling that it's going to have really trite side-activities in it's world. Which is...fine, if they can offer a story that I'll enjoy and the core gameplay isn't completely terrible and doesn't require me to spend millions of hours on doing possibly terrible open-world stuff. But I guess we'll see in a few days.

It does have some neat visual stuff.

I was sort of indifferent about it but after Dan played it at a preview event and talked on the beastcast about how bad the dialogue was I will probably avoid it at this point.

Wow, how fast I can misremember making some threads. Anyways, has this changed now that it has released? Did anyone play it yet? I'm kind of on the fence, but might just go ahead and buy it today anyway. Recently, heck all the time I want to play games that'll allow me to spend time in a world just to relax in its setting and sometimes mystique. Most recent examples are Spider-Man which I love just walking around the city or viewing the city from atop, or in Shadow of the Colossus I love the desolation of it all, and most recently I started playing RDR2 again last night and just wandering about its environments is impressive from isolation in the wilderness to city life. I get that this game might be repetitive and may have a boring story, but if its environments are good through sight and sound I might not care. It's also really close to home which I like.

Edit - Got it. I'll play it later.

There's a lot of negativity/ apathy about this game, so I red boxed it, and honestly I think people are being a bit harsh. Yeah the dialogue is campy and yeah its zombies, but it is a well made game and the gameplay works. I think people trying to compare it to The Last of us really need to tone it down. It's not realistic to expect this game to be as groundbreaking as that game. It's actually similar to what people did in the 2000s comparing every single console shooter to Halo. You are setting yourself up for disappointment. I'd suggest renting it and giving it a shot. The reviews around this game are a bit overly critical. Sometimes a game can just be a campy fun open world zombie game. On top of that it looks really pretty on a ps4 pro with HDR. The Lighting is quite good. I'm going to buy it now that I've spent a few hours with it.

We are living in weird times when reviewers gush over repetitive free to play shooters week after week and then harpoon a pretty good open world single player game like its some broken mess. I'll take that over Drop, fight, die, and wait another 2 minutes to try again.

A lot of people worked hard on this clearly and it'd be a shame if they end up having to pivot to a game where they spend 85 percent of their day working on new skins and weapon balances instead of a cool single player experience.

Obviously just my opinion and I feel a bit cynical lately with the business models I see games leaning towards so take it with a grain of salt.

Fuuuuuuudge. I started the install when I typed that last comment up and put the system on rest mode; expecting it to be done now, I turn the console on and it shows that it didn't install, so now I have to wait three hours again. I was hoping to put a good amount of time into it before I had to work tonight but that's not really happening. And yes, I have the console set to download things on rest mode. This sucks.

@nach0sanchez: I dont think Bend Game Studio are at risk of being consumed by the battle royale craze since they're owned by Sony who seem pretty commited to making cinematic single-player games.

I think it looks alright, i'll probably play it at some point when the game is less buggy.

@boozak: There's only one 'major' bug that I've heard about, and it's that the sound stops altogether so you'll have to restart or early on some of the lip syncing is off, otherwise what people had been talking about was some frame rate hitching, and that was prior to the day one patch. Now, if you're on the Pro especially, there's very little in the way of bugs or slow down and it 'works as it should' going by what Digital Foundry had to say.

@ntm: I hadn't heard about that. I was mostly going by the EZA review. (bug talk starts around the 7 minute mark)

I'm not sure how much the day one patch fixes, regardless it seems like the game could do with some extra polish and i'm in no rush to play it.

Looks like something that I could get into. But as far as zombie related stuff goes, I still gotta finish Dying Light and I recently added The Last of Us (Remastered) to my backlog. ...because people wouldn't shut the fuck up about it.

I've been playing the game for about an hour or two, and I'm liking it quite a bit. I guess the biggest take away is that it isn't original in any way, but it's well made (albeit, obviously not perfect), and that's really all that's important in my opinion. I haven't gotten too far into the Far Cry style of clearing out bases and what have you, but the game does feel a lot like The Last of Us in terms of how it plays; it's just slightly different in control and the ability to slide into a crouch as well as roll. It feels like a slightly faster-paced game than TLoU. I actually think the writing is totally fine, and, not to its detriment mind you, but Deacon's anger/personality kind of makes me laugh.

