Sony has been pushing its latest PS4 Exclusive, Days Gone, for almost six months – and now that I’ve played it I can see why they were so confident in it.
Developed by Bend Studio, the game puts us in the driving seat of Deacon St John, an ex-member of the Mongrel Motorcycle Club who lives in the Freaker-infested landscape of the Pacific Northwest and prefers life on the road to living in overcrowded encampments.
The game takes place two years after a global pandemic killed almost all humanity and transformed millions of others into Freakers – zombie-like creatures.
Gameplay revolves around Deacon moving between camps and taking jobs as a bounty hunter on his motorbike or fulfilling story missions to advance the games adventure while trying to avoid zombies.
In the background, the story rattles on from the initial cinematic introduction. Deacon and his friend Boozer take injured Sarah, Deacon’s girlfriend, to a NERO helicopter which is flying survivors to safety.
Naturally, Deacon is looking for his girlfriend and when the NERO copters start showing up, he follows them and starts investigating in a bid to find out what their purpose is as well as attempting to track down Sarah.
The storyline is drip-fed and we find out more as we move through the game. This was frustrating to begin with as it was hard to know what was going on but slowly the story began to unfold.
However, this horror survival game has a great narrative and Freakers move in unison and can overcrowd you in seconds.
The day/night cycle, not to mention the weather, is clever and makes for a scary drive at night, which is radically different from during the day with some great scenery and beautiful landscapes that look ultra-realistic in 4K.
At the point of review, I’m still not finished the storyline but can’t be far off.
However, like many story-driven games that have been exclusive to Sony, this is an absolute must-buy that definitely lives up to the hype.
