➤ Days Gone, the review 🎮

We begin the wait Days Gone review immediately writing that, from a certain point of view, the PS4 exclusive is a solid game, one of those typical level products that you would expect from a Sony development team; in this specific case, the downside is an adventure that seems born more to respond to an industry study than from the will of the development team. Unpleasant situation but also, let's face it, untrue: i Bend Studios, which are the same as the fundamental Siphon Filter, they really went out of their way to deliver the best possible game to us. Days Gone is plagued, however, by several problems: some generated by clumsy planning, others by a certain superficiality in the design phase, and still others by what we could technically define as bad luck, bad luck, bad luck. Let's start.

For the masses: an open world for everyone

Is it really possible to advise against Days Gone without ifs and buts? Of course not, and in our opinion the public will also end up loving him; maybe not immediately and without ever going beyond a certain threshold of excitement, but still enough to guarantee him a second important and well-deserved chance. One of the undeniable strengths of this game, which also anticipates its limits for those looking for a more structured experience, is its being perfectly describable in three words, where "sun, heart, love" (remember the hugely popular meme song?) replaced by a no less obvious pop trinity: "zombies, motorcycles, openworld". Days Gone is clearly a leaderboard toy, and it will pay off. After all, you have theOregon wilder at your feet, a motorcycle to customize, and hours and hours (between main and secondary missions there is enough to go well beyond fifty) of missions populated by very few friends and many enemies. The rather marked violence, combined with unexpectedly good graphics, are then other aces up the sleeve of a game that, just as anticipated at the beginning, simply works. Another arrow in Days Gone's quiver is its very strong dramatic component: the protagonist he loses a loved one at the very beginning of the adventure, and throughout the entire game there are very few flashes of lightness. Adding to the mix as well Deacon St.John, the protagonist played by the actor Sam Witwer (Doomsday in Smallville, remember?) who here digitized appears as a sort of simulacrum to the James Franco more blatantly sexy and perhaps, and we repeat perhaps, you will have the complete picture of what war machine this is new Sony exclusive.

Then there is that component in Days Gone survival that does not give you anything without ever being tedious, in which, however, the only constant concern is the risk of running out of fuel in the middle of nowhere; and it is actually fun to stop in a quiet place, sheltered from the pouring rain, to tighten some bolts and check the tank before leaving for the next goal, perhaps with the sky clearing on the horizon. Finally here are the zombie, Furious, infected, or whatever you want to call them, running, wriggling, even devouring each other. At night these creatures multiply in numbers and in fury, while during the day they will become less oppressive, while the larger groups may hole up in their nauseating nests to rest in the shade. The problem is that often, especially in the first part of the game, there never seem to be enough of Furiosi, and consequently it is rather difficult to have fun doing suicide gymkane with brace on the shoulder whistling cheerful tunes. But we are equally sure that a certain type of audience will have a lot of fun with Days Gone: now, however, it is necessary to understand if those who read this review are also part of the same lucky group. In fact, every aspect of the game described up to now carries with it a repeated and therefore perhaps deliberate lack of depth, which will manifest itself more or less seriously depending on your experience with video games and, more in detail, with the type of product to which Days Gone clearly belongs.

Midnight rider: lots of things to do, a little generic

If you are looking for a narrative that is as strong as it is dark you will be satisfied, but in telling its own stories Days Gone has serious rhythm problems. Furthermore, the facial animations are not always of the quality that we have learned to take for granted by playing all the other Made in Sony products, from The Order: 1886 to Horizon Zero Dawn, up to the Naughty Dog games, and therefore not always all. height of the task and the emotions called to replicate on the screen. Even worse, for three quarters of the game there plot rather than moving forward it will seem to go round in circles, however, it must be said that this will allow the user to learn about the Oregon rules of Days Gone with effective calm. Those who already know how to behave in front of an unpleasant situation like the one recreated in Days Gone, will have to contend with a long list of missions without particular creative flashes, alternated by a handful of activities that, as in a generic open world, will be repeated in every portion of the map. Deacon St. John will have to contend with Furiosi's nests to burn, repelling the infected who will oppose the destruction of their lair, and medical containers of the mysterious Nero government agency, which can be accessed by reactivating their energy through a generator that is always dry fuel. ; in both cases, once the task is done, the surrounding area will return to being relatively safe, while the Nero containers will also provide an upgrade that will improve a choice between energy, vigor and focus. Hidden on the map, you can also find other surprises, such as the outposts of the Rippers, in Spanish called Repugnant: a group of heavily armed and totally insane humans, who worship the Furiosi and the pandemic that generated them.

