TIME STAMPS: 5:55 - Chapter 1 - Where to begin? 19:43 - Chapter 2 - What is this world? 35:13 - Chapter 3 - Just a Coincidence… 39:40 - Chapter 4 - Cuts cuts cuts 41:29 - Chapter 5 - Gameplay Pacing 45:50- Chapter 6 - The Tech Problems… 54:26 - Chapter 7 - Does it even matter? Thank you for watching! I love you all, oh so much!
Using glitches to shit can a game is bullshit dude. Why? Because I never experienced any of the glitches you got. Frame drop and texture pop in from time to time sure, but never had any major glitches, except one where a big freaker was targeting someone already dead, and it looked like he was ballet dancing. Just because you experienced glitches (of which many are present in your "polished" examples), doesn't mean everyone does. You're spot on with the rest of the analysis though.
This has become one of my all time favourite games. For this gen & the previous gen. I rate it along MGS V, Spiderman ps4, god of war , Assassins Creed Origins, Arkham Knight, RDR 2. I can't explain why but this game kept me so captivated & made me feel like I was playing TLOU meets RDR. It was an excellent, didn't end as brilliantly as I wanted, but did so many things well & had so many enjoyable moments, story points. I loved the world. Very under rated I think
And Doomsday in Smallville. And that "Being Human" US TV show. He's also the voice of Darth Maul in some Star Wars shows. But to me he will always be Crashdown from Battlestar Galactica!
Same, I loved it, loaned it to a work buddy who hated it. Horses for courses I guess, but I can’t understand the hate for it, it’s my personal third best ps exclusive after Ghost of Tsushima and Spider-Man.
I loved the game from the very beginning. I know it wasn’t like the e3 demo at the beginning but I was just so immersed in the world and it felt so lived in. I actually didn’t watch the e3 demo before playing it so I really didn’t know what to expect and I didn’t watch any reviews. It’s the perfect zombie game I’ve always wanted
I bought this game at launch and I just finished it today. When i first got it I only played the first 15 minutes or so then turned it off because I didn’t get into it but after sitting on it for a few months and decided to give it a another chance and I fell in love with it. In my opinion this game is a flawed masterpiece
Steve I did not really give it a chance because so many people were bashing it, but then I decided a few months ago to give it a real chance and see what I thought. Now I wouldn’t care if I was the only one in the world who thought so, this game was very fun to me. I wanted to keep going to get more of the story, better upgrades, everything. I love this game now!
@@jamesshaver2376 That’s one thing I’ve already learned. You NEVER listen to game critics or anything they either bash a good game or praise a terrible game. You should look at someone in the neutral area, that will tell u it’s pros and cons
Why does this guy think deacon freaking out over shooting somebody & then killing zombies is weird when the game CLEARLY shows you 2 years have passed which clearly means he’s been marinating in a shitty world for 2 years having to adapt to it
because like most youtubers, he's not as intellectual as he wants to come across as. Just look at the games he compares as "polished"... as if they have no problems with pacing or glitches or story "coincidences"
@@SA80TAGE Odyssey is FULL of glitches, but like Days Gone, it was worth the full $60. Because, the hours of content (60+ for both) provided were enjoyable despite the glitches, story contrivances, etc.
@@jong1819 aye but that's my point, he uses them as examples of "polished" games as if they have no glitches... meanwhile, I never experienced any of the glitches he talks about in Days Gone.
@@jong1819 Ngl if that’s your view of these types i of games then you must think a lot of games are worth the price. You could be able to put 100 hours in a game that doesn’t make it worth it if the game is just bad.
I disagree with the lack of consequences. ***Spoilers below*** Iron MIke's death and Lisa's disfigurement are a direct consequence of Deacon's actions. Also, Boozer's arm. Yeah, Boozer didn't die, but Deacon blames himself for the loss of Boozer's arm, which prompts him to look for a puppy to give to Boozer as a therapeutic companion. Even then, Deacon doesn't complete forgive himself and occasionally laments over his actions when speaking to other people.
Also, I disagree about how he wanted the plot be a "by the numbers" Hollywood drama: people is tired of those tropes for a reason. The only point where I agree with him is the "fake death" of Boozer at the end, that was a cheap shot.
Interesting! The storyline about Nero/O’Brien which you hate is the storyline I was most excited for and kept waiting for O’Briens return to get more info. The mystery of how/why the freak virus exists and what happened to Sarah with the Nero team and what she was studying... I was soooo hooked!
