Days Gone is a fantastic game.

[Mai72]

Its one of my favorite games that I've played this year. The story, atmosphere, graphics, audio are all great. It's an open world game like GTA. There are side missions to compete. Its gotten some decent reviews as well. I'm almost done with the game, but I can see myself playing for a second or third time. IMO, there is some replay value.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I will definitely pick this up if it goes on sale for under $20 from a reputable source.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I feel like a lot of Sony exclusive games are actually 1 game with different skins in them. And that one game is a Ubisoft open world type game.

I admit I haven't played any of them, but based on reviews and previews and such the basic scaffolding and structure of games like Spiderman /Ghosts of Tsushima/Horizon/Etc are exactly the same and the window dressing changes from one to the other.

How would you say Days Gone fits into the somewhat standard open world tropes? Does it actually have emergent systems that grow out of the basic rules for the world or is it another Ubisoft style tower climbing stronghold clearing exercise?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Just picked it up from Fanatical BF sale for $15 after coupon code. I saw enough game play to know I will like it well enough. Picked up Horizon Zero Dawn the Complete edition for $14 while I was at it. Playstation exclusives without the Playstation, dig it.

 

[Racan]

-

 

[Mai72]

I feel like a lot of Sony exclusive games are actually 1 game with different skins in them. And that one game is a Ubisoft open world type game.

I admit I haven't played any of them, but based on reviews and previews and such the basic scaffolding and structure of games like Spiderman /Ghosts of Tsushima/Horizon/Etc are exactly the same and the window dressing changes from one to the other.

How would you say Days Gone fits into the somewhat standard open world tropes? Does it actually have emergent systems that grow out of the basic rules for the world or is it another Ubisoft style tower climbing stronghold clearing exercise?

TBH, its more like the 2nd. It is an open world game, but the open world is very limiting. The character is limited in what he can do. Collect flowers and meat. Raid camps. Ride your motorcycle from point A to point B. I'll admit that it does become a bit monotonous. The story is compelling though. There is a skill tree that I've already maxed out. I'm going thru the game a second time. The graphics are beautiful and pull the player in. When it rains, the dirt trails become muddy and that affects how the bike handles. It still is IMO a great game that is worth a run thru. There is a challange section in the game as well.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I have started playing, and this game fits my play style perfectly. Stealthy most of the time, with sudden explosions of mayhem and carnage. Grinding it out for anything that can help give me an edge.

Story is a bit generic, but the voice acting is excellent.

Graphics are immersive, and the game runs fantastically. Don't need the latest and greatest hardware to enjoy this PC port.

 

[aigomorla]

gah only regret i have is i didnt play in realism to get the achievement, and on the second playthough i got burnt out and can't do it.

The game is fantastic and has a deep story.

Spoiler

however i got very annoyed at his wife near the end gameplay

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Just finished a second playthrough last night. Took a few tries the first time through, to develop a method for cheesing hordes; it's all gravy after that.

It is $14 on Fanatical today. I highly recommend this game if you have not already played it.

Doing sick jumps on my enduro bike is much more satisfying than riding a horse in red dead. Which is what this game is to me; Red Dead the 21st century edition. This game would have benefited from adding some of the mini games RDR has. It'd be nice to chill with poker, black jack, darts, or some other game as a time waster. It is such a serious game. It has that dystopian sci-fi vibe where all the joy and laughter has been sucked from the world. You should be able to escape that for a bit, without having to leave the game.

 

[sze5003]

It's a decent game but when I got it for the PlayStation back when it came out, it was hard to get into the game for me story wise. Just wasn't compelling enough having been used to playing the last of us.

I remember being about 60-70% through the story and wondering does it get more exciting, or suspenseful? I kept reading online that it gets better later on but I don't know it didn't feel that way to me.

My roommate at the time finished it but I never did. The gameplay loop is fun but I'm also not creative when it comes to getting rid of the hordes. I felt a lot of the stuff was filler after a while but that's probably also because I don't like not doing the side stuff before moving on to the main objective.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

SPOILERS AHEAD




for anyone that doesn't want to know, bail now. I ain't hiding the post. Game has been out for way too long for that.