Some of the abruptness of some of it, like I just sat down to sleep in the lookout tower and he goes from yawning and saying he's going to rest to better get to it attitude. It might just be me. I also find his voice to be somewhat unique, as he's not always clear or his words roll off his tongue in ways that aren't typical. The game is beautiful and I haven't run into any glitches nor frame rate slow down yet. The worst of it is just following a guy and as he walked up a ramp his feet weren't firmly placed to the ground (it's something I find prevalent in games).

I think the one thing I wish the game did was allow us to turn the HUD all the way off only until you put your finger over the touchpad because I think it'd make it more immersive. The first time I saw 'Newts' I thought it was kind of disturbing because they visually and audibly are clearly children turned zombies. It's just sad I think, and I felt bad for blasting them away just to get some items. I should mention that it's not something I often do, but I just decided to jump straight onto hard. I like it. It's not that hard, but you do die in one to three hits.

The game is pretty lenient so far as a survival game. If nothing else, I think it's also a great game to play just to play something similar before TLoU2 comes out. Some may dislike it, but the aiming is similar to RE2 in that you have to wait for the crosshair to minimize for better accuracy. I like the animations of enemies, it's impactful enough, but as digital foundry said, there could be more motion blur to it if that's the issue, because as it is it visually doesn't look as good as some other games in that regard. I also, while feeling it's a small issue, am not a fan of the blood effects. Both the blood and lack of motion blur to enemies kind of reminds me of the resistance games.

Good game so far though.

I'll be done playing for now since I have to go to work in an hour, but again, the game is good but (or maybe I should say 'and') there is some unintentional humor in it because of me and some because of the game. I just entered an area where enemies set out bear traps and in running around, I got my foot stuck on one and then once I got out of it I jumped off a small cliff and right onto another one. It was really funny only to get killed by a freaker. Another one was up to the idiocy of A.I. though because I was hiding in some brush and all I had to do was walk the way the enemy didn't face and then I could sneak kill him; I did it twice.

Not only that, but I walked all the way around the tree and him, back into the brush and he didn't see me at all, he was just like 'what was that?' The human A.I. work a lot like The Last of Us A.I. (just a bit dumber it seems). I like that they try to coax you into coming out; again dialogue isn't too bad in that regard so far. I do think it's cool, however, that you can get into a pretty big mess because as I was trying to make my way around, not only did freakers come into the mix, wolves also got into it so it made it more challenging to simply hide nearby. There were other traps as well, like trip bombs or something. I may have to train myself, but it was twice now where I rode my bike up to a mission area, got off the bike assuming no one saw me and immediately got spotted by dudes.

It's an enjoyable game for sure for one reason or another. Lastly, while the music isn't necessarily memorable, I do like it.

I thought the game looked fine despite the mediocre reviews. But playing it... it feels pretty rough/loose. I just tried to take out a marauder camp and was going in very stealthy. Didn't alert anyone and tagged all the enemies. I'm hiding in a bush and all the sudden one of them screams and sprints at me (alerting all of the other enemies). They proceed to shoot randomly into the woods over my head. Then one throws a grenade and kills me ?‍♂️.

I've been playing it for a handful of hours now and had a decent enough time sneaking around/running over definitely-not-zombies with my bike, or getting chased by them. The characters and the story really ain't much to write home about, but the decent voice acting helps-out with that, as do the character models, which look surprisingly expressive and detailed. I actually think the graphics in general can look damned pretty, which a nice plus to have in a game that's otherwise a "b-title".

I'm kinda trying to make my way mainly through the story, just so I actually end up finishing the game (and because none of the open-world activities seem particularly interesting).

Oh right, almost forgot. There's something kinda off with the story presentation at times, when it feels like they cut out some playable parts that used to be there, only to turn them into cinematics or taking the control away from the player during what it's otherwise a normal gameplay section. Doesn't really bother me too much, it just seems a little jarring on occasion.

@glots: Haven't gone far enough into it to say whether I really like the story and characters a whole lot, but the little I've experienced I don't think is bad. It's good enough so far that I can't say I'm disappointed. I feel like it's hard to say considering we have a lot of great looking games this-gen, but feel like it's safe to say that it's one of the better-looking games this generation for the most part. I guess the one thing I hope doesn't happen is burning out on it, and enjoying the (what I hear is) decidedly repetitive tasks.

