Days Gone Review

I had a lot of high hopes for Days Gone after seeing its awesome E3 presentation in 2016, but unfortunately it ended up being a very dry and forgettable experience that falls short of everything it promised.

The graphics are amazing, but coming after a game like RDR2 this wasn't too exciting especially since both games have very similar environments. What i really wanted was a gripping story in a scary, dangerous world with epic hordes of zombies lurking around every corner and that isn't what I got here. The story is trash, the main character is the most bland and depressing character I've ever had to play as and his voice acting is nothing short of infuriating. He acts as if he has some kind of autism or speech disorder that prevents him from speaking without rapidly switching his tone mid-sentence or awkwardly breaking a sentence and starting a new one without finishing the previous one. His personality sucks and he comes across as far too cold and serious for someone who's in a goddamn biker gang, and for someone didn't lose much other than a random woman he met and married right before the apocalypse.

The missions are boring as hell and it never feels like there is a strong narrative that is leading towards anything. Sure there is a "climax" but it's so random that you don't even see it coming. At least most of the characters you meet in the world are unique and fairly interesting, i would have gladly played as one of them over Deacon St. John.

As for the gameplay, looting and shooting feels A LOT better than RDR2 and the crafting mechanics are also very quick and simple unlike the convoluted mess in RDR2. But the experiences you have in the open world of Days Gone is trash compared to RDR2. And that’s comparing a game that has huge hordes of fast-running zombies to a game with mostly farms and cowboys.

The hordes are nothing like how they are advertised in the E3 presentation. Instead of roaming around a large area, they are simply clustered up into very small spaces that are usually hidden somewhere in an abandoned building or a cave, it looks very gross and cheaply designed, often times you will see them rapidly spawn one by one into their clusters and in some cases the entire cluster will spawn on top of you and kill you instantly. Fighting these hordes is also nothing special. Since your character can't sprint for more than 10 seconds, the hordes are programmed to always run a little bit slower than the main character at all times, which makes every horde encounter a boring process of running, turning around to shoot for 2 seconds, running, turning around, rinse and repeat.

Ultimately, Days Gone was a waste of money in my opinion and i should have taken the fact that this was the first AAA game ever developed by the studio as a warning sign.