Hordes are easy to cheese. On most, I can start hitting them with the tommy gun with upgraded mag from a distance where not all of them detect me. (The special forces model is more accurate, but holds less ammo. Being able to spray and pray is essential if things go south.) The ones that attack I mow down. Rinse and repeat until there is a manageable number left. Then I throw a distraction bomb/Dbombs or 3, swap and hit them with the Squad auto weapon/SAW with upgrade mag. Sometimes they all charge, so I sprint to the bike, go about 200 meters or so; depends. They will give up and turn around. Then jump on and chase the rest on the bike and hit them from the rear. Always save when you bug out the 200 meters in case anything goes awry. Don't want to lose all the kills you racked up already.

Sometimes I have to lead with the Dbombs. Also, the mines, remotes, and prox bombs are all fun if you are near the o2 tanks, tanker semis, that sort of thing. Sometimes they all swarm, that is where all those upgrades from the psuedo FEMA checkpoints pay off. Maxed focus, health, and stamina will get you out of some serial business.

Other ways to cheese include:

choke points. Any time I can funnel them they are going to have a bad time. 85 rounds in the Chicago typewriter, 105 in the SAW, 50 in the compact SMG, all swappable in slow mo.

slot in the cave/side enter animation. If you go through it, you are safe on the other side. Leave to attract more and smoke them in groups instead of the whole nest going HAM.

For the house next to the horde where the game forces you to do the field testing of the napalm: Lay some remote bombs around the house, they will incircle it. I hit them with pipe bombs and hand grenades to thin some out and bring them to me. Sprint and crawl into the house. The chairs and stuff collapse blocking you in. Kill a bunch gathered on the other side. Next, go upstairs, climb out the window, stand on the roof, and start doing work. It helps to have already grinded enough that you have all the cool perks. The batman infrared vision thing lets you see the freakers through the walls. Trigger your remotes to take a bunch out. Use Dbombs and distractors to give you groups you can napalm, molotov, whatev. There is an ammo box, so use up all you have before reloading. Once I get the numbers down enough, I jump down and lead them to the gas station where all those oxygen bottles and petrol tankers make for an exciting time. Or you can stay on the roof and finish most off until you can just drop down and SAW the rest.

For the part where the game forces you to kill a horde to get the truck bomb stuff: This is one where you can use the Tommy gun plus SAW method. Park by the ledge overlooking the mud pit they are in, and do work. They don't all attack at once if you are doing it right, so have fun with the groups that do. Back up across the road to ensure more don't join in too soon. Rinse and repeat. ALWAYS have your bike ready and pointed for a quick sprint if things get dicey. Quick save, go back, rinse and repeat.

Grindfest is what open world games like this are about. If you don't like grinding for advantage, then it's not your bag, that's all. I grind it out and get every perk I can get. Makes gameplay fun, instead of a slog. Some enjoy that, I don't. I learned early on fighting IRL, train hard and the fight will be the easiest part.

The story is generic, but no more so than RDR or GTA games. It is a love story though, which requires you to be something of a romantic to appreciate perhaps? I dunno.

Anyways, the game checks most of my favorite boxes for the genre. It looks great, plays the way all games should play performance wise, and has some satisfying combat.

I rated it a must buy for $14. Mad Max was another one that I feel didn't get enough love. This game has that feel for me. An addictive gameplay style once you master the mechanics and have enough skills. Dystopian atmosphere. Humanity on the brink. You are the badass nomad/drifter with a excellent moral compass. Love these games.

 

[WhiteNoise]

I have tried to play this several times now and my last attempt I made it maybe a few hours into it, but I just can't seem to get into it. I've given up trying anyway.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I have tried to play this several times now and my last attempt I made it maybe a few hours into it, but I just can't seem to get into it. I've given up trying anyway.

Understandable attitude. Early on, lacking skill and weapon upgrades, the game feels limited and kind of static. Once you have the extra scrap perk, fewer scrap used to fix the bike, and the bike is faster, quieter, and more nuke proof. Plus you have better guns, can craft better melee weapons, and sprint and focus are ramped up, the gameplay is much more enjoyable.

I spent the first 10hrs of the first playthrough creeping around getting stealth kills because resources for fixing my stuff and using ammo was a PITA. By the time the game climaxed I had 4 ammo refills in my bike bag. I haven't done the math but it's close to 5K rounds with the right load out. At that point you don't care if the freaker is bullet sponge tank class.