@handlas: I haven't played anymore after what I did yesterday, but yeah, the game (at least so far) feels like The Last of Us in my opinion, just not as well-made in some regards, like A.I. That said, at least A.I. can see the light from flashlights, ha ha. I'm going to play it some more pretty soon. I have a couple of days off so hopefully, I can spend a bunch more time in it.

I played a lot this weekend maybe 10-12h and it's much better than the reviews are saying. Sometimes I feel like reviewers, who play most games, are getting tired of certain genres after a while and a game pays for it in the reviews. I feel this is the case with Days Gone.

The story is fine, its not extraordinary but I like it and I want to know what's gonna happen next which is what you want out of a story. Sam Witwer is doing a great job with that character. I also love the bike. It handles well, the upgrades and customisations are fun.

But the hordes man. Its been a while since I felt that adrenaline rush, 200, 300 zombies running towards you is a sight to behold.

Great game imo

Not interested anymore, seemes to be a bit too Ubisoft-like for me. Let's call it mindless.

@rocketblast0063: You aren't wrong, but coming off of countless hours of Sekiro this game is exactly what I needed. Constant progress and upgrades with some decent story and forgiving stealth mechanics. I think that if they make a sequel by building off this foundation they could have something pretty special.

I'm interested, but not 80 dollars interested (welcome to the Canada PSN prices). Everything I have read and heard seems to say the game is fine/adequate. Minus some thematic problems (slave camps?).

I'm trying to cut back on some costs lately, so have waited out on Days Gone and Division 2 (though bought Anthem and haven't played in weeks).

If anyone's on the fence about this game, I'd say go in. I curved myself away from the previews of this game for so long so I did not know a thing about this game going in other than hoards of zombies.

The game is fantastic, Evokes the same feelings I had the first time playing through The Last of Us. The story is not quite as gripping as with the last of us, we can have both and both can be great. Playing on a PS4 pro, the graphics are great, gameplay is very cool and tense at times. The bike itself is fun to ride around the environment, I've been having a great time upgrading the bike. Guns are awesome, did not realize you could buy more guns from the merchant till I was like 10 hours in, I'll always love that trusty AK, I thought I was going to go through the whole game with that and that Remington 700 rifle with the scope.

The phrase 'this world comes for you' has been used in all the advertisements. This is true, there have been times riding through the world when suddenly wolves chase you on your bike, Drifters setup road blocks, shoot you off your bike etc. Awesome game if you're looking for an open world apocalypse game without an overwhelming amount of side stuff. The kinda side stuff in this game in my opinion are all the random open world firefight encounters, where you go from leisurely ride through the hills to focused murderer in a split second.

I don't know how many hours in I am, but I will say I'm still enjoying it. I think some of the story is actually kind of bad (mainly thinking about the missions in which deal with Deacon and his wife, which is really all I've done for the most part). The voice work is very good, but some of the way the relationship between Deacon and his wife progresses and the melodrama of it I'm not that into. The game feels exactly like The Last of Us meets Far Cry 5, and I mean Far Cry 5 just because you mix in the wilderness and bunkers with the clearing out bases gameplay.

It is kind of repetitive for sure, but that's still not a huge issue right now to me. The game largely feels very good to play. I will say, I've had more fun joking around in it than taking it seriously though; sometimes exploiting enemies, or merely saying stupid things with Deacon's voice and acting dumb. At first, I kind of liked Deacon's voice work, but now (while it's not bad) a lot of the time when he talks he sounds like he's grasping for air, or he's about to burp after drinking one too many alcoholic drinks. He also has a lot to say about deer crossings.

I feel like the story is kind of predictable too. I recommend people just turn the difficulty all the way up to hard because it's not really that hard at all, the only thing is (and I'm sure it's the same no matter what difficulty you choose) you don't want to go up against a horde of 'freakers'. I like the environment just fine, but it's not quite doing it like The Last of Us did, or maybe not even Far Cry 5, but I still have more to see and again, I'm just enjoying it which is what matters.

Another thing is when it comes to HDR, typically, at least from what I understand, in most games you don't want to change the brightness setting if there is no HDR calibration, but in this game I went ahead and did it by turning it down to three as opposed the default five, and I think it looks more realistic. At five it's fine, but a little too bright. I turned HDR off and looked at the calibration image to see where I should set it (which is when you can barely, or just see the image), then turned it back on.

