Days Gone Catch-All

I have to say, this game doesn't make the best first impression.

The pace of the opening hour or so is really choppy with frequent interruptions, seemingly random loading screens, and jarring scene transitions. Deacon will walk up to an objective marker, then there will be a long loading screen, then a cutscene where things are happening with seemingly no antecedent in what you saw before.

The zombie swarms that are the game's selling point don't make an appearance except as a briefly-seen crowd in the background of a cutscene. Similarly, the human vs human vs zombie skirmishes that were hyped up in the game's pre-release footage haven't even been hinted at.

I was a little surprised to accidentally activate a loudspeaker at a Nero camp, and despite Deacon freaking out about how that was going to draw a lot of attention, there were all of three zombies outside when I went out. I snuck past them, and that was that. It was notably anticlimactic.

And yet, I find the game surprisingly compelling. There haven't been many attempts made at open world horror games, and right now, I'm carried forward by the sheer novelty of a horror world that feels open and dynamic. I'm a little disappointed that the hordes seem to be in fixed locations instead of freely wandering the map (I had been under the impression that they did) but for now, I'm pretty engaged by the world and look forward to exploring more of it.

I would pay Sony extra money to mute Deacon and his endless "helpful" commentary and prattle. Just putting that out there.

I started playing this over the weekend as part of the ps+ collection on ps5. I think I’m about 15hrs in. I just got to the 3rd camp. It feel like I should be at least half way through the game but from what I read, I’m more like 25% through.

This game is interesting. It does a lot of things I like but also can be pretty frustrating. The structure is compared to the modern far cry games, but it is reminding me a lot of Far Cry 2, a game that had simulation features that could lead to frustration as often as fun, but which made the world more interesting and dangerous.

I put the game off because of middling reviews. I think it’s interesting parts raise it above an average game. The lowering of the score would come from a few things that are half baked or don’t mesh great. But it’s close. I’m very curious to see if they can bring that stuff together for the sequel.

It's long; real long.

I don't agree with the reviews at all, but I think a lot of them were also heavily dependent on performance issues that have been patched and/or have been pretty much nullified on the PS5. I don't play too many games that I find myself emotionally invested in. Days Gone is one of the few and I have loved every minute of it. I've finished the main story and am now just cleaning up misc. open world objectives to get to the "real" ending.

Highly looking forward to the sequel.

(Some of the music has been great too and had to be added to my Amazon music collection!)

It’s been pretty stable though I did have one funny bug. During a fight Deacon clipped through some geometry weird and then the game had difficulty rendering him, where sometimes he would disappear. So It looked like I had a sentient motorcycle driving around because deacon disappeared while I was riding.

The story is decent. Some of the deacon Sarah vignettes are a little annoying, but I’m
interested in finding out what’s really going on. More than usual.

My biggest early complaint with the game is being underpowered and being put in situations I felt were unfair. I understand I shouldn’t be able to take on a horde, but they will spawn out of no where. And there is no escaping unless you can get back to your bike. I would feel better if I had some indication they were around so I could avoid them or adjust my tactics. But on the flip side feeling underpowered adds a real sense of danger to being out in the world. That’s is an example of where they are close but the balance feels a little off.

The first quarter of the game is tough, but you level up fairly quick thereafter. It’s worth looking up which perks and skills are worth putting points into early, I seem to recall that really helped me when I was dying a lot early game.

Hordes actually exist in pretty specific areas and they have routes they follow when they’re not back home in their lair. And there are more hordes on the map than you might think.

As for them being too difficult, it’s possible to fight them earlier in the game, but you really don’t have the gear and skills to face them head-on until you’re near the end of the game.

Edit: I realized that I said all of this literally at the top of this page.

Is it worth it to chase the blue question marks that pop up on the mini map?

I’m not sure I understand their purpose. I’ve followed a few and it was basically me examining a spot in the ground, following tracks, searching another spot, and then following tracks that lead to nothing but some basic supplies.

Blue question marks are random encounters; some of them will have you rescuing someone. When you rescue someone, you have an option of sending them to the camp of your choice. The exact rewards change between each camp, but suffice to say rescues can be worth a pretty hefty chunk of camp faction (needed to unlock weapon and bike upgrades) and/or camp currency.

Typically speaking, if they’re close by, the can definitely be worth your time to checkout.

vypre wrote:

As for them being too difficult, it’s possible to fight them earlier in the game, but you really don’t have the gear and skills to face them head-on until you’re near the end of the game.

One of the things I liked about this game is I feel it has a very satisfying power progression. You start off running from these Hordes like OH sh*t and by the final stretch of the game they are just fun and satisfying to lay waste to.

If you enjoyed the game and would like to see a sequel, the game director is asking fans to head over to change.org and sign a petition to get it done. This comes in light of news that a sequel proposal was recently declined by Sony.

http://chng.it/Z9jTywdvLv

Yeah, supposedly Bend Studio has been downgraded as a support team. They were slowly on the rise going from Vita games to doing their own AAA release that sorta flopped at release then word of mouth (and hard work by the dev team) gave it some life.

Bend fought to make a new ip after Days Gone 2 was rejected by Sony, it's apparently been given the go ahead & has started production in the last couple of weeks. It would be disappointing for Bend to just be a support studio for Naughty Dog (which it seems they have been in the last year or two) & I'm sure every person within that studio wants to make their own games.

