Days Gone is the highly anticipated new IP from Bend Studios, the same outfit that brought us Syphon Filter back on the PS1, PS2 and PSP. Since that series sadly died out in 2007, Bend have been working exclusively on portable with Resistance: Retribution on PSP, Uncharted: Golden Abyss on PS Vita and even Uncharted: Fight for Fortune, the rarely talked about turn based card game that also came to the Vita.
That launched in 2012 though, and since then Sony Bend (as they are more commonly known) have been hard at work developing their first new IP since the original entry in Gabriel Logan’s Syphon Filter back in 1999. Twenty years is a long time to wait to put your stamp back on the gaming industry with something new and original. Many may also argue that there is nothing new and original about zombies or open worlds. But the game does feel unique. Both in good and bad ways. Let’s take a closer look at both.
You start Days Gone as protagonist Deacon St. John. A biker with the Mongrels Motorcycle Club. The intro, similar to Last of Us, starts by showing us the night of the outbreak. Deacon, his wife Sarah and is best friend Boozer are heading to a chopper to be airlifted to safety. Sarah is stabbed and when they reach the National Emergency Response Organization (NERO) helicopter the officer is reluctant to take her. With the aid of a gun, Deacon gets her on the chopper but is told they can only take two. With Boozer also injured, Deacon makes the tough choice to stay with his friend and vows to meet back up with Sarah at the base.
Fast forward two years and we find Deacon still riding with Boozer out on the road working as bounty hunters and struggling to survive the freaker invested world. Sarah is nowhere to be seen and we quickly learn that the NERO camp she was evacuated to was almost immediately overrun and everyone was presumed dead. I don’t want to touch on too much more story wise as there are many interesting and emotional twists and turns throughout. What I can say though is that while not all the story beats play out in a fully satisfying way, I felt connected with the characters and thought Bend Studios crafted a really good open world narrative. Sam Witwer did an excellent job as Deacon St. John throughout the roughly 50 hour campaign.
Gameplay on the surface is your average third person shooter, but there are layers of depth here that you don’t get with that many games. Melee weapons that degrade with each use. A crafting system that expands as the game progresses, allowing you to learn new ways to create weapons such as spiked baseball bats, molotov cocktails, flaming arrows and more. I have heard some negativity around the shooting mechanics but I really had no issues. My weapon of choice for most of the game was the crossbow. At times ammo can be scarce but you can gather branches off select trees in the world to craft more arrows and that was invaluable, especially early on.
A stamina meter is also present in Days Gone and forces you to be tactical in your approach. You don’t want to stray too far from your trusted bike for fear of being caught in a position you can’t escape from. This becomes less of an issue further into the game as there are NERO checkpoints dotted around the map, each containing an injector which gives you the choice to improve your health, stamina or focus. A dodge roll is handily mapped to the R1 button and that is very useful in tight situations.
We can’t talk about gameplay without mentioning the bike. This will be your main mode of transport around the vast open world. Cars are scattered all over the streets but for some unexplained reason no-one appears to have attempted to fix one and instead motorbikes are now all anyone uses. Thankfully, after an adjustment period of about an hour the bike is a joy to control. You can weave in and out of obstacles with relative ease and drifting around corners feels great. The bike is like a character in itself and can be fully upgraded from tires, suspension, exhaust, nitrous, fuel tank and much more.
Fuel cans are scattered generously around the map and you need to keep an eye on your gauge and re-fill accordingly. Likewise if you damage the bike you need to use scrap gathered from abandoned cars to fix it. I had worried initially that this would become a real chore but right up until the end I enjoyed taking care of the bike and I think the game would have suffered if this feature hadn’t existed. As well as the engaging story, the gameplay kept me totally hooked on Days Gone from the first minute to the last. The game constantly reminded me of State of Decay, just improved in almost every way.
As I mentioned earlier the open world is vast and even expands over time as you unlock new regions. A fast travel system does exist, but you need to be close to your bike and have enough fuel in your gas tank to initiate it. For me this was another excellent design choice as it’s not as restrictive as say the fast travelling in RDR2, but it also doesn’t allow you to completely abuse it. Another interesting feature is that often times when you finish a main story mission the next one won’t appear right away, encouraging you to head out and clear some infestations or complete one of the many bounties in the game.
The map is based on Oregon, which just happens to be where Bend Studio is located. Being in such close proximity of the subject matter I am told the feel and accuracy of the surroundings are spot on, although having never visited the area I can neither confirm nor deny. However I can confirm that they have managed to nail the atmosphere. Day and night cycles are reminiscent of what Techland did with Dying Light. During the day you will still encounter many freakers, but usually in smaller, more manageable packs. At night though, the hordes are out in force you have to be far more tactical in your approach.
Unfortunately not everything in Days Gone is a home run. This is a game that was in development for seven long years and at times you can almost see the seams beginning to show between what the game must have been in say 2014 and what it is today. Originally referred to as Dead Don’t Ride, the game is rumoured to have gone through a lot of changes over the years and sadly most of the negatives are performance related.
While graphically the game is beautiful and comes packing an impressive photo mode, it often suffers from frame rate drops. This happens mostly when you are riding your bike. I didn’t find it affecting my enjoyment of the game, but it is certainly worth noting. It also appeared to be an issue that got worse later in the game. Some users have been experiencing issues with textures not loading and even objects in the world randomly appearing and disappearing. I can’t speak to this though as with over 60 hours played, I haven’t encountered any serious bugs.
The main performance issue I have with the game is the load times. In open world games it is normal for a long initial loading period due to the scope of the game, but here you are treated to a 30-40 second loading screen just to reach the main menu. At this point you hit X to continue game and it then begins to load again, this time for around 90 seconds. If this was the end of it, you could forgive it, but you also get load screens when entering or exiting a cutscene.
This is especially annoying because there are times in the game where you will start a mission, walk or ride in one direction for a minute, be hit with a short loading screen, watch the cutscene, then endure another loading screen before gaining control again. There is the odd mission where this happens multiple times and it really breaks up the flow of the game. Sometimes you know you are on the cusp of a big moment and that load screen really damages the impact of the scene.
The last complaint I have heard is around bad AI. I had no problems with the way the freakers acted, as you expect zombie like creatures to be erratic and not the most switched on individuals, but there were times where human AI left a lot to be desired. I would sometimes take out enemies in a stealthy manner with my crossbow only to have the guys mate walk past him, completely uninterested at the death of his now former running buddy. In a game that does so much to create a great atmosphere, little things like this can drag you out of the experience.
In terms of trophies, Playstation seem to have settled on a good general list for their first party games. They allow you to play on any difficulty, have a mix of main and side story requirements along with collectibles and some misc objectives. They aren’t necessarily difficult games to platinum, but they require you to put the time in and see all that the game has to offer. As for a difficulty I would rate this about 2.5/10 and guess it would take you between 60-70 hours.
Overall, I really loved Days Gone. It got it’s hooks in me the more I played and while it definitely does have it’s issues, it was just a joy to play. I have played a lot of good games so far this year and I am sure we will see plenty more before we close out 2019, but as things stand this would be in my discussion for GOTY. You may look at the overall score and feel based on that statement I should have rated it higher, but I cannot ignore the technical flaws that clearly exist here. All I can say is that I had an absolute blast and I really hope Bend Studio are given the green light for a sequel, as with some fine tuning and modernisation in certain aspects this could be a system seller on PS5.
-VDZE
Reviewed on PS4 Pro.
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