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Days Gone

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Anyone have some additional input? I kind of want to try the game since I need another exclusive and it seems like most people are enjoying it.

Also, the main character is a biker and this is 2019... so those critics over-scrutinizing character development and narrative elements are kind of wasting their time if you ask me.
I'm leaving work and on my way to Best buy to pick my copy up. Not sure when I'll get a chance to play it but I should have something to write either late tonight or tomorrow for sure.

If you enjoy open world games and zombies then I'm pretty sure you will like it. If you liked dying light, you will probably like days gone although the crafting and weapons are probably not as intricate.
 
Got to play a couple of hours today. Graphics are great, no issue there. I did notice some pop in of textures in the beginning but haven't explored the world long enough for it to be a big issue yet.

The bike has some weight to it while riding but turns are tricky. Having ridden sport bikes a few years ago I could tell it's not exactly the same but feels a bit loose. Turns take way too long to make while accelerating which should not be the case on a bike if you brake properly before you turn. You can drift easily using circle and that helps. Just takes a bit to get used to especially when it's raining and you are on muddy roads. I expect bike upgrades to help out later.

I really like the survival aspect of collecting scrap and materials and crafting is easy and simple like last of us. Stealth is my preferred way to play though. Guns for some reason you can't aim down the sights. Aiming can be a bit too sensitive but you can adjust that in settings. There is a cover mechanic but I didn't seem to get it to work properly.

Melee combat is pretty easy. Aim in the direction of you enemy and hit r2. Controls aren't clunky as some people said. Deacon moves quicker than Arthur in rdr2 although he has some weight to him. I like the melee combat quite a bit and the many melee weapons you can pick up are decent. You can unlock skill points to repair them too when they are damaged. The skill trees offer a lot to grind for and unlock.

The world has a lot of detail and it really makes it more immersive than I expected to travel through. You do have to stay clear of the breakers and nests in the beginning because they will swarm you and you don't have a lot of stamina. I suggest putting upgrades into stamina first.

Plenty of items to loot for crafting too so I didn't see an issue there yet. It starts off slow but soon you are free to explore where you want. The story is alright so far, it does try to pull you in in the beginning and uncovers more for every quest as you go. Don't think it will be like the last of us but the story seems more interesting than horizon zero dawn.

Nero checkpoints are like puzzles and are worth unlocking because that's how you get stamina and health upgrades. There are lots of freakers around so try to clear them out first.

I'm enjoying it a lot so far and I don't know why all the reviews gave it some crap. It's got some bugs and presentation could be better. For example the fade to Black before and after cutscenes. Not sure why they didn't iron that out by now. Loading is a bit long too, more than I would like and the lip syncing of characters when talking could have been done better. For me it's the whole cutscenes thing that seems off.

As for gameplay, I find it very fun and keeps you exploring and looting. You can enter any building and scavange as much as you want. I'm sure some of the things may get repetitive but as you upgrade your character and unlock more trinkets and weapons, you can set up traps and figure out how to take out enemies as you go through it.

Will play more after the avengers movie tonight. But so far it's very enjoyable and I can definitely say if you enjoyed dying light you will like this one as long as the loading and cutscenes don't bother you.
 
Played a good chunk of it this weekend. IMO, it come across as a poor man's version of RDR2 and The Last of Us. It's definitely "fun" to play but the motorcycle controls are horrid and the voice acting leaves MUCH to be desired. Buggy as hell as well. I'm gonna shelve it until its patched better. I see this becoming a really good game but a couple of years too late. The zombie genre is pretty much over until TLOU2.
 
Been waiting for this title since they announced it but after reading reviews I will not be getting it. I'm a big zombie fan but this game needs more work. I may pick it up used at gamestop 6 months from now or something if they fixed it properly.

Plus I find that I just don't play on game consoles much at all the past few years. I have 5 game consoles and my son uses them all the time but not me.
 
I honestly have not run into any bugs the past 5-6 hours I've played. I think people try too much to compare it to last of us and red dead 2 but it's definitely not. People say RDR2 story was phenomenal..I'm still on chapter 3 in red dead and don't think it's anything to write home about but it's good nonetheless.