Once the enemies are removed, in the outposts managed by this crazy clan there is always a hidden entrance to a bunker where you can find resources and usually also a project to build yourself, without necessarily finding a new gadget on the field. The crafting of Days Gone is certainly well done, and allows you to create anything in a few simple steps, without imposing pauses on the game but limiting itself to slowing down the passage of time. Although this description might make you think of the worst open world of the beginning of the generation, the particular subdivision of the missions, which are collected here based on their plot instead of the type of activities related to it, help Days Gone to move away from the "to effect". -do-list "which usually totally drains that indispensable unpredictability necessary to make an open world credible. The trouble here is that the various outdoor are not so different, especially those related to the missions that we can define main, almost always divided into clashes with the infected, collection of certain lost objects, and stealth phases to spy on the raids of the Nero scientists who, not too secretly, will land occasionally with their helicopters to study the area and prepare some new enigmatic experiment. What doesn't work is that except in certain areas, and not before certain missions, the presence of the Furiosi is too bland and the shooting never the best; while the rules andartificial intelligence that should make the silent stealth game raid shine, clearly fall short of the action imagined by a more experienced user. It must be said, however, that this non-alcoholic stealth is not disappointed, even if in mid-2019 it is really tough to go back to jumping between one bush and another just like in Days Gone.

Freewheel burning: relationships and defections

Different people think about making the gaming experience more structured outposts distributed in Days Gone with which it will be possible to slowly make friends, which will allow, among other things, to gain access to the different areas of specialization that characterize these clans. Some outposts allow you to unlock new weapons, while others are specialized in new motorcycle parts with which to improve the racing car at your disposal. Even the way of living in this hell is different from camp to camp, as will the treatment that they will reserve for the survivors who, once saved, you can send them in exchange for respect points and, once a certain threshold is exceeded, for that new equipment that both makes you greedy. To increase a camp's trust in Deacon, while earning some useful money, it is possible to exchange with them infected ears (whose value changes according to the strength of the former owner) and food to be obtained by hunting the remaining animals and gathering herbs and fruits in the woods.

But more than to push you to a furious collection of resources, the usual boring grind in short, these elements serve to round up the much more substantial prizes that can be collected by completing the missions that will be progressively proposed to you. We do not doubt that, often, hunting for objects in a dangerous and decadent world can also be a lot of fun, but Days Gone's Oregon does not seem designed for this, nor for continued and in-depth exploration. In our gaming experience, a difficulties normal, we rarely found ourselves short of materials to build what we needed, and those few times that happened, a short detour was enough to fill our pockets again in no time at all. We must also admit that, after the first hours of the game, we have definitively put aside the exploration as an end in itself to concentrate almost totally on the missions, and not to close this review as soon as possible but because there is nothing in it. particularly interesting to find: not a rare weapon, not a unique piece of motorcycle, much less a level environmental narrative, but only a few documents that will enrich an anonymous list of collectibles.

Bat out of hell': attenti all'orda

Another feature that stands out of Days Gone is its unexpected longevity of over 40 hours: the missions are many, but there are also many dead times, or trips that will culminate with two lines of dialogue and a laconic goodbye. But the thing that surprised us most of all, and negatively, is that most of these stories do not orbit around the creatures generated by this new apocalypse: the Furiosi too often play an almost marginal role. If the bike is not the most characterizing element of Days Gone, if it is not exploration and survival, at least the much vaunted should be. order. But no, these huge ones infected groups they will not appear (in their scariest version at least) until very late, even leading to doubt their presence. Proceeding in the game, pushing towards the edges of the map, however, it turns out that their number is decidedly high, and that the most hidden ones are also the most lethal, that is, composed of a greater number of infected that can reach even 500 units. Seeing this mass of creatures, dangling first and snappy and furious a moment later, running en masse towards us is frightening and gives the Bend Studios game that character which at first glance seems almost entirely lacking. But even then there's more of a problem: the hordes only appear a few times during the storyline, and will ultimately turn out to be more of a sideline to tackle before and after the credits, rather than a constant element of gameplay.

Fortunately, face a horde with a well-equipped character is a rather fun exercise, which pushes players to take advantage of every millimeter of scenery, to use the entire equipment to finally get the better of it. These groups of infected then have their own daily routine: towards sunset it is easier to find them near the bodies of water, while the morning is an excellent time to take them by surprise while they rest and feed in their deep burrows. The latter is the situation that most amused us since it allows us to set up a series of traps on which to push the group decimating it little by little. It is also important to decide on an ideal path towards which to be chased, in order to exploit any explosives scattered along the way. Sorry that the developers have not been able to give the hordes a more concrete role, and it is also a pity the inability to brutally abuse a horde, perhaps by killing the infected with the motorcycle or with weapons of mass extermination. Days Gone is certainly not Dead Rising, but since inside it is possible to find elements of many different games, even something of that Capcom would not have hurt, indeed.