It's a game that you've played before, and a well made one for the most part, but not as well as the best out there. I don't regret spending the full retail price on it and when I play it, it's one I can sink hours into. Last night I played from 7 PM all the way to 4 AM (with a few breaks mind you of getting up to use the bathroom, play with my dog, and eat). Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like the world is kind of small? I mean, it doesn't take too long to get from one side to the other if you wanted to.

@bmccann42: I like Days Gone more than The Division 2. As someone that loved the first The Division, two just didn't do it for me. Unlike the first, it had kind of a boring world (some will say DC is more varied, but the wintry New York is hard to beat in my opinion), the music was repetitive and for the most part not great, and I didn't care for any of the story or characters so I wasn't compelled to run around collecting all the cellphones and stuff. That's just to name a few things.

The best part of The Division 2 are the main missions, and yet you're mainly going to museums (which makes sense since DC is filled with them). The only thing The Division 2 does better than the first is the feeling of shooting enemies as enemies react to gunshots. I wouldn't say Days Gone is amazing either, but it does more right where it counts in my opinion than The Division 2 does. While I would say that those on the fence about Days Gone are probably safe to get it if they're really interested, in your case, it's totally fine to just wait until you have the time and money. As negative as it sounds, you're not really missing out on much with either game.

@afields101: I'm not sure about anyone else, but it's taking me quite some time to get to the weapon upgrades and even some story stuff because if I see a building, I get off my bike and go explore everything, so it was only a few hours ago where I got new weaponry from my initial loadout. I don't love the weapons, and I don't take assault rifles or shotguns. I can see how they're useful, especially if you're going to fight a horde of freakers, but I like the more accurate weapons, so now I'm using a 22. Repeater, a Sap9 and the crossbow. I know the game is trying to be a bit more strict, but I wish there was an upgrade to have an infinite suppressor. Another thing I wish the game did was allow for some cosmetic customization. Those are small issues though.

There aren't really any major issues in this game to me, I just think it's a 'been there, done that' kind of experience, but a well enough made one. I've also said it more than once now, but just to reiterate, it really does just feel like The Last of Us meets Far Cry 5. It reminds me of Far Cry 5's setting (mixed in with the post-apocalyptic theme from TLoU), and just the fact it's an open world, and gameplay wise it reminds me of The Last of Us. The action though, like shooting or melee as well as the story (so far) don't feel as impactful. It's actually one of those games I feel bad talking negatively about to someone that's on the fence about it because I don't want to give them the wrong idea: it's not a bad or even mediocre game. It's good, if not great in many ways.

Not sure if I can post a fourth time in a row (never tried), but I'm probably half way through the game now. The game 'starts' (as in, 15 hours give or take) just fine, but the game, at least to me gets better. I like the characters more now, and not to get overly spoiler-ish, but the game pulls a full-on Red Dead Redemption. Oh, and I further calibrated my TV by messing with the 11-point scale and color space and it looks even better now: more realistic, helping the atmosphere. I already thought the game was really good, but I'm finding it to be great right now.

@ntm: Yeah, The Completionist dude on YouTube said it gets better as it goes along. Hopefully that is the case as I'm about to start tonight. Other than some nasty frame rate dips everything I've seen (and heard) thus far seems generally positive outside the "professional enthusiast" bubble.

@shiftygism: I honestly haven't been getting that much slowdown myself, but it seems they keep updating it. I stopped for a couple of hours this morning and then played it again for about an hour probably, and they had put another (1.07) update that is supposed to further fix any slowdown or bugs. I can't tell, but it seems to run even smoother now? I haven't really had any issue with frame rate, nor even bugs for that matter. It's not that far into the story that it gets better mind you (if you just watch it from a cutscene perspective, I think it'd go by fast), it's just that if you're exploring the world, taking out camps and what have you then the hours add up.

Having now finished Days Gone I have to say I am pretty shocked by some of the reviews and thoughts on the game from people who have finished. I totally get the lackluster thoughts by people who have only played a few hours of the start, but this is definitely a step above most open world games like AC and such. How this game could get something as low as a 5 or 6 is beyond me as games of that level are generally broken / have fundamental flaws etc, which Days Gone doesn't have.