Simple thing to do is rent it from red box and check it out if you are on the fence. I'm glad I didn't pay attention to the reviews. After you spend more time in the game it opens up more and the story gets better, same with upgrades for your character and your bike.

I'm enjoying it maybe because I wasn't expecting anything inspiring or different compared to other open world games. I don't play games to be inspired I'll go outdoors and do other activities for inspiration. I wasn't expecting the game to be very good but I'm surprised how much I actually am enjoying it and I normally get bored quickly.
 
I never got into RDR2 because I know I'll never have the time to finish it. If this is something that I can pick up for an hour or two here and there and it's relatively fun and rewarding then I'll probably get it.

I'm sort of tired of the online co-op model with randoms and the occasional buddy who can play for 45 minutes. I've heard that this game does have stealth elements and that's sort of my thing--at least until I'm discovered and have to go loud.
 
.. I did notice some pop in of textures in the beginning but haven't explored the world long enough for it to be a big issue yet.

...

Don't have a PS to play, but was watching a Playthrough. Dude was flying through a NERU checkpoint when suddenly a Fence popped in 5ish ft. in front of him. 😀 Other than that he had no issues.

Game reminds me of Farcry 5 in a few ways, except I think I would prefer this game over FC5.
 
I never got into RDR2 because I know I'll never have the time to finish it. If this is something that I can pick up for an hour or two here and there and it's relatively fun and rewarding then I'll probably get it.

I'm sort of tired of the online co-op model with randoms and the occasional buddy who can play for 45 minutes. I've heard that this game does have stealth elements and that's sort of my thing--at least until I'm discovered and have to go loud.
I haven't finished RDR2 either I'm still on chapter 3 and I pick it up often and continue where I left off. You could definitely pick up where you stopped if you felt like it. Open world games don't necessarily mean that you have to finish it from beginning to end to get value out of it.

I found some funny things in the game so far. The bike is very important apparently. I guess you always have to keep it in sight. I parked it off the side of the road to go do a side mission and when I came back I saw someone messing with it, I guess stealing parts off of it (if you have any custom ones). I took care of that guy and got some scrap back. Which you can use when you modify the bike.

Reminds of the time I had my Suzuki sv650s and I looked out the window of my apartment to see someone trying to take my battery out.

I will say it's a very tense game. You have to be careful of how much noise you make during combat. I had to clear a camp once and after some shots fired freakers started showing up. I eventually led them to the camp which helped to take out the occupants. But then I had some trouble leaving the area, triggered off some traps, and there were freaker zombies everywhere.

So it's way more beneficial to be stealthy. That's usually my approach since aiming on console is more difficult to do.
 
Yea it does seem like it's worth playing and that most of the major critical bodies are pretty harsh in their reviews; almost like they never planned on giving it a chance to begin with.

I mean if you're relying on games to give you maximum feels and invoke some sort of inspirational uplifting just from playing them then you may want to re-evaluate your life.
 
Picked it up over the weekend while my gf and I were meandering around the mall.

I like it so far, though the bike handling is going to take some getting used to. I don't know if there's an input delay or what but I could not corner to save my life in that first sequence chasing Leon--like it almost felt too realistic. I'm sure I'll get over that though as I play it more and the game play is quite solid otherwise. I don't understand the aiming crosshair for the crossbow but head shots are easy enough. I like the stealth elements and the game itself is gorgeous. This title is probably better to run with a Pro console because I am definitely having some framerate issues on my launch PS4--but it's not to game-breaking, just a little annoying.

This could join the ranks of my favorite PS action exclusives such as God of War and HZD but time will tell.
 
The game gets very intense as you continue to play. You won't see many side missions until later. Pretty much where I am right now. I only have main story missions to do on the map and I've uncovered a good bit of it.

There are ambush camps you can take over for crafting recipes. I met my first mini horde at horse lake Nero checkpoint. I recommend going after these for the health and stamina boosts.

It always makes it uneasy for you to play too because you dunno if you will run out of gas, sometimes you need to stop in the middle of nowhere and there's always some crap going down to watch for. But there is plenty of material to scavange, too bad he can't carry more.
 
