Strange Girl Gaming

It has been a long wait for those who were following the progress of Days Gone from the first time the game was actually teased. April 26^th2019 was the day that players were finally able to get their hands on Bend Studios PS4 exclusive. Let’s take a look at just how good the new zombie outbreak game really was.

The world is beautiful, and a real pleasure to explore from the forests to the snowy mountains, filled with plenty of hideous zombies (freakers) and enemies just waiting to show up and ruin your day. The weather system was good, depending on the conditions you may have found yourself having a harder time with the freakers. Various different landscapes all of which looked beautiful, the textures of every piece of all surroundings and architecture was excellent. Thankfully there is a great photo mode just waiting to be used, some amazing pictures

The graphics are great though there are occasions where the frame rate drops and the game did bug out on the very rare occasion, these are easy fixes that Bend Studios will no doubt fix in their upcoming patches. Days Gone has a truly beautiful soundtrack, so many times throughout the journey the audio and music added to sheer emotion I was feeling. Every piece of music was beautifully done, well placed in the game for the ultimate effect.

Deacon is a great protagonist with a very familiar back story, plenty of times an apocalyptic or outbreak based game begins with the protagonist losing someone close to them and as we find out Deacon is no exception to this rule. In fact it is important to his character for a lot of his story is about dealing with personal loss, a story that many will either be able to relate to or feel some emotions for. Congratulations Sony on yet another lovable exclusive character, PlayStation can boast many icons and Deacon St John might just find himself on that list.

The other primary characters in this game such as Boozer, Rikki, Sarah have been very well thought out, each one bringing something important to both the story and the game as a whole. Each individual person has a story to tell, how on earth have they survived? Some characters Deacon encounters get their own storylines, this game is filled with brilliant side quests to accompany a hard hitting and incredible main story.

Speaking of the main story it had several twists and turns, many of which I did see coming, if you have played the game and have progressed reasonably far into the story you may know which twist is considered to be the biggest one but for the sake of those who are yet to play or are yet to reach a substantial place within the game I will refrain from discussing events if the story, I will do a sperate post about the entirety of the story for Days Gone.

The hordes are a key selling point in what makes Days Gone different to any other zombie game. It is both fun and terrifying in equal measure, preparation is key when it comes to facing these dangerous swarms of freakers. As you progress through the game you will discover crafting recipes, be able to purchase better weapons and generally learn how to plan out your attack. This isn’t always the case, there will be times where a horde will seemingly come out of nowhere, when this occurs there is nothing wrong with running, use your bike to put some distance in between you and the horde, live to fight another day.

The crafting has been well designed, a key element to ensuring Deacons survival in this unforgiving world. Thoroughly check all surroundings to find helpful resources, keeping yourself stocked up is vital to crafting bandages, molotovs, melee weapons as well as various other things. Clearing out ambush camps will unlock new crafting recipes, you must enter the bunker within the camp to complete the camp. As with any open world game there is experience to be gained and skill points to achieve, there are three categories in which to apply those points, Melee, Ranged and survivalist. Choose what skills to attain carefully. All choices made will determine just how capable Deacon will be of making it another day in this harsh hostile world. So much of the gameplay was spot on, from riding Deacons bike to all the gun fights the biker is going to find himself in, the gunfights were smooth, the melee combat was spot on with fluid actions.

Getting around the world is done through the use of Deacons bike, upgrading and tending to the bike are vital as you progress through the game. Be sure to keep the gas tank topped up, nothing worse than running out of juice in the middles of nowhere, particularly when there is a horde trying claim you for dinner. The various camps found throughout the world offer different upgrades, parts and visuals for your bike, completing tasks for these camps will reward you with camp credits to make some purchases. Camps are also where guns can be purchased, the better the ranking you hold with the game the better the supplies are that may be purchased.

Fast travel is featured in Days Gone as you unlock Nero Checkpoints, clear out enemy camps and of course you can travel to all campsites once the infestations have been cleared on the roads, just be sure you have enough gas to make the journey.

The best way to describe Days Gone is a mixture of Red Dead Redemption 2 with various gameplay elements including the vast open world, combined with the likes of World War Z. For all you trophy hunters out there Days Gone has a platinum that is achievable through simply playing the game, progress through the story and complete various storylines to unlock the majority of trophies. Others will require you to craft, defeat enemies and loot hundreds of dead bodies, easy stuff for the dedicated trophy hunters of the world.

Days Gone was a joy from start to finish, I was hooked from the first ride on that bike. The story gripped me, I had to know what happened, had to make sure Deacon survived and got his revenge. Thank you Bend Studios you created an incredible game, it will forever hold a place in my heart, it felt like I was truly there with Deacon. The crafting was top notch, the world and its characters were interesting and I simply had a blast. Easily one of the best games on the PS4, I can only hope that the journey and the fight was as incredible for others as it was for me.