By Mo Mozuch
Gaming Editor
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My Days Gone hands-on provided a two-and-a-half hour window into Sony Bend's upcoming take on the crowded zombie/sandbox/survival genre. It's tempting to write the game off, given that it seems like the last gasp of a trend that was the Battle Royale of a few years ago. I'll admit there wasn't a lot that excited me in the reveals the last few years; E3 in particular seemed to showcase two very different games in the span of two years. But Days Gone has the makings of a sleeper hit, especially given Sony's solid track record of single-player experiences recently.
Days Gone follows Deacon St. Clair, a badass biker at the center of a world gone wrong. The "zombies" in this world, known as Freakers, behave more like feral beasts than shambling corpses. They run, hunt and roam in packs. They also caused society to collapse, and now survivors endeavor to rebuild. The title, a reference to an in-game counter of "days gone," evokes the journey that awaits players. That journey will take Deacon a lot of places, most of them on his motorcycle.
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Like every open-world game, Days Gone is full of stuff, specifically crafting materials and enemies that grant XP. And every successful example of the genre has an engine of sorts to consume these things, which is why there's a skill tree. But the real engine of Days Gone appears to be the motorcycle. My demo didn't include much opportunity to tinker, and two-ish hours isn't nearly enough time to get into the meat of a crafting system, but I did learn something. The motorcycle is fun. The handling and precision, the perfect pace it provides for zipping across a landscape with a thriving ecosystem of Freakers and thugs and wolves, all fighting each other even when you're not around.
It's astonishing open-world games haven't done this until now. Most of the vehicles in them behave like paper cups: disposable, weightless and abundant. In Days Gone , you only get one bike. You can hijack some others, but you can't upgrade and repair them. Drive that ish off a cliff? Better climb on down. If the system performs the way the devs at Sony Bend intend, your relationship with your bike will be meaningful and add weight to a game that seems rather light on it elsewhere.
The story seemed steady, even if it didn't show me any particular flourish. The game starts strong. It doesn't open with a grand exposition explaining every detail. Days Gone understands you know what zombie apocalypses are, and spares you the "blah blah virus government quarantine" newscast montage. It instead focuses on characters, on Deacon choosing between a safe ride with his injured wife on a medical helicopter, or helping his best friend, also severely wounded, escape the Freaker attack on foot. He tries to split the difference, and a flash-forward reveals he has spent every moment since wrestling with regret. There are no decision points in the story either. For better or worse, you're along for the ride.
As a single-player only experience, Days Gone needs to lean heavily on its characters. From what I saw in the demo, they can handle the weight. Deacon, in particular, comes across as empathetic and believable. Whether this story can go the distance remains to be seen, but there was no cringe in the cutscenes even if they were a bit vanilla. The action has a bit more flavor.
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Days Gone prides itself on having a dangerous world, and the goal is to create a playspace where danger is just around the corner but never in your face. Ripping past on my motorcycle, I saw this in action time and again. Freakers lunging after wolves, or gangs of thugs at each other's throats, were frequent sights. There are factions in the game, and the economy is a hybrid of currency and honor. You need more than money to purchase the best items at the camps scattered around. Do missions for folks in the camp, and you'll earn higher trust and unlock new gear.
One such mission for camp leader named Coleman had me going to dispatch a meddlesome gang of marauders some 2km away. My bike, a bare-bones starter version, was a blast to drive along dilapidated asphalt roads and sharp, muddy trails. I took a massive jump, and the impact taught me that fall damage is a major concern for your bike. A more conservative approach taught me the nuances of its sophisticated handling. Honestly, if you offered me a version of Days Gone without Freakers or guns or story, I'd probably still enjoy it. I wanted to tear around on that bike forever. Once I got off the bike to start the mission, I liked the game a little less.
The combat in Days Gone is … fine. It offers a very familiar cover-shooter-outpost gameplay loop. Start out attempting stealth, and then go guns blazing if you trip up. Deacon is by no means a bullet sponge, which was refreshing, but the overall experience of dispatching a dozen or so bad guys was rather neutral. I'm hoping it's a symptom of low-level early gameplay, and that the difficulty, challenge and fun ramp up as enemies and situations get more complex.
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Clearing out a group of Freaker nests, a side mission I picked up on my way to the mission, was a bit more exciting. Freakers swarm and move in unpredictable ways, which really encourages a stealth approach. There's no avoiding a ruckus once you molotov a nest of screaming Freakers, so sneaking around the perimeter and stealth killing the strays is a crucial strategy for crowd control. Melee weapons deteriorate rapidly too, heightening the frantic nature of these raids once the swarm is upon you. Dead Freakers supply you with gruesome trophies, like an ear, which you can turn in for bounties at camps to gain money and trust.
Days Gone is a game that took its time, and the wait seems worth it. In today's gaming climate it's easy to picture a studio receiving pressure to launch, to strike while a trend is climbing. But by doing it right, and inadvertently waiting until a swath of generic sandbox fare faded from memory, Days Gone is poised to give the fad the farewell it deserves. My hands-on left me feeling that the game does things right, even if some of them aren't great. A smooth story, familiar combat and the fantastic, unique motorcycle mechanics add up to strong single-player promise. It's a world I want to spend some time with, even if I might not like what I find.
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