I like Deek too. He is a super humble dude. I trained catch wrestling under a guy who was 10th mountain that served in Afghanistan, and Deek reminds me of him a lot. That certainly doesn't hurt immersion for me.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I feel like a lot of Sony exclusive games are actually 1 game with different skins in them. And that one game is a Ubisoft open world type game.

I admit I haven't played any of them, but based on reviews and previews and such the basic scaffolding and structure of games like Spiderman /Ghosts of Tsushima/Horizon/Etc are exactly the same and the window dressing changes from one to the other.

How would you say Days Gone fits into the somewhat standard open world tropes? Does it actually have emergent systems that grow out of the basic rules for the world or is it another Ubisoft style tower climbing stronghold clearing exercise?

Give me an example of what you are asking please.

It definitely has the tower climbing stronghold clearing stuff. Now that I watched people play the last of us, this game borrowed heavily from it. Speaking of which, The Last of Us would be going gangbusters on sales, no refunds, if they optimized as well as Bend did with this game.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Give me an example of what you are asking please.

- Doom 93. Its an FPS game about shooting demons, but iD put some fun little rules about bad guys being able to shoot and kill each other and ever draw aggro and completely ignore the player if they take damage from another enemy type. So suddenly you had this emergent gameplay property of trying to pin enemies between each other's lines of fire to make encounters easier or to get the heat off you.

Oblivion, for all its faults, had its Radiant AI system so NPCs followed a schedule and would eat/sleep/work etc. This allowed the player to interact with the world in interesting ways like poisoning food and waiting for an NPC to eat it, or breaking into a house at night when NPCs were asleep and less likely to be alerted.

In a game like Days Gone, I'd imagine you could lead Zombie hordes into enemy camps to clear them out, cover yourself in zombie guts to move through a horde undetected (maybe plant a bomb while there to clear the horde), maybe hordes are persistent and wander the map, meaning you can potentially encounter them randomly giving story missions and quests a radically different feel each time you play them thanks to chance. That kind of thing would be emergent gameplay and might separate Days Gone from being just another Ubisoft game (i know its not literally a Ubisoft game) to something that changes and reacts as you play it.

 

[sze5003]

Actually last of us for pc was ported by the same devs that ported Arkham knight way back when it came out. That game was also a mess for a while. So unless naughty dog devs get involved it will probably take a while before the PC version is optimized properly.

 

[Oyeve]

I've tried my best to get into it when it was first available. For some reason I just could not get very into it. It was too slow moving and repetitive. I've been meaning to give it another go.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Thanks for the explanation. It does have some of what you describe.

Some examples-

Some of the tank class will fight the regular freakers.

Animals and freakers will get in free for alls.

You can indeed play rabbit to draw enemies into fighting each other. Including using freakers and animals to fight enemy humans.

Most freakers hide during daylight. They will come out in the snow or rain since the direct sunlight isn't present.

Some other stuff is static.

Every horde has a territory. A home base and 2 feeding grounds. A couple are plot devices so even if you kill them ahead of time, you will meet them again.

You have the usual fetch quest, base clearing, scavenging typical of the genre. There are ambushers usually at a a particular type of place, I won't spoil which. A lot of Red Dead in this game. For my tastes, that is not a bad thing. If you are going to copy other games RDR and Last of Us are fine choices.

There are enemy classes that expand as you progress. Including infected animals. You will get some that can run 60KPH+.

Environmental kills can be a lot of fun. Michael Bay 'Splosions!!! are everywhere.

You really do have to progress to a certain point to get what the game offers. The most powerful enemy classes and crafting unlocks do a lot for it IMO.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I've tried my best to get into it when it was first available. For some reason I just could not get very into it. It was too slow moving and repetitive. I've been meaning to give it another go.

Game is definitely a slow burn. It does offer the game+ mode so you can have a lot more fun the second time through. You even keep your camp credits. And almost every cutscene is skippable. There are only a few in game ones with your wife that you have to deal with.