Oh yea that reminds me; I meant to ask. Is it possible to leave the fire tower camp at the beginning without the bike; is it worth it? I mean I know I can use it to quick save and it's quicker but if I'm just exploring the immediate area (like when clearing out those nests at the logging yard) I feel like it just sucks down gas which I'm going to have to travel farther and farther to get...

AI is kind of dumb with searching but you can kind of make it fun when they somehow can't pinpoint your exact location. Heck, it seems like they need to be right on top of you when you're in shrubs in order to engage. There's the occasional grenade that gets thrown but Deacon can move fairly quickly between cover. Kind of wish there was snapping to cover but the manual mechanic works fine.

Any suggestions on skill points to grab early? I did field craft, and focus shot so far.
 
I never go anywhere without my bike. Best not to get into the habit of leaving it at camp and walking around as you will get ambushed randomly either by muraders or freakers, or those ripper people. I was once clearing out some nests and one nest had like 10-15 freakers come out of nowhere. Made it easy to run away to the bike and get some distance. But if you are just around the camp, you can walk if you want without the bike.

You can find gas fairly simple, as those red containers show up usually when you are low on gas. For the skills I got focused shot, fight and flight, crowd control, escape artist, and thorn in your side. These help you out in the beginning. After that you can choose to upgrade what you want.

After you gain more trust at the first camp, Copeland or whatever you should upgrade your gas tank first. It's not much but it helps quite a bit until you can get the third tank upgrade.
 
Yea I don't imagine it would be wise to wander too far without it. What exactly does the fight and flight skill do?

Didn't get to play last night but hoping to get in a few hours tonight.
 
The fight and flight skills improves aiming weapons while in movement. I didn't realize how much focus shot and focus upgrades matter in this game because the gunplay is really tough. It's hard enough using a controller but I remember the last of us at least had better aiming mechanics. I should probably turn on snap to aim in the options.

There are some other cool melee skills like bonus kill shot after a melee attack which also helps out in close combat. But the focus helps tremendously when facing human enemies the most. I have done about 4-5 story missions so far maybe more but apparently I'm still super early into the game.

It's a good one for sure it just lacks the polish and things we expect that we've gotten from other PS4 exclusives up until now.

I think this is because the game has been in production a really long time, delayed twice and by the time it was finally out, it's architecture and design is considered outdated compared to what's been out in it's place. Sounds a lot like scope creep and initially tech debt that was too difficult to go back and change too late in the development cycle. But I think some of the things could be patched up. I haven't had any major bugs but the presentation with the cutscenes fading to black then loading kind of takes the immersion out. And also Deacon likes to shout for some reason while talking to other NPC's when on the bike which is a little funny.

Either way I'm enjoying it and I thought I was doing too many story missions one after the other but it seems I'm not even into the meat of the story yet.
 
Had a series of rough happenings when I played a bit last night. Ran out of gas after clearing a zone and had to walk the bike to a nearby checkpoint. While I was only mauled by one wolf that was still a pain but it wasn't too far a jaunt. Took care of the alarms and raided the MMU but the only thing worth looting was the injector--and the audio log I guess. Found some gas for the bike nearby but had to drop it and run because a horde appeared out of nowhere lol. Thought I was gonzo for sure but managed to sneak back and fuel up the bike and head for the hills.

At least the bike is faster and has a bigger tank now...
 
I would upgrade the bike engine as soon as you can. Later on you will do a mission involved chasing other bounties on the bike. While other bikers are shooting at you. I just passed that mission last night but I had a hard time because my bike was slow so it took a long time. I put most of the trust points in the second camp as they had better weapons but even if you don't do that you will get to another camp where you can still get good weapons.

Apparently one of my next story missions involves taking out a horde. Not looking forward to that and I saw somewhere on YouTube a guy completed it and it said horde completion was 3% meaning there are like 34 other hordes in the game. Which is odd seeing as I have a lot of the map uncovered, my guess is the map and game itself is much larger than I thought. I have a feeling I'm still in the very early stages of the game based on this.

Sometimes I notice I have no story missions available which is weird. I guess fast traveling everywhere isn't what you are supposed to do because you get other missions while you are on your bike riding around. If Deacon could carry more items on him, I'd be more inclined to explore and spend time out in the wild scavenging. A lot of times I'll fast travel to and from places because I've done most of the side missions and story missions already in those areas.
 
