Days Gone Review (Arttano)
Days Gone has classic open world formula and it is not a bad thing, if you are not bored of it yet.
Spoiler-Free!
Story:
First off, i want to start with saying cinematography in this game is very good. You can clearly see this game really cares about it's story but i wish i could care about it too. I have seen people who likes the story and characters of Days Gone but I can not make myself like it as i have experienced way better stories in games like Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War, Last of Us etc. I even have seen people who says Boozer is the best supporting character in video games even though he is just someone we babysit for the most part of the story. I think story might be the weakest part of Days Gone. I will try to talk about it without giving any spoilers. First off, story has tempo problems. Just when the story starts to get interesting , the game begins to give unnecessary tasks like babysitting Boozer or finding some guys MP3 player. That's why i kept losing interest in story. Also character relationships are not making any sense too. Immediately after arguing with a character, in the next mission, they continue to talk as if nothing happened. Sometimes some characters are doing unnecessary things just to make story more dramatic. And i didn't feel anything at those scenes because there is no way they would happen in a realistic story. I also have to mention that i didn't feel like Deacon which is the protagonist of Days Gone, has one main purpose that he follows. You may like the story maybe because it has a theme we don't encounter much but these are the main reasons why i couldn't like the story of Days Gone.
A Quick Tip: Do not close the game right after finishing the story. There is 4 more cutscenes. Here is how you can get them:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2953827117
Graphics:
It is not hard to see that graphics of Days Gone is gorgeous. Texture quality is very good and it does feel good to look at the world of Days Gone. The graphics with music makes the atmosphere so strong which makes it very immersive to hang out in the world of Days Gone. If you love taking screenshots in games, Days Gone is the right game for you.
Gameplay:
As i said before it is very fun and immersive to travel around in open world and we do that with a bike. Bike is like horses in RDR2. Although it is not a living being, you have to care for it. You have to fix it and you have to fill it with fuel when it's out of it because if you don't, you are going to walk until you found fuel. This is a good thing if you want more immersion. At first i didn't like this to much but when i learned how it works it just made the game more immersive for me. Days Gone's open world may be immersive, however it doesn't offer anything but same open world activities we have seen in so many other games gameplaywise. You have to do these activities if you want to upgrade gear, bike and unlock new skills because it is rewarding player with credit, experience and trust of the camps. The problem is these activities gets boring because they are repetitive. This is not a big problem early on but later at the game you will encounter too many hordes. Hordes are one of the few things that makes Days Gone special. They can make the game more exciting when they came out of nowhere. As you can guess it's not very easy to fight with hordes especially if you didn't invest in the right skills. If you don't want to do boring open world activities later for some skill points like me, i recommend to you to acquire the skill that improves the number of items you carry like bombs and molotov cocktails. Because those items are the most helpful ones when you are fighting a horde. Combatwise you have two options: melee and ranged. Melee is all about dodging and attacking. Yes, there is different melee weapons but gameplaywise they are all same. Only difference is their damage and durability. You can only counter by pressing a button that appears in screen when an enemy grabs them witch makes melee combat limited. Early on, another thing that makes melee combat limited is stamina management. Main problem with it that it refills so slow. Once player is out of stamina and there is a crowd of freakers, you will going to take a lot of damage until dodging and running becomes available again which is very annoying. But you will encounter with these problems only at the beginning of your playthrough. Ranged combat though is way better than melee. Variety of ranged weapons is good enough and enemies are reacting to bullets as they should even if it's not the best i have seen. Classic weapon wheel we know is named as survival wheel in Days Gone witch is understandable because it isn't only allowing you to choose weapons, it's also allowing you to craft and use items like molotov cocktail and bandage. It's very easy and comfortable to use survival wheel.
Music:
Music in this game does it's job well and makes the atmosphere way stronger which is more than enough. I will keep listening some songs from Days Gone in my daily life and i'm sure you will find something for your taste too.
Here is the link to soundtrack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDVH-wkXfQs&list=PLPfHaI9XqTnH-umv3t0twvpgeO-KUunnX
Technical:
Game runs with 50-60 FPS with mix of medium and high graphic settings at 1080p on GTX 1650 Ti laptop. One other positive technically is i didn't see any bugs at my 50 hour playthrough so i can say that it is a very solid PC port. However don't expect an AI like MGSV. Freakers can be deadly when they attack as crowd but they are not a big danger when they're alone and that's okay because they're not suppose to be smart. Main problem with AI is human enemies. They are neither good at forcing player to get out of cover nor staying behind cover themselves.
Conclusion:
If Days Gone didn't have a unique theme, i probably would give it a negative review with the fact that i didn't like the story and i'm bored of these Ubisoft style open world designs. But even though Days Gone didn't liked by the critics on it's release, i believe every gamer who is into zombies and post-apocalyptic theme should give it a chance.