Yes I’m playing the game now and the Nero/O’Brien story has me hooked. This has been one of my favorite games I’m interested in the world and the lore of the horde
I feel like he didn’t even give the game a chance. He wanted this to be the last of us and it wasn’t and in my opinion it is better. Not letting this game be a PS5 launch title was criminal because I can imagine how rough it is on PS4 but on my ps5 it was near flawless
One minute he’s freaked out then the next he’s executing Leon..... are you kidding? Yeah I think you missed the 2 YEAR gap between those events..... He had to live in “the shit” for 2 years, is it really confusing as to how that would change a person?? I respect other people’s opinions, but only if their informed and don’t neglect major points of a story/game. After the “next minute” comment I just couldn’t take anything else you said seriously. Never grow or adapt? you think Boozer losing his arm and having to learn to live without it isn’t adapting? As a biker I can tell you that losing an arm and having to give up your bike is devastating. And Boozer doesn’t get better by simply amputating his arm, there’s an actual MISSION where you go get the antibiotics and Addy says flat out that it saved his life. The amputation was separate from the blood infection...... You talk about how the writers didn’t take things seriously or pay attention to their story, I’m sorry but it’s you that’s not thinking at all, you make the flimsiest arguments because the answers you’re looking for are right there, but you simply ignore them. If you’re going to critique something, at least know what you’re talking about. You go on and on about consequences, or lack there of. The devs never claimed it to be a game where you have choices that affect outcomes, so why is that a real issue?? Such nit picky nonsense.... Such as Sarah being focused on helping the world, did you forget how she feels responsible for the outbreak? Where her research was used to create the virus? I mean FFS.....
The problem is that we don't see that 2 year gap. Remember. The most important rule of writing is show. Don't tell. Days Gone loves to tell. This is why THe last of us is a bigger success story wise
Frog Glen well by those rules then red dead redemption 1’s story should have been a failure. Telling you what brought john to that moment of hunting his gang members down instead of showing it like in red dead redemption 2! I prefer the game leaving alot to the imagination. Leaves room for sequels aswell.
It went on sale in March during the quarantine for $20 on PS4 store. I can honestly say it's the BEST twenty (gaming) bucks i've EVER spent. My roommate and I are HOOKED on this game...I'm currently 100% it so i can enjoy the second playthrough! The glitches are much less, and being an old RPG'er, I'm used to the grind. PLAY THIS GAME!
Yep, I got it for $20 too and for the amount of content its worth it and I have only run into a few glitches (stuck in the crafting well) so I think the patches over time made a difference. I actually didn't mind the early game. You have to play like a stealth game until you get better guns and be cautious of your fuel usage. I remember that some of the early marauder camps felt like you had to struggle to survive and it was thrilling. I have only just gotten started on the 4th camp so I definitely looking forward to it picking up with fighting hordes
I never planned on getting this (got talked into it buy the guy at EB) Went in with no expectations and ended up loving it. I disagree about having hordes at the start, it felt earned by the time you got to it and it was still difficult. Other then that, amazing content as usual.
Renato Antelo Download the free DLC :) & Soon, there will be more free DLC with new varieties of freaks + more clothing options for Deacon. (Clothing you haven’t already seen him in.) Also heard that you may be able change your character model to play as Boozer/Sarah/Etc but I’m not sure yet.
That’s probably very time consuming to edit every single zombie. Giving they will be dying, especially if you’re dealing with huge amounts of them. I just wish you’re able to use to environment a lil more. I went after all the hordes when I beat most the main storylines. And was getting tired of resupplying before each horde take on. Like how the lumber mill was I think. I wish there was more battlefields I guess?
Oh STFU... _more models and clothes_ . They performed a miraculous feat in having 500+ freakers on screen in a deeply detailed environment, and your ass is whining for variety in models? My god, no wonder devs play it safe by churning out COD clones.