Once you have the whole map discovered, and are armed to the teeth, there is more to do. Experimenting in different areas using proximity bombs, mines, distractors and distractor bombs, remote bombs, napalm, Molotovs, flash bangs, all combined with the combustibles found at checkpoints, gas stations, etc, mixes things up. It can be hilarious at times, when stupid stuff happens that shouldn't. The visuals are good, which makes all of the destruction enjoyable to watch.

The freakers are dumb, but sometimes they will surprise you. I will throw Molotov or napalm expecting them to all run through it and light up. Instead a bunch will run around it. Some try to flank you. The creepy ones are the screamers. They hum and softly sing sometimes like a normal woman. The game will spawn multiples of them around horde areas, and if you goof and let one scream, it stuns you and calls down the whole horde.

The sound stage is creepy too. Good immersive noises, screams, and music that makes you feel uncomfortable at times. Much like Fallout games, the music cues you to fights and scenarios. The horde music is straight up John Carpenter style horror stuff.

Almost forgot. I LOL'd first time through because it uses the type of trope ala Fallout 4 Preston Garvey "Another settlement needs your help." filler. But hey, it means camp credits and trust so you can buy better stuff.

 

[rstrohkirch]

I played this game awhile ago and enjoyed it. It'd probably rate it maybe 7.5/10. I would say it's a generic openish world game that's done pretty well with a decent backdrop. The story felt like it dragged a bit, especially in the 2nd half and the characters were OK. Personally, I had a fair amount more fun playing God of War and Zero Dawn than this game.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I played this game awhile ago and enjoyed it. It'd probably rate it maybe 7.5/10. I would say it's a generic openish world game that's done pretty well with a decent backdrop. The story felt like it dragged a bit, especially in the 2nd half and the characters were OK. Personally, I had a fair amount more fun playing God of War and Zero Dawn than this game.

Good example of how tastes differ. I feel the exact opposite, I found GoW okay, but felt there is zero replay value. Played on PS4 Pro on release. By the time I was done, I didn't care if I ever played it again. Might pick it up when it is under $15 for PC, certainly no hurry though.

Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition I picked up for $14, and that is on deck. I will start this weekend in all likelihood.

I don't know if Days Gone did well enough to rate a sequel, but after completing the main story there is a mission where they set you up for it. It has a lot of potential given the premise that they hit you with. I want RPGs, grenade launchers, a chainsaw, co-op play, where you can use technicals featuring mounted weapons, and a flamethrower.

 

[No_Huckleberry_1514]

Days Gone is a fun ride!
I'll probably play through it again later this year, now that I have a 6800, and turn up all the eye candy.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Days Gone is a fun ride!
I'll probably play through it again later this year, now that I have a 6800, and turn up all the eye candy.

I have been doing the console like experience by playing on the TV in the living room. It is only 1080 60, so I am using AMD VSR to play at 1440 60, and my XFX QICK RX 6800 doesn't even work that hard with max settings. Speaking of which, this game is one of the best optimised I ever played, considering the beautiful graphics. I keep saying this game looks every bit as good as Red Dead 2, but it does it with even less demands on the hardware.

 

[ibex333]

I realize I am necroing an old thread, but I don't care. What an awesome game! I started playing it on my Aya Neo GEEK, but I have half a mind to just forget all that and reinstall it on my desktop PC. This game doesn't deserve to be confined to a 7 inch 800p screen!

I love post apocalyptic games. Something about exploring, scavenging, looting and crafting really appeals to me. I love the concept of never knowing what I will stumble upon, and every fight playing out differently. Honestly, there haven't been other games quite like Days Gone lately. Fallout 4 is too old at this point. 76 doesn't even count. STALKER is too old at this point... What else is there?

Most games these days don't have a nice storyline. But Days Gone does. It sort of like the Walking Dead series. And the protagonist is definitely based on that guy with a crossbow in Walking Dead. I just started playing and I am already hooked!

 

[aigomorla]

What else is there?

Totally depends on if you want a true story or not.
Days gone has a great story.
Dying Light 2 also has a excellent story and Parkour on top.
Infact most zombie games now i feel must have Parkour or some form for more fluid mobility.
Last of Us has great story, but the game play is sort of Meh....

Then we have your base building like state of decay and state of decay 2.
I am also a fan of 7 days to Die, although it will probably never leave alpha, but its a really fun game to play with friends and has a full feature crafting / base building aspect to it.