On April 26, 2019 Sony will release a new PS4 exclusive zombie survival titled Days Gone. In the last decade video game industry offered so many iterations of the zombie horror survival genre that many players became completely numb to the whole idea. It’s hard to create any kind of hype surrounding the zombie themed games these days.
Since the announcement of the project at E3 2016, gamers all over the world couldn’t wait to play this new original title. However, the path to the release was not an easy one. A number of Sony’s fanbase started to show doubts after seeing the official gameplay footage, which did have its problems.
But the last couple of reveals actually turned out to be pretty good and again all seemed well. That is why it is almost certain that Days Gone has the chance to become a great game, and here are a few thoughts on why that is the case.
The World of Days Gone is Not What You Expected
The Storyline is Connected to Your Actions
The story of Days Gone doesn’t follow the typical route of most zombie post-apocalyptic games that tend to focus too much on how the world population got infected. But instead it begins immediately at a point when the infection has reached its critical point.
The game doesn’t provide players with simple answers of what really happened. But you can visit locations marked with special icons on the map. These missions will serve as story flashbacks. The storyline is dedicated to main protagonist Deacon’s memories of Sarah, his deceased wife.
If you still want to find out more about the epidemic, then you will find many clues that are scattered around the world, but most of the information can be obtained from the so-called NERO camps, which were abandoned after the infection. There you can find audio recordings and learn more about how it all began.
No Time to Waist
Days Gone is packed with action and you can never expect to be in a safe position. While many games offer time for some relaxed exploration, here you will have not much time to collect the ammo or craft healing items. Freakers can invade your territory at any point in the game and ruin your day.
But even if you get caught in a bad time, you can always find a way to make two groups of freakers fight each other. This feature of Days Gone is really fun, and it can be used to your advantage. For example, you can lure a huge infected bear to a location with freakers and watch the animal devastate the entire horde.
Complete Freedom of Choice
There are a lot of different quests and missions in the game and they all have different purposes. For example, one of the missions will require you to get to the base of the survivors, find the entrance to the secret bunker, and retrieve some valuable information.
The catch is that in Days Gone nobody tells you exactly how to go about this mission. You have to choose whether you will just kill everyone and then enter the bunker, or whether you will quietly stealth through the area and complete the quest without anyone even noticing.
Obviously, most of the quests involve clearing out the locations from the hordes of freakers. But again, the developer never sets any pre-requisites on how players need to complete these quests. You can either choose to kill zombies without wasting a single bullet, or you could raise an alarm and chop monsters with a machine gun. It’s up to you!
Some Gameplay Features Will Blow Your Mind
Riding a Motorcycle
The main transport in Days Gone is a motorcycle, which needs to be maintained and repaired from time to time. The terrain in the game varies from highways to swamplands, and there is a big chance that you get stuck somewhere if you’re not paying attention.
This kind of realistic approach is refreshing, but it will respawn if you lose the motorcycle by falling into a lake or off the cliff. So in this regard the developers had to compromise a bit. You don’t have to worry about losing your bike forever.
Also, players will have to fill the tank with gas regularly or they risk having to walk the rest of the way on foot, which isn’t a good idea taking into account that freakers may well be anywhere waiting for their prey.
With this in mind, you can find and use gas canisters to fill your tank if you’re low on gas and in the middle of nowhere. These can be found throughout the world, but the quality of the gasoline may have degraded and may hurt the engine with use.
So there are a lot of little things players must consider here, and this really puts Days Gone onto the top shelf amongst the survival games we’ve seen so far if it all goes as shown so far.
Realistic Gunplay
Freakers are not the only threat in Days Gone. There are other human survivors who can be just as hostile. They can be much more dangerous that zombies and may use firearms, grenades, and various melee weapons against you.
Fortunately, the gunplay in the game is realistic. Each weapon has its own unique parameters, such as recoil or special sound effects. For example, players can shoot in short bursts of three to four rounds in order to reduce the recoil.
The sniper rifles have extremely sensitive optical scopes. The crosshair almost never stands still because Deacon is breathing heavily, nervously. But if you don’t like to wait and shoot with extreme precision, you can just take a shotgun and shoot at closer range.
The grenades can also be used to a great extent by scaring the enemies out from their positions. Many hostile survivors will carry sniper rifles and shoot you from the convenience and safety of their homes. Throw grenades as efficiently and accurately could become a life saving skill here.
Role Playing Elements
The skill tree in Days Gone has three branches: melee, long-range, and survival. Each branch consists of several skills that give you an advantage in a particular area. For example, one of the most exciting features of the long-range skill branch is the ability that allows you to shoot more accurately while moving.
Getting skill points will not be easy, so people will have to find the most optimal builds and invest their XP points wisely. This will become one of the most important tasks in the game besides survival. Keep it in mind if you want to jump into the game on day one.
Conclusion
Zombie survival games have never been more exciting than this. The biggest draw points are:
- Of course, the realism
- The motorcycle
- The freakers that don’t just trudge towards you, but flock in hordes
All this makes Days Gone a truly unique title with an innovative approach towards the good ol’ zombie genre.
Currently it is unknown how actually big the world of Days Gone will be, but be sure that it’s going to be huge. Otherwise, one wouldn’t need a motorcycle to traverse the vast landscapes of the Pacific Northwest.
Those expecting a multiplayer game may be disappointed to learn that this game is exclusively single-player, but at this point it looks like most just want to immerse themselves into their favorite game and not worry about the co-operative component of the gameplay. And that’s exactly what Days Gone will deliver.
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Will you be playing Days Gone on the day of the release? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below, and be sure to check back soon for more related articles at GameSkinny.
Published: Mar 13, 2019 10:55 am