For me it started in around 7.5 territory, moved up to 9 territory, then finished at an 8.5. The game definitely has some flaws (aka the slow start can be a deal breaker for some people), but if you just focus on the main story quests early on (yellow symbol shown in quest picture) you can get to the more interesting parts quicker. By getting further in the main story a lot of the side content makes more sense, plus you get your bike upgraded which vastly improves doing sidecontent, etc. Also the hordes (which basically no one will see / fight early) are really unique, completely terrifying to start, with the larger ones being a real treat. Now the game is a bit framey at times when you load into an area and start zooming fast and does have a really long initial load which are things to be aware of.

Something to note is how handcrafted the world feels. Nothing feels copy pasta'd (example FF15 rest areas are literally the exact same), with the few things that do repeat making sense, but also being unique locations in and of themselves.

If you enjoy open world games and are looking for a new one, I think this one is totally worth the buy.

I agree with the general sentiment in this thread - the game is ok. The comparisons to The Last of Us are meaningful - the game aims for the same tone and seriousness, but fails basically completely. The story us ok so far, but that’s about it in my half-ish playthrough so far.

Later in the game the game chugs a lot though - only while travelling, it has trouble streaming the enviroment. I don’t know of it’s the faster bike or snow effects, but it’s pretty bad - way worse than what you can see in the Digital Foundry analysis. Ofc with the latest patch and also having the game on an SSD.

And one last note: I had to smile (and literally roll my eyes) when in a certain part w(I will not spoil the specifics) tries to pull some stuff from Red Dead Redemption and it’s just so flat, not working - took me right out of the imersion for sure.

The main thing that pulls me forward is the character building - speaking about the exp system and perks, which make you way more powerful in time. It’s fun.

Playing on a base PS4, occasional chug, super slow loading on bootup, and I'm not a fan of some of the design choices...especially presentation. The cutscenes and post mission popups interrupting gameplay are annoying, as is the way they handle radio conversations and when they take place. Like for real, if they could patch in an automatic "turn off" feature for when you venture into a freaker/ripper hot zone, or just keep them dedicated to when you're on the bike, it would go a long way for immersion.

Other than that, and a lame ripper outpost realization I ran into...which I'll get to in a moment...it's been so far so good, just cruising around following the yellow line and taking out side missions along the way. I love the setting, it's a huge draw, as was ACIII...which I know people were also down on, but for me, someone that generally does a lot of off the beaten track wandering in open world games their stories being letdowns doesn't bother me too much. It's the experience it delivers through gameplay moments or just taking in the scenery...and this game, if ya look past the framrate issues that spring up from time to time, is really gorgeous. I wish I could say the same for the enemy character models and animations though, they're not up to snuff...but passable enough to create some really nice atmosphere in certain situations. It's also probably a good thing I haven't played a Far Cry game since the second in that series other than a few minutes of Primal.

Days Gone is definitely a "B" game, one that seems like it'll be worth the $40 I dropped on it (Thank you Target B2G1F preorder), but a little more time in development could've served it well. Still though as many have pointed out, for the size and inexperience of the team behind it, it turned out better than one would've expected, hopefully its strong sales (so far) and streaming popularity will benefit whatever they work on next.

Now about that ripper outpost, I came up on one not too far away from the garage Deacon looked for the fuel pump early in the game, and it had not one...but two NERO trailers, so I figured there would be a couple stat injections ripe for the pickings there. Actually I thought it was just an abandoned NERO outpost from the get go as I drove past until I started getting shot at. I was low on fuel and veered off up the hill across the road and parked in the bushes, where a couple rippers chased me and I quickly dispatched before clearing the rest out inside the parameter. I then took out all of the speakers, except an unreachable one on a pole, before turning my attention to a fuel can hunt which came up short. So with no gas for the generator I hit the road on foot searching various stops along the way and didn't come across one until I made it back to the garage.

With the can in tow I ventured all the way back to the outpost and my suspicions proved true as all the enemies had respawned and were shooting at me again, I sprinted back to my bike where I was surprised by a freaker who was hidden in the bushes munching on one of the rippers I had killed. Managed to kill it and the rippers that followed me back over before filling the tank. I cleared the outpost again, grabbed the tank, ran it back over and filled the generator. When I pushed the button on it, it sparked up, so I had to repair it. After doing so and giving it another push, the speakers on the pole sounded off sending a group of freakers my way before sparking out again. I didn't want to deal with five reapers, the generator hadn't unlocked the doors, and I feared if I managed to repair the thing again it would send more baddies my way before sparking out again so I bolted. I may try again later on, but my ass is bringing fuel with me.

