

The mid to late game has some likeable, interesting characters and antagonists, and sows enough seeds for some emotional investment to pay off.
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It almost feels like a TV series that doesn’t find its direction until the second season - as you move to new places narrative strands get weighter, better tied together and something more approaching a plot develops. Persist, however, and things coalesce: a new area of the map opens up (and, much later, another area again) and clearer purpose develops. It’s a beginning that feels reconstructed rather than intended, with steps artificially extended by breaks or oddly tiny increments (a couple of mission beats involve little more than a lengthy journey across the map for a single sentence of dialogue). Elsewhere, an event that ultimately drives the first act to completion somehow manages to take barely days but also several weeks at the same time depending on whether you’re measuring by its internal plot time, or by the other required missions that happen in-between. To actually complete it you have to finish another mission on the other side of the map, that then unlocks an option to resolve it by making a choice with no clear payoff (despite the claim of making a significant decision). The very first mission, ‘Chasing Leon’ hangs at 50% for ages even when you have the required item and can wave it frantically in the face of the person who wants it, possible while yelling ‘I have iiiiiit.

The Storyline system crosses and blends progression so that completing one goal can advance multiple questlines, while some things can stop for no clear reason until you finish doing another job not obviously connected. Instead there’s just a collection of ‘Storylines’ that have you completing jobs for survivor camps. The opening has a strange start with no clear or overriding objective for the first few hours. That sense of things maybe not being in quite the right place also applies to the story. By which point I’d learned all I needed to know wondered why I was basically getting a tutorial chat on horde management some 50 hours in. Deacon only even discusses the barest concepts of horde tactics right at the end of the game. Although those are never mentioned or explained, and I set most of them off accidentally wondering why there were prompts hanging in the air. Only one place - the red barn sawmill of the original 2016 E3 demo - features any of the barriers, doors and traps you can trigger to stem the flow of creatures. It’s a far cry from the carefully orchestrated trap-filled, set pieces originally revealed. A few places have a scattering of explosive barrels and trucks to help thin them out, but otherwise it’s generally a case of placing bombs, throwing molotovs and then back peddling and hoping for the best. However, they are just sort of scattered around the open map - in caves dotted around the map, or picking at mass graves - with almost no explanation or intent. Seeing them scream, as hundreds of clawing, frenzied monsters flow over cars or around buildings like a bucket of grasping hands splashed into the world never gets old.
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That said, the game’s had four patches before release and I’m not entirely sure what state it’s in, or going to be.ĭays Gone review | Days Gone tips | Days Gone map | Days Gone IPCA Tech | Days Gone Horde locations | How to take down a Horde in Days Gone | Days Gone skins | Days Gone secret ending | Days Gone NERO Injector locations | Days Gone Ambush Camp locations | How to store weapons in Days Gone | Days Gone sound bugĮven when you’re high level and packing the best gear, hordes are always daunting and terrifying in equal measure. When you’ve unlocked high level skills and weapons it’s a zombie horde-massacring blast. Those 60+ hours I’ve played come in part from finishing it (a good 40 odd hours if you’re not rushing) and the rest because I’ve enjoyed it. For the most part it’s never ruined the experience for me, more chipped away at the polish. It’s a lot of little things really: nothing unplayable, more grumbling irritations like audio drop outs (silent bikes, say), weird AI moments, animation or collision glitches and framerate drops.
