When Does "Days Gone" Start to Get Good?

It might take a few hours but eventually, Days Gone reveals itself to be a good game.

What makes a video game good or bad is mostly subjective.

You can, however, take a look at key aspects that any fun and well-rated video game should have and make something like an objective judgement 

Those aspects might include an engaging storyline, an interesting backstory, fluid controls and an alive and responsive environment of NPCs, which generally equates to better gameplay.

So, where does Days Gone fall?

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SIE Bend Studio released Days Gone last month. It sees you play Deacon St John ('Deek'); a biker surviving a zombie (or 'freaker') apocalypse in the scenic surroundings of the US's North West Pacific.

The game plops you into a world that ticks most of the aforementioned criteria for being good and despite being made up mostly of dead characters, feels like it's relatively alive.

Frustratingly, however, in those first few hours, crucial as they may be, Days Gone doesn't really feel like a "good" game.

It's likely due to the hands-off approach to letting you figure out how to deal with the world you're living in. Basics like 'how to take out ambush camps' are exposed to you quite early on, but other tasks, like hunting animals, are strangely introduced hours later.

And then there's the storyline. 

Days Gone's narrative has the usual hallmarks of a zombie apocalypse tragedy. The separation of two friends or lovers in a freaky new world is something we've come to get used to in shows like The Walking Dead and the Brad Pitt-fronted World War Z. 

But the difference with Days Gone is that you don't yet care about Sarah or Boozer or even Deek for that matter in the game's early hours.

The first chunk of the game has you occupied keeping your buddy Boozer alive, though he seems to be doing fine without you each time you see him at camp. You also do missions to unveil more of Deek's memories of Sarah, which initially don't add much and make their romance seem unconvincing. So...

Does the game ever get better?

After many hours of missions, the game does start to free up and offer you more than just an open world shoot-em-up zombie game.

Eventually, it reveals more intrigue about how the world ended up like this and who the people behind the mysterious NERO sites are.

Pair that with the introduction of less rigid gameplay and more interesting characters, and voila, you've got yourself a game.

It all starts to fall into place after you reach the third campsite in the Lost Lakes region, Iron Mike's camp. This will take you at least 10 hours to get to but this is where the story starts to make the game's faults worth it.

Days Gone might've been given the metaphorical boot by veteran game reviewers for its lack of innovation among other issues but many regular players have found it a mostly enjoyable addition to their library. It's just a matter of whether you have the patience and time to get through those first few hours to enjoy what the game was really meant to be.

Days Gone is available on PlayStation 4 in Australia right now.

Header Image: SIE Bend Studio