@shiftygism: I know exactly what ripper camp you’re talking about and I think it’s just unavailable to finish until you hit the second area of the game because there’s no way to get to that last speaker. The gate that should open to get to the speaker never opens so I’m guessing once you unlock the second area, you can go between that gate. I didn’t know camps respawn if you don’t complete them until I was playing yesterday. I was driving by that camp and saw more rippers and they started shooting at me so I just drove off because I didn’t want to deal with them again.

Here are my thoughts on the game from announcement to now.

When they showed the first gameplay back at E3 20XX, I felt the same as everyone else. The freaker horde looked very cool but everything else just looked so dull. Time goes on and every time I see it, I’m left thinking there has to be something they aren’t showing us because it looks so drab. Nothing stood out. Even up until a week before release, I was like “I’ll get it because Sony’s first party output has been phenomenal and there HAS to be something about this game that made Sony give Bend the green light.” So I was set on getting it at launch. But the no reviews until a day before was kind of worrisome. Saw the launch trailer a few days before and kind of got excited for it so I just took the plunge. If the game sucks, whatever. Review day dropped and reviews were all over the place but it seemed like everyone at least agreed it wasn’t a terrible game. It was either mediocre or good and I could live with either of those once I’m done with it. Launch day came and I played like half an hour at midnight just to get a taste and I found it okay. Played some more that weekend and I’ve put around ten hours since I think. Its a pretty decent game right now so I’m glad to hear everyone saying it opens up more after about 10-15 hours. But yeah, I could see where the problems lie with the reviews I said. Let’s start with the technical side. I haven’t experienced anything game breaking but it definitely could’ve used more time in the oven. The first glitch I experienced was when I got off my bike to pick some flowers, did that, went back to my bike and as I was getting on it, some dude spawned right next to it and punched me so I had to get back off and kill him. Next is the frame rate. I’m not one of those people who go insane over frame rates but when you’re riding the bike, it’s VERY noticeable. It chugs a tiny bit buts it’s jarring enough to annoy me. Lastly, both the enemy and friendly NPC’s are dumb and broken. I found a marauder camp, killed half of the people, got to a part where there were 3 In Front of me, tossed a rock to distract one and for the next 5 minutes, he just kept walking back and forth saying “was that a rock?” It was pretty annoying. At the same part, I heard a freaker from where I was hiding and moved back while rock guy persisted. His other buddies just kept repeating “I don’t wanna fight freakers!” And just kept running back and forth or taking cover. After a few minutes, the freakers found their way inside and mauled them. The freaker AI is also kind of spotty. Sometimes I’ll kill a freaker and none will pay attention, other times I’ll be hidden far away, shoot one with the bolt that makes them fight each other or throw a Molotov and they instantly know where I am. Lastly, for the friendly AI, I found that one person in that house and when I was taking them to the camp they go to, we got to a tunnel with enemies in it. Deacon tells the person to get off the bike and hide but they just sat there. So I figured they probably just stay there but nope. I moved forward and at one point, the game told me I was getting too far ahead of them so i reloaded my save to try again and the same thing happened so I just killed the enemies from a distance and went back to the bike. I know she’s supposed to hide because when you go back, he calls out for the person asking where they’re hiding but they were just frozen on the bike. Lastly, I was annoyed last night because I went back to the watch tower you live at and after going through the cutscene and sleeping, I woke up to my nail bat and 24 of my shotguns shells missing. Now to move on to the actual gameplay side of things. Shooting feels just like The Last of Us. Even the pistols reticule is the same. But I’m mostly fine with it. Only problem I have is long range combat sucks because you end up wasting a lot of bullets trying to hit someone if they’re like 25 feet away. Riding the bike felt kind of weird at first but I’m getting used to it. I even already upgraded it to the max with what’s available at the mechanic at this time. Your inventory being as small as it is is annoying but I’m not constantly in need of supplies so that’s good. Now the last part, I’ll just briefly talk about the story, characters, and presentation. The story is.... there. I mean I’m still at the part where Boozer’s arm is messed up. He’s almost healed up and I got some flowers for him to make him tea but he just ended up calling me a pussy. I know the game will open up at some point and there will actually be a plot but I feel like it’s dragging right now. The characters also are just there. I don’t care about the first 2 camp leaders. They both seem like shitwads. Boozer just calls me to complain about how he wishes he was out in the world riding with me and gives me shit when I go back to the watch tower. As for deacon, he just seems kind of dull. Every time he talks, whether it’s to himself or to another character over the radio, it’s like he doesn’t really know what to say. He stumbles through his words and it’s a weird thing to make the character do. I’ve seen interviews with the devs saying how they listened to feedback about how people thought the dialogue was terrible and they went in a rewrote things and to make Deacon more likable but as of right now, eh. As for the presentation, there are some really weird design decisions and other things. The cutscenes that show what happened at the start of the infection are so weirdly cut. It’s just a jarring black screen and moves onto the next scene where nothing memorable happens. It’s badddddddd. Then the character interactions with random NPC’s out in the world that you save are so half baked. It’s like the character is speaking to a wall with deacon on the other side. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same voice actor did all the parts and said the same lines. I end up not really caring about them, just caring about the experience and credits I’ll get from sending them to a camp. Also, They act like they just realized there’s an apocalypse and don’t know what to do.

