I’d like to preface this review by talking about my expectations going into this game. I want to support Sony games on PC, but I wasn’t sure how far I’d get into Days Gone. Many reviews wrote it off as a mediocre zombie survival game with few redeeming qualities, and despite seeing some highly positive reviews, I came into this game not expecting to like it very much. To illustrate how my opinion on this game changed, you will see my impressions of this game at a few different intervals. Minor structural and gameplay spoilers will be included without using the spoiler tags.

5 hours in – The game is somewhat enjoyable so far but feels rather generic in its presentation and the narrative hasn’t really stuck out to me. It is reasonably challenging on Hard II which I like, and the bike is a lot of fun albeit a bit of a pain to keep refuelling frequently.

15 hours in – While it is clear by this point that Days Gone doesn’t do much inherently new, the considerable variety in the main campaign missions and side activities is very noticeable and appreciated. The narrative has picked up a bit, with the focus at current protecting your best friend, and there’s a really beautiful moment including him where you first travel to realize the map is much bigger than it appears.

25 hours in – The game feels like it’s nearing its conclusion yet I’m still not bored of the gameplay because of the activity variety and progression. The focus of the narrative appears to be more about the characters than the actual plot itself, but the characters are well acted and plenty of good lines have been said. The game gives you sufficient time with most of the main characters in one-on-one side quests which could end up being very long yet remain consistently engaging.

35 hours in – The narrative continued in a different direction, and to serve that, the game shifts in location from where you were before whilst temporarily locking off the previous areas. Most of the missions do boil down to fetch quests, but the term ‘fetch quest’ never came to mind as every time, there was a new challenge to overcome to keep things fresh.

And after 45 hours in, after completing the main story and most side activities, Days Gone left me wanting more. I’ve played hundreds of games throughout my time, and this is one of the few where I’d say it keeps getting better the more you play. It is very much a slow burn in terms of gameplay ideas and character moments, with most of the best bits appearing later on in your journey.

The combat remains consistently enjoyable because it’s one of those cases where you get better but your enemies don’t get any stronger. New enemy units are introduced as you progress, and you only don’t see them at the start as their appearance will make your life harder. The health and damage of all of them is the same at the start and end of the game, and so as you level up, obtain better weapons and scavenge more materials, you will be better equipped to completing combat scenarios. The progression also applies to your bike, which is fun to drive from the start but increasingly becomes more useful as you progress, with greater fuel capacity, durability and top speed. Honestly, this game is more of a survival-lite than a full-on survival game; resource management and crafting is pretty simple, and you rarely need to head to the menu to craft something you need.

The game remains challenging though, as your enemies increase in number and the design of each combat area introduces something different to deal with. Each area has a very unique layout to it which means it is very difficult to approach the same activity in the same way every time, and some of them have unique attributes to them; one bandit camp for example contains a horde situated in this kind of waterless moat, which makes going loud a pain if you cannot remain in stealth, but also opens up an opportunity to lure them onto the camp to eliminate the human enemies.

Within-activity variety is where I think this game shines the most. Activities involving detective footprints start off basic, but I quickly realized that they never repeated themselves, whether leading you to an enemy to catch in an interior or exterior, lead you on a scripted wild good chase as part of Deacon's goal to find a friend, or my personal favourite, turning the concept on its head by resulting in the player being captured by some bandits as the footprint trail intentionally led to a trap. NERO checkpoints, which require you to turn on the power of a designed-to-be temporary outpost, require you to make the area safe before entering the building, or the zombies will come flowing at you in great numbers. The large zombie hordes are present throughout the game, though they become their own activity instances later on; these are already inherently fun to tackle by themselves, seeing them move through the world was honestly a sight to beyond, and the game keeps with the environment variety. Simply put, while the objective for each type of activity is exactly the same every time, I never felt like I was ever repeating something I had already done, which I would say was the case for say, a modern Ubisoft-published game or HZD.