Born to be ...

In Days Gone, the combat in itself it presents no major problems, although it is the victim of a slight but constant lack of precision. The best is a concentration mode that allows the user to slow down the time and consequently aim and shoot more calmly and effectively. This feature is not particularly useful against humans, but it will become essential in thinning out larger groups of Furious. Days Gone offers a good number of weapons, some even with bullets capable of passing one or more bodies, a possibility that can give life to rather funny moments. If it is possible to tempt fate by moving without munitions, we strongly advise against proceeding without a melee weapon. The latter are also present in large quantities, and can also be modified to increase their characteristics: for example, a circular saw can be mounted on a wooden pile, three industrial bolts on a baseball bat that will allow it to split heads with great ease. .

But against the Furiosi, once it is discovered, the more valid strategy it will always remain only one: divide them, and then hit them to death individually. As the game progresses, new types of infected will require greater attention in the approach, consequently making a stealth start more and more important, in order for example to immediately knock out the most dangerous specimens such as sirens, capable with their screams to recall to himself all the creatures that drag themselves around. But stealth is also useful for thinning, in order to limit the damage in case you are discovered on the most beautiful. And if things go really bad, there is always Deacon's bike, whose riding is a pleasure that is renewed with every trip, especially after modifying it with a larger tank, a more performing engine and a bag for the ammunition. There motorcycle it can also be modified aesthetically, with new and more aggressive designs, colors of different kinds and decals that also include complete sets to be unlocked through the missions. Like every element of Days Gone, even this beautiful two-wheeler, however, is not really exploited, especially in combat when it will in most cases be totally cut off.

Ezy ryder: graphics and sound

But there is something we are fully satisfied with the title, and that is its guise graphics. Days Gone offers a setting that is perhaps a bit monothematic, but capable of lighting up with a thousand different colors, also taking advantage of the possible presence of HDR in an absolutely masterful way. On PlayStation 4 Pro, Days Gone gira a 4k dynamic and 30 fps, made more stable by the two patches already released before the game's arrival in stores. The artists behind this project have done a fantastic job in regards to the artists as well atmospheric effects which, in addition to including rain of different intensity and fabulous sunsets (or would it be better to say nightmare?), will also surprise players with an unexpected snow that will take over the scene in a totally natural way, with the drops of water that slowly acquire body to become ice flakes, gradually whitening the surrounding environment. However, we would have expected more developed urban centers than those that eventually found their place in the game. Even the music they are excellent but, like many other aspects of the adventure in question, they cannot distance Days Gone from the many other games with which it already has in common themes, gameplay and more.

We know that a video game takes years to develop, and that when it starts the market has different needs than when it ends, but Sony itself should have pushed Bend Studios towards different styles from those seen not only in the games of the competition, but also and above all in The Last of Us. Setting the game between the culture of bikers it is a great premise, but it should have involved many other aspects of the adventure here committed to responding to needs that have already been met for some time. Why is there so little metal in Days Gone, so few guitars, so little bullshit, so little action on wheels? It's okay to try to set up a human story, rather than an inhuman one, but if the infected are to stay in the depths, make sure that men are more dynamic, that there are motorcycle chases of a certain level, that behind us appear. gangs that rotate toothed chains towards our heads pushing us into the belly of black forests; or give us a more alive world, a more complex simulation, a management part that keeps us busy. In Days Gone there is none of this because basically there is nothing or almost nothing that you would not expect, and if there is, it is always and only a sketch of what could have been: a concentration of potential that in this game, for one reason or another, they can only half express themselves.

Comment

Digital Delivery PlayStation Store Price 69,90 € Resources4Gaming.com

7.8

Readers (368)

8.2

Your vote

Partly wasted opportunity for those who expected a deeper and more demanding game from certain premises, Days Gone still remains a solid, complete, long-lived product, which will not fail to make proselytes. The post-launch support is also interesting which, among other things, will bring new challenges and new game modes, perhaps even more in line with the tastes of those who, initially, decide to look beyond. Then allow us a special mention to the Spanish voice actor of Deacon St. John: such well-modulated voices, in video games translated into our language, are rarely heard.