Days Gone (released in 2019) is an action packed, fast paced, zombie survival horror game. Probably one of the more fun ones I have played in a while.
For this review, I’m going to change it up a bit. My last reviews have been long and redundant so I want to shorten it up. I’ll still give a final score at the end.
FYI there are spoilers here so if you haven’t played the game yet this is your heads up.
Where Does Days Gone Take Place?
Days Gone takes place in post-apocalyptic Oregon 730 days after a global pandemic. The journey of survival starts with their city in chaos, almost reminding me of how the Resident Evil 3 remake started.
People running, screaming, and lighting things on fire. Deacon St. John and his wife Sarah, along with their friend Boozer, are scrambling to get out of there. Sarah ends up getting injured and is “saved” by a Nero intern. Soon after this, the game begins with your first gameplay being on Deacon’s motorcycle.
Starting the game on the motorcycle was rough. When you first start playing this game learning to handle the bike is challenging but not impossible. It was a good start to the game. Bend Studio did a good job giving you the back story and setting the stage for the two year jump that happened between the first cutscene and where the gameplay begins. They leave out a lot of details but they are mostly all answered as you play.
What is Days Gone About?
Days Gone is a zombie survival game about a medical cure gone wrong which started an uncontrollable global pandemic. Sarah is a researcher whose work was used for bioweapons, which she didn’t know. Basically, it went very wrong.
Most of the game is Deacon attempting to find Sarah because he believes she is still alive. He believes this only because he ends up finding the original guy who helped her onto the helicopter. James O’Brian, the Nero researcher, becomes an important part of the game as he helps Deacon find Sarah.
Nero is a governmental organization called the National Emergency Response Organization. What NERO is doing two years later in this apocalypse never becomes clear even with the secret ending at the end of the game. What we can assume is that they realized they couldn’t help most of the survivors so they started to study the virus. My guess is because they still want to weaponize it which is why the secret ending is set up like it is.
What I Wish I Knew Before Playing.
Motorcycle upgrades and stamina were the most important part of the game. I played this game without much prior research. I soon realized how important it became to upgrade stamina and the gas tank on the bike. The beginning of the game is pretty challenging until you get these upgrades. If you come across a horde early in the game, just run. This can become hard if you play during the night because more freakers and hordes are wandering around. You’ll quickly run out of gas and fast travel is difficult because you don’t have enough fuel to get back to a camp.
Although I didn’t know this going into the game, it became clear, quickly, which is when I started to focus on the fuel and stamina upgrades. Your bike’s fuel tank can be upgraded by getting camp credits and increasing trust level. This is done by bringing bounties and food back to the camp and also by completing camp specific missions, which is the quickest way to do things. Stamina and other character attributes can be increased by going to Nero checkpoints and using Nero Injectors. You know, super soldier serum.
What is Bad About Days Done?
The game took a long time to build. It also took more people to build the game than I’ve ever seen before. The ending credits were long. There were also some glitches in the game. One of the times I was playing, Iron Mike’s camp just wouldn’t load. The bridge was there but my character would just fall through it. Glitches like this happened a decent amount in the game. Also, the voice acting and character designs were entertaining but could have been done better. A lot of the NPC’s had the same faces which was kind of funny. The voice acting, although the voices were good, the conversations and lines were a little overdone. I understand Deacon is in a gang but dude definitely has rage issues.
I also thought the dependency on the motorcycle was overdone but if this happened in real life I guess it would be accurate. I wish we could drive other vehicles but they were all used for parts in the game. Also, the water capabilities could have been much better. If you fall into the water your character basically dies. You have such a small amount of time to get anywhere. Having a character who could swim would make horde fights more interesting.
Will Days Gone 2 Be Made?
It doesn’t look like they are going to make another Days Gone. From looking online, the company just thought it took too much time and money to make. However, the game is set up perfectly for a sequel. Although Nero is an important part of the game there were a ton of unanswered questions. I would like to see a Days Gone 2 focused on “taking down NERO” and finding a cure. I think this would make for a great game and could take the game to another geographical location where there were more survivors, new weapons, and mutated freaks.
The replay value of this game is pretty good. They have challenges with patches you can use in the game and the New Game + allows you to start a new game with everything you got from the previous play. I really like this feature. Once you 100% the game, however, there isn’t much to do. So your next step after that is the New Game+.
What I think could happen. They should sell this game to Rockstar Games and have the Red Dead Redemption II teamwork on it. That would be insane!
Overall I give this game a 72.5 out of 100. It was a really fun game but once you’re done, you’re done. If they decide to make a sequel I think it could do really well as long as they fix a few things. It’s worth playing for sure.
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Happy Gaming!