WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.
A couple days ago, I managed to beat Days Gone and 100%-ed all missions. It took me around 100 hours.
I just wanted to say Days Gone is a fantastic game. I discovered it while looking for 3rd person horror/action games, which is a genre I started playing recently. Until then, I had never heard of Days Gone. And when I started playing all I knew about it was that it's about a biker who survives in a zombie infested world.
It took me a while to get used to the game's structure but once it happened, I started to enjoy it. The overall gameplay loop -- drive around scenic locations, collect loot, finish objectives, return to camp to restock, rinse and repeat -- was excellent.
The freaker hordes were awesome, especially the one at the sawmill, which IMO was a boss-battle type event. I love how the hordes behave, especially when they flow towards Deacon like a river of bodies. I've never seen anything like it in a game before.
I also liked most of the characters, especially Boozer, Iron Mike, Rikki, Weaver and even Skizzo. The main man, Deacon StJohn, was also cool. IMO he wasn't too convincing as a biker and he came across as a regular dude wearing biker clothes. Either way, I really liked the way he'd mumble to himself and yell at the radio. I also particularly liked the way he'd sometimes go "how do you like that, huh?" after killing an enemy.
In terms of visuals, the game looks absolutely gorgeous. I thought the character models, the environments (both natural and manmade), the weather effects etc were all very nice to look at. I think it was an excellent choice to set the game in scenic rural areas with forests, mountains and lakes; it kept the game feeling fresh, and made driving through the scenery feel rewarding. IMO if Days Gone were set in a drab looking post-apocalyptic urban environment, it would have changed the tone of the game and not in a good way.
Combat is excellent. The .50BFG sniper rifle and the Chicago Chopper felt great to use. Unfortunately, I couldn't use the throwables like molotovs, napalm, proximity mines etc as much as I wanted to because those things had to be crafted with parts, and scavenging for said parts felt like a chore. I wish that after beating the main story, the merchants sold crafting parts. This would have made crafting easier and allowed for experimentation during horde battles.
In terms of story, it was ok. Overall, it had a good premise/setting, but there were some minor details that didn't sit well with me:
- IMO, they overdid the Deacon/Sarah love angle. I mean, pretty much every man lost his wife or girlfriend in the outbreak, so I didn't get why Deacon's loss is presented like it's more important or extra-tragic. I simply did not care.
- The freakers were an interesting zombie type. Their behavior and habits (diet, migration, hibernation, thinking patterns etc) are well detailed. But unfortunately, most of what you learn about them are from dialogues by NERO researchers and voice recordings (which you can miss). IMO there should have been more cutscenes about the freakers (perhaps from the perspective of NERO researchers).
- Speaking of freakers, I wish they had introduced the intelligent freaker concept in the last act of the game AFTER Garret's story concluded. I get that O'Brian's reveal was a set-up for a sequel (that is very unlikely to happen) but IMO the intelligent freaker enemies would have added more variety to the game. Perhaps, they could have shortened the other sections or even cut out Tucker's camp story entirely to make room for the intelligent freakers storyline.
Anyway, these are just my subjective opinions. The aforementioned elements did NOT affect my enjoyment of the game one bit. Sure, I would have done things a bit differently, but ultimately, I respect the creative choices of the dev team.
Now, I'm not saying this is a perfect game (no game is). But there were some parts I didn't like, such as the forced stealth sections and the bike chases. The side missions like finding flowers, hunting deer and finding the puppy felt out of place (however, they served as a great way to decompress). The clue-search mechanic was also a bit awkward IMO and slowed down the pacing. But these are just minor issues and are insignificant when looking at the game as a whole.
The bottom-line IMO is that Days Gone is a solid well-realized game that offers hours of immersion and entertainment. It's definitely going in my list of all-time favorite games.
To those who are on the fence about Days Gone, just give it a chance and buy it whenever you can.
