Days Gone Pc Benchmark
Savage Doherty
Days Gone has been an anticipated PlayStation-exclusive game for a couple of reasons. Firstly and most importantly, the developers of the game showed off a Hoard of 500 zombies called Freakers chasing the protagonist in real time in the game. Secondly, the game is an open world one with lots of things to do. And thirdly, Sony has been on a roll with its first party narrative games. Does Days Gone deliver, or does it leave us reminiscing about days gone? We find out.
There are some aspects of the story that will definitely draw you in such as how law and order is maintained differently in different camps or how Deacon needs to push to get his way and do regrettable things just to survive. The game does try to pull you into some emotional moments and tries hard to bring a tear in your eye, but it lacks the finesse found in games like God of War and Spider-Man. At one point the story feels dragged out and you feel like rushing through some sequences because they feel forced and meaningless. One example is listening to a leader of a camp stand on stage and give a speech.
Last but not the least are the Rippers. These are a bunch of crazy humans who inflict self harm and mimic the life of the Freakers. It's safe to say that they worship the Freakers. Throw in the occasional wolf pack and bears that attack you and you have a pretty diverse set of foes. There are Nero soldiers, who roam the lands, but their presence is for stealth story missions only, so we won't count them as the main foes you encounter. Nero is a government organization studying the Frreakers and figuring out what happened and why.
Your primary responsibility to progress through the story is to take on missions from the camps you come across. This could be a simple bounty hunting missions, tracking and rescue missions, bike chases, infiltration, and more. The variety of missions feel varied at the beginning. After a few hours though it feels like you are doing the same type of mission over and over again and the inclusion of some side quests feels tacked on to increase the playtime of the game. Towards the second half of the game, it feels like a rinse-repeat process just to get to the next bit of story.
Speaking of hoard chases, these are some of the most exhilarating experiences in the game. Once a hoard of a hundred or so Freakers start chasing you, it is literally a run for survival. Some missions need you to tackle a hoard, which require considerable strategising and resource management.
There is also an upgrade tree for your skills. The skill tree is quite robust and you can unlock skills based on your playstyle. Skills include the ability to see enemies behind walls using your focus, the ability to use less resources to repair your motorcycle, gain more resources with certain activities, upgrade carrying capacity for ammo and more. There is also a separate upgrade process for your health, stamina and focus. You need to find Nero outposts throughout the game, unlock them and upgrade these abilities. Your bike is also upgradeable and you need to increase your trust and credit with camps to achieve this.
Overall, the gameplay of Days Gone is a lot of fun but the fun has a shelf life since the missions start to get repetitive quite easily. If the package were tighter, it would have left us wanting more, something we felt when we finished Horizon Zero Dawn. The near 50-hour gameplay would have been a satisfying experience if a lot of side missions were removed and if the story had tighter papce. Again, something like we saw in Horizon Zero Dawn.
The large world of Days Gone is a technical marvel for sure but the game isn't without its glitches. There are times when I was riding the bike in the open world and the bike audio was missing. There are also times when the camp drew in completely. These can of course be fixed by an update and as of writing this review, 2 updates for the game have already been pushed out.
Speaking of the world, it is lush, well detailed and the real time weather looks great. Apart from a day night cycle, we have dynamic weather exposing us to sunny days, rainy storms and snow capped hills. The protagonist himself is detailed with fine textures on his cap and clothing. The world in the game has a feeling of being abandoned, the camps are lively with NPC chatter and the roads have a sense of dread. Environmentally the game is stunning. The only downside is that there are sections which see some frame droops, presumably because the game is loading the coming segment.
When the Hoard of hundreds of Freakers are chasing you, the game didn't stutter one bit and this sequence is not only a technical marvel but visually stunning as you shoot and destroy the hoard that's chasing you. This is one of the best visual and gameplay experiences in the game.
Days Gone is a fun experience, but the fun doesn't last till the end. About 70 percent through the game I was impatiently awaiting the end and that is only because of the repetitive nature of the missions. A slightly tighter package with better pacing and some stronger writing for the characters would have made this game a masterpiece. Riding the bike and tackling the Freakers mixed with the bandits is a satisfying experience especially when you get creative by leading the hoard into a bandit camp. It is a worthy PlayStation exclusive, but misses the benchmark set by God of War and Spider-Man.
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