Personally I really liked the pace and evolution of gameplay. Initially avoiding groups of zombies bigger than 5, as it's a difficult fight. I found those small survival fights really fun. I 'm still going through the hordes, post credits. Still enjoying it. Glad I saved fighting them for later. Really dug the motorbike. It had a really unique and fun feel to it. The storyline definitely had it's faults - but It was fine, meeting the diff camps was good - I liked the diff feelings of each one. Tucker running a slave camp, Copeland running his like a libertarian encampment. It all felt very comic book, big characters, some misdirection, loads of chance involved - some cheesy stuff, but I dug it. I was glad Boozer survived - he felt too much like "that" character, the one who dies to make the audience have feels for the main character. I'm glad he just came out the otherside - kinda trying to show that Boozer isn't just a daft looking muscley biker, he's actually decidedly competent. Anyway, I dig these deep dive critiques, loved the RDR2 one. I think you may be judging Day's Gone a bit harshly, I think it's a must play for any openworld/zombie/action game fan, even with it's issues. Freakers as a zombie "design" I find way more terrifying and gross. It's great to see someone changing that dynamic. Though I reckon poor Deeks needed to be given some gloves, all those shit encrusted Freaker cave walls he had to climb up barehanded... ugh.
"I was glad Boozer survived - he felt too much like "that" character, the one who dies to make the audience have feels for the main character" exactly. i also felt that they are going to sacrifice Boozer to force a player feel sad, and i do hate this cheap trope. like in Dying Light, when from the first moment i saw that boy, i instantly realized that he is going to be utilized as a plot device. my respect to developers that they broke my expectations.
Idk I thought he was pretty fair. I 100% the game and am on a second playthrough 100% on hardest difficulty and tbh it’s like a 7.5/10 game on ps5 it is incredibly unstable, full of glitches, pop ins, textures not loading. The story is meh, and the gameplay is fun but tbh killing zombies just becomes a chore and the game gets WAYYYYYYY too easy on new game plus. I’d agree tho it’s a must play for zombies open world players and it genuinely was a good time. Just too unstable and a bit repetitive with not much replay value tbh.
"Nothing bad happens to the main characters" Friend gets his arm blowtorched and nearly dies from infection. Wife gets stabbed by a zombie child and nearly dies. Main character thinks his wife has died. Main character rescues a teen only to see her tortured by cultists. They all live in a world so shitty, they literally call it "the shit". How much worse can it get?
@@TimeBomb014X That's true only if you don't consider Iron Mike, the leader of your home camp and a voice of morality for the protagonist as one of the main characters. :)
I love this game. I enjoyed it a lot. The first 8 hours or so is a bit slow. But ones you start getting the better weapons It becomes a lot of fun. And I do mean a lot of fun!! It does have a little lag when you are riding your bike at times. But I didn’t get many glitches at all. This is a must own. 8/10 in my book.
butterpastor that sucks. Weird. I didn’t have any. I did get lag. Like the bike would be choppy. But all in all hope you didn’t quit it. Because it’s a great game. They probably should have held it back a couple of months to clean it up some more. My friend is playing it now. And tells me he has gotten some glitches. But nothing to bad. He is loving it. It’s a great game.
@ 3:45 Lol you really don’t understand why Deacon had such a hard time killing a PERSON for the first time vs. him killing with ease... after being in literal HELL with cannibalistic freaks for YEARS?? I thought it was a profound moment when I saw how shaken he was after killing another person in that flash back. It’s showing how this brutal world has hardened & desensitized him to death/murder.
Correction...Boozer didn't get well from going septic (infection in the blood stream) just by having his arm cut...he was given antibiotics for that. There was a whole mission for it even. The time of recovery should've been longer though.
One glitch I encountered that really fit the mood was when I was looking for skizzo, an enemy caught me on fire and the damage went away but the fire animation wouldn't, so I was literally on fire while murdering everyone trying to get to skizzo.
The PC port is AMAZING, looks better than rdr2 and it's extremely optimized - also, the survival mode is beautiful, no fast travel and no UI is a huge bonus to immersion here
@Steve Erm....lots of critics and gamers liked RDR 2. More than Days Gone. That's why RDR 2 Sold more and won more awards. Meanwhile Days Gone sold ssf o poorly, it won't even get a sequel
@@frogglen6350 im on my second playthrough of red dead 2 i came across random encouters like the valintine prostitute, catfish jacksons which have mutiple outcomes i also came across a random encounter with javier when i was riding back to camp which i missed on my previous playthrough, also found a Ghost lady, vampire came across places like Aberdeen pig farm and watson cabin the world feels alive an interactive just because its not fast paced does not make it a bad game days gone is empty and is only focused on combat were red dead 2 focuses on exploration along with a great story the witcher 3 DLc side mission make the ones in this game look like a joke. this game is good but its lacking it allot of areas.