The storylines system is very convoluted to me, as is the weapons buying. I've found some decent gear but from the reviews I've watched before buying the game only guns you buy from vendors get placed in the lockers. That's fine, I guess, but the camps don't have any guns other than the 9mm and crossbow available?? I must have overlooked something because the AK-thing sucks and I need a shotgun bad.

I did upgrade the engine on the bike, which sounds nice and clappy now, but it's still dog stool slow. Made sure to get the tank upgrade first.
 
Did you get to the second camp? Tucker's camp. They sell the weapons. The first camp is basically for bike parts. You should be there by now but the way it works is you have to reach level 2 trust at least at any camp before you can partake in buying the better gear.

I agree, the story is confusing at first but it does go into the lore of the virus and how it got there, what's going on behind the scenes. They should have designed better how it plays out in my opinion but what do I know because apparently I'm still very early on. It could get much better. Because the game gets very tense I only play for certain amounts each time I get a chance.

Obviously you also need to spend time to plan out an escape route too, any time you encounter large mobs of zombies. It does a great job of backing you into a corner at times. Funny thing about this is it's all random. But I noticed if you do die, most times you respawn and they aren't aggro'ed as before.
 
Glad to hear you guys are liking it. I think I will give it a chance later on when it comes down in price a bit and has a few more performance patches. Some times the critics just crap all over games I really end up liking. Nier on PS3/360 is my prime example: Gamespot gave it a 5/10 and most of the other reviews were similar for a game with amazing storytelling, a few truly interesting characters, and a killer soundtrack that made it one of my favorites of last gen. The best example I can come up with this gen is Quantum Break which I found an innovative twist on the standard 3rd person cover shooter with a cool storyline. But the critics hated it. Sounds like it may be a similar story with Days Gone from the way you guys are talking about it.
 
This game a took awhile to grow on me, but the more I play the more I enjoy it. I find it's a game that I sink a lot of time into at once or just do a few missions and come back later.

There are some really interesting side events that happen which I haven't seen done as organically as in this game. For example, a guy picked up a guitar and started signing an original song (to the game) and people from the camp started coming over to listen, slowly tap their feet or even dance a little. The song itself wasn't half bad and believable in the moment. Other random events are like that, but lose the special feel the 3rd or 4th time it happens.

As far as fuel, it's just something you keep an eye on, but has never become an issue besides the one time that the only gas can close got glitched for me. After awhile, you can fast travel to a spot near a gas station and then on to the next stop. Scrap, ammo and weapons are also abundant and are easy to manage. The shooting mechanic early on is pretty bad, but gets better with focus and higher quality weapons. I found that head shots in focus mode are the most efficient way to work, followed up by a strong melee weapon. Just keep enough scrap to repair as you fight. Also get used to the finger twister to heal while moving and dodging. I have gotten to the point where I use my right hand to heal on the left directional pad.

The story isn't too bad and Deacon is likable enough that you get past his quirks. Boozer feels like a drag at times, but I'm sure in that type of world, I'd keep any loyal friend no matter what.
 
I took a short break for it, not on purpose mind you, and now I suck at it--but I do like it a lot actually. There's been a lot of good games getting mediocre reviews lately I think we need a slew of new game journalists to step up. One thing I do like about this game in particular is you actually can play it quite casually, which is good if you have limited time to play during the week. I play the semi-completionist route and try my best (within reason) to explore the majority of what a game has to offer. I take and enjoy my time.

I also like Deacon's character a LOT more than I thought I would.
 
Finally completed the vast majority of the game this weekend, including the post-main story ones. There is a pretty good shocker if you do get that far. Won't spoil it, but I pretty much uttered the same phrase as Deacon a second before he did. Hope that we get DLC down the road.
 
I've gotten up to iron Mike's camp and done a bunch of story missions there. Only now just found out about a third enemy type too. Seems I still have a long way to go though. I just wish they had worked better on the story telling portion of it. It seems like they try to interject the story here and there but it's not very well paced together. I'm still having a lot of fun with it.
 
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