Days Gone

I love this game...

Such an overrated game. The story is basic and cliche even by zombie game/movie standards. But the biggest problem is the game play. After the first 30min or so, you’ve finished the gameplay loop, then it’s just the same thing over and over again for hours on end. Zombies keep spawning even when you’ve “cleared” an area, you’re stuck out in the middle of nowhere but the population of humans must have been 100 million people. You never feel like you’re accomplishing anything as it’s just constantly zombie swarms everywhere. You run low on everything just getting from a to b. The motorbikes are hilarious. They consume the fuel of a rocket engine yet have the power of an electric scooter. Even with the upgrades. But as I said, the biggest problem is the short gameplay loop with no other variety is stretched on for hours and hours on end, it just becomes boring. So in short - first hour or so - fun! After that - boring!

The movement in combat is more aligned with console play, than PC. The save point system is trash. I don't find repeating the same mission/content over and over fun. This is one of those instant refund games after playing, but sadly I waited a few months after purchase to install.

I have about 70 hours and 100% completion on Steam, and I like it well enough to repurchase it on GOG. I wholeheartedly recommend a purchase, but let me offer some caveats: - The player character, Deacon St. John, is voiced by prolific voice actor Nolan North. This would typically be great, but Nolan does his Nathan Drake character for the entire game; hearing it is very jarring. - Not that a different acting style would help the writing: Deacon's character is unlike any outlaw biker. He's whiny and passive and exasperated at all times. Even weirder is his friend Boozer, who feels like an accurate representation of a gruff, violent, and hard-drinking outlaw biker. - Sometimes, characters make stupid decisions for plot purposes. Creating tension by characters not revealing essential information to one another is a tired trope and lazy writing. - There is no way to organize the gun collection. It's a minor gripe, but I hate that I can't group guns by type or purpose. It makes preparing to leave base just a little bit more tiresome. - Motorcycles are some of the most fuel-efficient vehicles on the planet, but Deacon's bike guzzles fuel like no other. I understand it is a gameplay mechanic to force the player to dismount from the safety of a bike that can outrun Zombies, but it feels unrealistic. Despite the above reservations, I had a blast playing this game. Many great setpieces showcase the zombie horde mechanics, dozens of memorable moments between well-acted characters, gorgeous scenery, and very few technical issues. I wholeheartedly recommend Days Gone when it is on sale.

Red Dead Redemption had lots of good character moments where you'd just ride or along and talk. So does this...too bad they never had characters that were interesting or good writing to go with it. But they've got this huge world with lots of small houses and stuff... Too bad there's not really anything interesting to find, and even scavenging parts is just for crafting components you have a low limit on, making any exploration a waste of time. Bikes are cool, yeah? Sure they are, wish the bike felt good or fun to ride. And you'll be doing a lot of it too. Strong story then, right? Weelll...there is one, very very slow and protracted. 27 hours in I decided I didn't care enough about it to stick with the slow travelling back and forth, conversations without anything interesting going on. Repeated missions of "Sneak in here, kill the marauders" or slowly following a trail. That's most of the tedium and bad stuff out of the way. I stuck with the game for 27 hours because honestly, the gunplay feels good. The zombies move unpredictably enough that they're not a pushover. And a huge horde coming your way is genuinely scarey. The world is very pretty too and just nice to look at. The stealth works well enough even if it just feels like Asassins Creed all over again. And there's the rub. If the mechanics were not fun to play with, this would be a 2 star game for me. As it is, it's serviceable. But the pacing and lack of strong characters has just made me run out of being able to care when there's plenty of games which does gameplay as well or better, but with a better setting. Get it, if you want to just have a wander around a pretty world with zombies. Otherwise, your time could be so much better spent elsewhere.