Out of all possible human experiences, combat is one of the most easily gamified. However, there are only so many times that a player can be urged to decapitate NPCs before some uncomfortable questions start to creep in about the sadistic nature of finding entertainment in simulated murder. That’s why zombies are so prevalent in gaming, with these human-shaped husks just begging to be put out of their misery without the need for pesky moral quandaries.
On the other hand, this also means that it’s incredibly difficult for a title to stand out among other zombie games, as we’ve seen nearly every variation of an undead apocalypse since the early days of Zombies Ate My Neighbors. And with such an oversaturated market, it makes sense that players might be overly critical of a good game that doesn’t quite live up to their lofty expectations.
I’d argue that Bend Studio’s Days Gone is one such title, with the game being accused of being one of the worst PlayStation exclusives in recent memory despite featuring one of the only creative uses of a horror-centric open world in years. And now that enough time has passed that the pre-release hype is no longer a factor, I’d like to take a look back on this over-hated gem and dive into exactly why I think it deserves more love.
The story of Days Gone began in early 2015, with Bend Studio (mostly known for the underrated Syphon Filter games) wanting to try their hand at their first original IP since the 90s. Inspired by popular TV shows like The Walking Dead and Sons of Anarchy, the development team settled on a project that would explore a zombie apocalypse through the eyes of badass bikers.
Our first glimpse of the title’s high-octane thrills occurred in 2016 when Sony released a ten-minute long teaser. This in-engine trailer highlighted the game’s horde mechanics, featuring a character modeled after Sam Witwer facing off against a World-War-Z-inspired onslaught of literal hundreds of undead that were being rendered and subsequently dispatched in real time. Unfortunately, this brief little tease would ultimately have a hand in the game’s eventual mixed reception, showcasing the absolute highlight of the Days Gone experience without making it clear that this was just one part of the game. This led to unrealistic expectations that would only really be shattered when the game was finally released in 2019.
Be prepared to kill thousands of these freaks!
In the finished game, players take on the role of biker and bounty hunter Deacon St. John as he embarks on a post-apocalyptic quest to find his wife in a world overrun by zombie-like “freakers.” Along the way, Deacon has to deal with insane cultists, armed militia and undead nests as he explores the Pacific Northwest on a customizable motorcycle.
While this sounds like a highly entertaining premise on paper, the critical reaction wasn’t exactly what Bend was hoping for. In general, most media outlets were unimpressed with the game’s main story, calling it clichéd and unexciting while also complaining that it intentionally left some plotlines in the air in the hopes of resolving them in a potential sequel. Reviewers also lambasted the title’s poor technical performance and inconvenient mechanics, like how your motorcycle needs constant maintenance and using fast travel requires clearing out nests. While very few reviewers actively accused Days Gone of being a genuinely bad game, the criticism was heavy enough that the title garnered a reputation as a massive failure.
Many of these complaints are justified, though I’d argue that the only possible deal-breaker here is the writing. The game expects you to care about unremarkable characters that you’ve undoubtedly seen before in several other post-apocalyptic yarns and then presents you with cringe-inducing situations like that awful wedding flashback. While it’s hard not to like Deacon’s anti-authoritarian persona, it’s also clear that his entire character was lifted from Norman Reedus’ take on The Walking Dead’s Daryl Dixon.
That being said, I believe Days Gone tapped into something special through its use of legitimately challenging exploration. Personally, I adored it when I ran out of gas in the middle of a Freaker-infested highway and had to desperately scrounge for fuel while hiding from an ever-growing horde. And while I agree that this can get annoying in the early game when your bike is still underpowered, I’d argue that the title’s naturally occurring moments of emergent horror more than make up for the poorly scripted drama. And don’t even get me started on the strangely addictive thrills of caring for your bike like a noble steed and slowly upgrading it throughout the course of the game!
In all honesty, the biggest mistake the developers made was locking players out of some of the best parts of the game by not introducing some of the best mechanics until late into the campaign. I mean, it says a lot about the experience that by the time the story expected me to take on my first horde (in what should have been a cathartic highlight of the experience), I had already dispatched a handful of them on my own.
Get ready for some biker action.
I have fond memories of cruising through the wilderness and choosing to explore abandoned settlements instead of following the main story of Days Gone, but I admit that the experience would have benefited from a bigger focus on gameplay instead of drama. After all, the mechanical aspects of the title are solid, it’s just the presentation that needed some work.
This is also why I find the news of an upcoming film adaptation of Days Gone so baffling, as almost all of the game’s qualities can’t really be translated to a non-interactive medium. To me, having to sit through two hours of biker talk and familiar zombie slaying just sounds like a rehash of the worst parts of the game, especially if they end up replacing Sam Witwer with Sam Heughan as Deacon.
I can’t really blame you if you’re still not convinced to give Days Gone another shot – I only barely got through the heavily scripted opening hours myself – but I still think that it’s unfair to completely dismiss the whole experience based on a few blemishes. That’s why it’s so frustrating that we’ll never see a proper sequel, as almost all of these issues could have been addressed in the future if Sony wasn’t so obsessed with aggregated review scores.
Fortunately, the game runs better than ever now that it’s available on PC and has seen a plethora of patches and updates, so I’d recommend giving the Freaker apocalypse another chance and deciding for yourself if these roads are worth revisiting.
The post The Freaker Apocalypse: Why ‘Days Gone’ Is a Much Better Zombie Game Than It Was Given Credit For appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.