Days Gone for pc comes out on 5/17. GMG has it on sale for $41.99 and wanted to ask if it's worthwhile at the current price point or is this one that I could wait for a sale?

Days Gone

It's been very well optimised for console now and plays great. I certainly got my money's worth out of it. I think I bought it at about £30.

Obviously I can't speak for how well it's been ported to PC, but it's a great game.

Ugh so many games coming out in the next 4 weeks!

cartoonin wrote:

Days Gone for pc comes out on 5/17. GMG has it on sale for $41.99 and wanted to ask if it's worthwhile at the current price point or is this one that I could wait for a sale?

Days Gone

I would wait for a sale. First, Sony has had some issues with PC ports at launch. I remember Horizon Zero Dawn having issues. Second, while the game has some interesting ideas and a beautiful environment, its still just an okay open-world game. I liked the 30+ hours I put into it (never finished it), but I would have been unhappy if I paid near full price for it. I actually didn't pay anything for it besides the PS+ sub on PS5.

Polar opposite opinion of IUMogg. I just finished it about a month ago and Days Gone has been one of my favorite games that I have played in several years. I am quite distraught to think it is unlikely to ever see a sequel.

Thanks for the input, everyone, it's much appreciated!

I think I will hold on it for now, since I am well ensconced into HZD. It may be open world enough for me, for now.

The PC port is getting a lot of love. I personally am enjoying it. Put in about 3 hours last night.

I am glad to hear that!

Enjoying it on PC. Definitely underpowered but that works for this game, plenty of fuel around which seems to be an issue on console but ammo is rare so clearing nests is problematic.
A contributing factor is the low inventory levels by item so to clear out 3 or 4 nests I have to go looking for materials but I guess that is more realistic than being able to carry 20 swords, 10 lots or armour, 100 potions etc

I wish there was a better sneaking system, something more like The Last of Us.

Not to nitpick, I should also be able to jump & climb better. I can honestly say that The Last of Us has spoiled gaming for me. TLOU was a technical/game play masterpiece in my eyes. It is sad to say that I find myself comparing all games that I play now to TLOU. That is my problem that I need to overcome.

Days Gone is still a fun rodeo!

Made a Days Gone mini road trip while I was back visiting my hometown this week. Weather wasn’t really cooperating and I was short on time. So, I didn’t get to see and photo everything I would have liked, but it was still a fun little side jaunt before returning home to Texas.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DaysGone/co...

Ok. I'm starting to like this game. It's a bit like the State of the Decay games but without (so far) the base building/management and a bit of Assassins Creed thrown in. Took about 3hrs before I started getting in to a groove. Game was initially a bit overwhelming and didn't seem like I had a moment to rest as it pushes quite a a lot on you at once.

But I cleared out my first hive infestation area. I thought I would be over my head but I figured things out as I went along. Initially wasting a lot of ammo, then figuring why not use the oil drums. Then a bit later why not use stealth. So took awhile to clear it out, and was pretty intense, and I had a much better handle on the game elements - particularly dealing with the zombies.

When the game first came out I recall reading articles or posts about this game saying how unlikable the main character was. So far I haven't seen it. There's nothing special about the character but I don't detest him like I was expecting. Maybe that will change but right now that complaint seems a bit overblown.

I think they maybe patched out some of the weirder shouting-while-stealthing and constant mumbling under your breath?

It’s a really atmospheric game IMHO and I like that it doesn’t lean too much on over-the-top boss monsters. The hordes are the real enemies and remain challenging for most of the game.

I'm finding Deek unlikeable, other than Boozer he is arrogant to most people and rude to the others.

Still enjoying this, but it isn't streamlined that well. Cut scenes kick in when not expected and take you out of what you were doing and the world. Had one last night where I thought I'd check in at a camp before going to bed and it took me another 30 minutes to get away from the cut scenes (how slow do they walk!!!) and back in play mode.
At the 4th/5th camp now and my levels are rocketing up, but I am still hamstrung by not enough materials and the very strange decision (IMO) to have money tied to camps. So I have 30K in one camp but cannot do any upgrades and about 20 in another with 5K worth of upgrades available. Or am I missing something?

No, there’s a mid-game period where you’re very resource poor because of the distributed money system. I think they intended players to move very slowly from area to area, upgrading as they went. If you follow the main storyline very quickly or do your own exploring, you can end up with lots of underpowered camps, not great weapons and an anaemic bike. The best way to fix that is focusing on the starter areas and clearing hordes and side missions. Picking up zombie ears for cash can net you loads, as can hunting.

Also it’s worth googling which weapons to spend on early/mid-game, there are some that are very expensive and quickly outclassed by other things you unlock at camps or through missions. You end up with enough cash to get anything you want eventually, but some of the crappy shotguns and assault rifles are a waste of time early on.

kborom wrote:

I'm finding Deek unlikeable, other than Boozer he is arrogant to most people and rude to the others.

I haven't played the game, but folks have consistently said he's a terrible main character. Just average and pointless outside of his relationship with Boozer.

I really wish these default, generic white guy protags would die in a fire. Thankfully it isn't quite as rife within the industry as it used to be.

And it isn't just because they're white, it's because they're bland with no personality or defining characteristics. At that point give the player the ability to make a character in the beginning and roll with it.