After playing the 15 minute demo of Days Gone at the Insomnia 64 gaming festival, I was confident that this game could hold up against it’s competitors as a solid survival horror option, but that seems to be as far as developers SIE Bend Studio would dare push out the hypothetical boat. For fans of The Last of Us, this title will seem very familiar, during the demo it became apparent that the core game play is almost a mirror image of the earlier Playstation exclusive, a very similar weapons wheel menu with crafting elements is present, along with a similar style of stealth movement and take downs as well as cover based shooting. If this game were to be released in a world where Naughty Dog never released The Last of Us; then it would have rave reviews across the board, but it almost felt like a homage to the game released six years before. Despite this the game still played well and has its own merits.
One new mechanic that will excite audiences is the motorbike shown in the teaser trailer and other advertisements. This is something that is rarely seen in the “zombie” genre and will give the game a new element of travel that will hopefully not lend itself to too many fetch quests. The zombies have also been re-branded as freakers, who seem to share similar traits with the hoards from L4D and the Clickers from The Last of Us. They are sensitive to sound and travel in large hoards which can lead to some very tense moments of hoping to land each shot or knowing you’ll be the Freakers’ lunch. The third person camera is a bit too clingy at times but can be controlled with the right analog stick which is its saving grace for the most part.
Overall, the game was fun to play, looked great on the PS4 Pro console and had good timing and pacing to the narrative to build a lot of suspense and drama in the 15 minutes I got to experience.
(These views are my own and are not shared by the Esports Wales organisation or its members)