As I previously mentioned, the narrative itself isn’t anything to write home about, and if you stopped for a bit to think about what may happen, you’ll probably get it right. However, it is the characters and acting that shine here. The acting in this game feels incredibly natural, with most sentences including stutters or pauses whilst not feeling forced, with only the game’s most domineering characters breaking this rule. Certain traits of characters aren’t explicitly mentioned but are insinuated, hence adopting a show-not-tell approach to learning about the nuances of each character. I found Deacon to be a very interesting protagonist because of the above character design choices; he has a big heart deep down, yet the situation has clearly taken a subtle yet significant mental toll on him, with a few lines coming off completely unhinged or even psychopathic. You will not like him at first, but stick with it, maybe your mind will be changed.

My negatives for this game aren’t huge, but they do add up to hurt this game a bit:
- AI pathing can be off at times, objects and characters get stuck in places where they shouldn’t, and in a couple of instances, part of the game will simply not load, requiring a game restart to fix. However, these problems weren’t consistent.
- The game doesn’t do much that’s completely new, though it does what it does very well.
- Some dialogue can come across as cringe at times, especially on second viewing.
- There are multiple instances where your movement is hindered and you are forced to walk slowly and follow someone without any option to skip. At the very least, the game should give you complete control over your character in these instances.
- There’s a point within the story where you lose your gear completely, and unfortunately you do not recover all of the resources you invested. I get this makes sense narratively, but it is annoying that you are forced to re-scavange everything you lost just because the story said so.

Overall, I think Days Gone has taught me an important lesson. No matter what others say about a game before I play it, at the end of the day I shouldn’t judge it until I try it for myself. And thankfully, I was able to put those expectations aside and try this game, as I was not expecting to enjoy Days Gone as much as I did. It’s rare that a game comes along and is so enjoyable that I stop playing other games temporarily to focus on it, and also play it for more than three hours in certain sessions whilst not feeling bored. This game is certainly not for everyone, but I think it’s much better than some people make it out to be. I hope the game does get a sequel one day, as the final revelation presents some very interesting opportunities. 9/10.

