Days Gone.
The little game that could and couldn’t. Its success, or lack thereof, affecting the future stories Bend Studios’ had hoped to tell. As time went on and more gamers got access to the title, the veil slowly dropped.
“Maybe it wasn’t as bad as reported?”
And I think this sentiment is true. Though in my case, it’s now two times that I’ve given the game some time and just…dipped out of it. But let’s head back to the start of this reinstalment of the shaky franchise. With Days Gone Remastered, we get better visual fidelity and better load times. Which for a game built around the premise of hordes and being overrun swiftly, means the PlayStation 5 is in an even better place to do so. While I didn’t have any major load times or lag while playing on the PlayStation 4 Pro, the snappiness and speed of the 5 is noticeable. Especially between the title screen and jumping back into game.
Its new game modes are available right away, so fans of the series can jump right in. Horde Mode, Permadeath and Speedrun can be picked up from the get go, meaning fans of the series can take on new challenges that the game offers. With Permadeath and Speedrun really speaking to those parts of the community that want to keep refining their ways of playing through their days gone. And Horde Mode just chucks you into action. Because if you’re not finding enough of that in the base game, then Horde will deliver that for players immediately.
But what got me? Again?
Yapping. While Keyzie from Extremely Casual Gamers is certainly giving me fuel to commit further, I just keep…getting pulled out of the game. Is it other games? It isn’t. As I sat there, guiding Deacon St. John through this new, speedier and visually better version of the game, I just wasn’t being pulled in. Lack of tension set by the introduction scene, through to lack of engagement in the first handful of missions meant I was hanging on by a string. And as I pushed on, I just couldn’t escape the voices.
In my head? Well, maybe. But in the game they were everywhere. One particular stealth sequence started, and restarted on failure, with Deacon talking to himself while a radio station tried to play over the top of that. And then the enemies roaming the scene also needed their own conversations to have. In an apocalypse I would assume the self is the most important thing, but not on a level where everyone was trying to talk over each other at the same time.
Pair this with an environment I didn’t care to explore, with a loop pattern quickly establishing itself which I just…I JUST. Couldn’t push through. And mind you this is coming from someone who LOVES Death Stranding. So for now, that’s our two for two Days Gone. I’ll try come back to you in future. But for now, I hope you find those other new fans like Keyzie who see you for what you are. Especially because you came from the studio that made Syphon Filter on PlayStation One. And boy did I grind the demo, and later full title, for that game.