Now I’m not shitting on the game. I’m enjoying my time with it so far but there’s just so many things that hold it back to me. Right now it’s a solid 3 out of 5 game for me. So it’s in no way a bad game but it’s not a great game. There are a lot of games that do everything this game does but better and it’s sort of disappointing that Bend has so much time on this game and this is what we got. But once again, I’m not deep into it so maybe things get way better and I do like the game so far. It just has a bunch of problems that none of Sony’s other first parties have. But hey, this is Bends first new IP in like 20 years(?) and the first console game in like 10 so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I will more than likely finish the game and give my final thoughts on it later but I hope whatever Bend makes next, they step it up because compared to stuff like GoW, Horizon, The Last of Us, and Spider-Man, this game is leagues behind. Someone somewhere said this game occupies the same space as The Order: 1886 and Driveclub and I whole heartedly agree. I liked those two games a lot but I know they had a lot of issues. If the teams were given an opportunity to work on sequels, I’m sure they’d knock it out the park. I’m going to play more this weekend and I look forward to it but I doubt I’ll finish it until next weekend.

Sorry for the wall of text by the way, I’m on mobile.

@quipido: Yep, the RDR thing was kind of flat (although I did like the song just fine). I would say though that that's when I felt the game got a bit better. Yes though, the second half's frame rate is worse for some reason. I've had the full-on three-second stop or just a bit of frame dipping. In the first part, I had almost none of it. Aside from that though, I haven't had any major bugs. The only one I can think of is when I was putting Deacon's bike up and Deacon's arm was contorted backward. The game does fail in comparison to The Last of Us in every regard in my opinion (impactful gunplay, melee combat, as well as story), but I still think it's decent. The setting is very important to me, a while I like what Days Gone has to offer, I also like TLoU's setting more (which is in large part why I love that game so much).

I think the shooting is the worst thing in the game so far, but it's not necessarily bad in that it's making the experience worse, it's just not making it excel. I'm still liking it, and I think there are some strong parts which are really just the slower moments of characters walking around or riding a bike together somewhere and talking to one another. I do like the characters, and I enjoy the environments just fine, although it's not actually good enough that I enjoy going from one place to another on my bike. If I have enough fuel, I'm using fast travel. While I'm not necessarily in a hurry, I do just want to see the story through. It has a handful of flaws, and just some things that it could have done better but overall I am enjoying it enough and wouldn't say that I'm disappointed.

I really like the snowfall, and just the weather system in general, though I do find it unrealistic. It was snowing one time and it piled up (which I love), but when I went around a building, it was all of a sudden all gone. I didn't even notice it though until I got back around, but it was jarring nonetheless. It was a 'wait, wasn't there just snow here' as opposed to me noticing it disappear like some kind of glitch. I think I've already said it before, but I'm also liking the soundtrack quite a bit too, although it's not very memorable (I don't think I'll ever be humming any of the tracks). I feel like I've played around 25 hours or so and still have much more to go. Some say it's around 50 hours. It does feel like a B-tier Sony game, but that doesn't mean bad.