I’d like to preface this review by talking about my expectations going into this game. I want to support Sony games on PC, but I wasn’t sure how far I’d get into Days Gone. Many reviews wrote it off as a mediocre zombie survival game with few redeeming qualities, and despite seeing some highly positive reviews, I came into this game not expecting to like it very much. To illustrate how my opinion on this game changed, you will see my impressions of this game at a few different intervals. Minor structural and gameplay spoilers will be included without using the spoiler tags. 5 hours in – The game is somewhat enjoyable so far but feels rather generic in its presentation and the narrative hasn’t really stuck out to me. It is reasonably challenging on Hard II which I like, and the bike is a lot of fun albeit a bit of a pain to keep refuelling frequently. 15 hours in – While it is clear by this point that Days Gone doesn’t do much inherently new, the considerable variety in the main campaign missions and side activities is very noticeable and appreciated. The narrative has picked up a bit, with the focus at current protecting your best friend, and there’s a really beautiful moment including him where you first travel to realize the map is much bigger than it appears. 25 hours in – The game feels like it’s nearing its conclusion yet I’m still not bored of the gameplay because of the activity variety and progression. The focus of the narrative appears to be more about the characters than the actual plot itself, but the characters are well acted and plenty of good lines have been said. The game gives you sufficient time with most of the main characters in one-on-one side quests which could end up being very long yet remain consistently engaging. 35 hours in – The narrative continued in a different direction, and to serve that, the game shifts in location from where you were before whilst temporarily locking off the previous areas. Most of the missions do boil down to fetch quests, but the term ‘fetch quest’ never came to mind as every time, there was a new challenge to overcome to keep things fresh. And after 45 hours in, after completing the main story and most side activities, Days Gone left me wanting more. I’ve played hundreds of games throughout my time, and this is one of the few where I’d say it keeps getting better the more you play. It is very much a slow burn in terms of gameplay ideas and character moments, with most of the best bits appearing later on in your journey. The combat remains consistently enjoyable because it’s one of those cases where you get better but your enemies don’t get any stronger. New enemy units are introduced as you progress, and you only don’t see them at the start as their appearance will make your life harder. The health and damage of all of them is the same at the start and end of the game, and so as you level up, obtain better weapons and scavenge more materials, you will be better equipped to completing combat scenarios. The progression also applies to your bike, which is fun to drive from the start but increasingly becomes more useful as you progress, with greater fuel capacity, durability and top speed. Honestly, this game is more of a survival-lite than a full-on survival game; resource management and crafting is pretty simple, and you rarely need to head to the menu to craft something you need. The game remains challenging though, as your enemies increase in number and the design of each combat area introduces something different to deal with. Each area has a very unique layout to it which means it is very difficult to approach the same activity in the same way every time, and some of them have unique attributes to them; one bandit camp for example contains a horde situated in this kind of waterless moat, which makes going loud a pain if you cannot remain in stealth, but also opens up an opportunity to lure them onto the camp to eliminate the human enemies. Within-activity variety is where I think this game shines the most. Activities involving detective footprints start off basic, but I quickly realized that they never repeated themselves, whether leading you to an enemy to catch in an interior or exterior, lead you on a scripted wild good chase as part of Deacon's goal to find a friend, or my personal favourite, turning the concept on its head by resulting in the player being captured by some bandits as the footprint trail intentionally led to a trap. NERO checkpoints, which require you to turn on the power of a designed-to-be temporary outpost, require you to make the area safe before entering the building, or the zombies will come flowing at you in great numbers. The large zombie hordes are present throughout the game, though they become their own activity instances later on; these are already inherently fun to tackle by themselves, seeing them move through the world was honestly a sight to beyond, and the game keeps with the environment variety. Simply put, while the objective for each type of activity is exactly the same every time, I never felt like I was ever repeating something I had already done, which I would say was the case for say, a modern Ubisoft-published game or HZD. As I previously mentioned, the narrative itself isn’t anything to write home about, and if you stopped for a bit to think about what may happen, you’ll probably get it right. However, it is the characters and acting that shine here. The acting in this game feels incredibly natural, with most sentences including stutters or pauses whilst not feeling forced, with only the game’s most domineering characters breaking this rule. Certain traits of characters aren’t explicitly mentioned but are insinuated, hence adopting a show-not-tell approach to learning about the nuances of each character. I found Deacon to be a very interesting protagonist because of the above character design choices; he has a big heart deep down, yet the situation has clearly taken a subtle yet significant mental toll on him, with a few lines coming off completely unhinged or even psychopathic. You will not like him at first, but stick with it, maybe your mind will be changed. My negatives for this game aren’t huge, but they do add up to hurt this game a bit: - AI pathing can be off at times, objects and characters get stuck in places where they shouldn’t, and in a couple of instances, part of the game will simply not load, requiring a game restart to fix. However, these problems weren’t consistent. - The game doesn’t do much that’s completely new, though it does what it does very well. - Some dialogue can come across as cringe at times, especially on second viewing. - There are multiple instances where your movement is hindered and you are forced to walk slowly and follow someone without any option to skip. At the very least, the game should give you complete control over your character in these instances. - There’s a point within the story where you lose your gear completely, and unfortunately you do not recover all of the resources you invested. I get this makes sense narratively, but it is annoying that you are forced to re-scavange everything you lost just because the story said so. Overall, I think Days Gone has taught me an important lesson. No matter what others say about a game before I play it, at the end of the day I shouldn’t judge it until I try it for myself. And thankfully, I was able to put those expectations aside and try this game, as I was not expecting to enjoy Days Gone as much as I did. It’s rare that a game comes along and is so enjoyable that I stop playing other games temporarily to focus on it, and also play it for more than three hours in certain sessions whilst not feeling bored. This game is certainly not for everyone, but I think it’s much better than some people make it out to be. I hope the game does get a sequel one day, as the final revelation presents some very interesting opportunities. 9/10.