@@John-996 Dude I've played RDR2 four times and I still find stuff for the first time. There are even RU-vidrs that are still posting new things they found in the game. Btw anyone solved that princess mystery yet?
I’m also surprised you didn’t mention the weird twist with O’Brien after the main story ends. I’ve been finished for about a week now and I still don’t know how I feel about it
I wonder if he didn't play that part. What do you think about the ending, now that it's been a year? I personally really enjoyed it. Made NERO incredibly scary, and made me wonder if all of their troops or researchers are freakers under the masks.
This game wouldve been alot better if A- Sarah stayed dead, and the game revolved around Deacon having an actual death wish and being full of hate. Or B- When Deacon finds Sarah at the camp, it turns it she completely moved on with her life, found a new lover and everything, and it was someone high up in rank and they were basically everyone's favorite 'power couple' and Deacon had to find a way to deal with that, on top of everything else. The Devs really sold this game to have all this grit, that it does not actually have.
Absolutely not . The game actually picks up with Sarah . Nah man you're wrong . The story was all over the place at the beginning . IT has a lot of bugs and crashed multiple times on my ps4 ( standard ps4) . The controls feel like the old uncharteds on ps3 and lack punch . But the graphics are great , the story still tells a good story and it has a great atmosphere . The hoard is amazing too ! But nah sarah's moments are amazing and it revived the game . If sarah was dead , the game would have been boring because it has no real " purpose " since sarah is dead . The part where " she moved on " would have been boring , since no narrative hook .
IMO everything with Sarah and Deacon in the game was really well done. As someone who personally knows a widow, Deacons behaviour is closest to reality that i have seen in any game/movie/tv show. And all those flashbacks and all the nero missions would have just been pointless buildup with no payoff. And Sarah moving on would make no sense, no one moves on after a spouses death only after a couple of years, unless you are a thot and didn't care about him/her in the first place. In terms of the story, all the game needed was just more consequences.
HANDS down GOTY for me in 2019 the only complain i have is that frame rate drops but rarely. Other then that its a solid 9/10 shit a 10/10 for me bc i stay baked on this game but its such a fun game that playing it sober will still come out w a solid 9/10 please new game +
Thank you for an honest review of this game. When I bought Days Gone, I was very hyped up. I'd been waiting for the game since the first gameplay trailer was shown a couple of years back. Playing on a "Gen 1"-PS4, I had a lot of bumps with graphical errors shown in your video, framedrops and some weird sound-clipping. Nothing worse than that though to break my immersion, so I had a grand time with the game on my first playthrough. Starting over in survival-mode on my second playthrough though made me realise how many flaws this game really had, but I still love it for what it is. The setting, the athmosphere, some of the soundtrack and the quite unique way they handleded zombie-hordes really grabbed me by my balls. Hopefully some of the worse bugs can be fixed through patching, but if not. I'd still recommend the game whenever there's a pricedrop! :D
These videos are pure gold. Luke’s seemingly effortless wording is spot on and surprisingly humorous. I believe his ability to honestly dissect, analyze, then constructively criticize gaming content is unrivaled. He should be on television
Since the PC version fixes essentially all of the performance issues, it is the superior version. And man, did I adore playing this game on PC. Favourite of all the PS exclusives I've played
I played it last year after downloading it from the PSN. I was stunned to hear about complaints of glitches as I don't recall encountering a single one during my playthrough.
This is one of my all time favorite games. I recognize some of the flaws but it set out to tell a darn good story and it accomplished that. Out of all of the tech issues you mentioned literally the only one I experienced was the low resolution on a few objects late in the game on my PS4. Once I played it on my PS5 I had no issues again.
Ive played this game through 3 times. Once on regular normal and hard difficulty and once on a modded survival difficulty. Honestly one of my favorite games ever.
Got it for $20 and I’m actually loving it despite the weird voice acting. Sometimes the main guy sounds completely deranged in moments when he should be calm.
@@eternalbeing3339 kinda odd when he is muttering like a crazy person that he is going to kill all the people in a camp by saying they are all murderers
I enjoyed this game. Pacing is an issue, glitches and a couple of plot points were questionable, though I can see the diamond in the rough. I hope Sony confirm Days Gone 2 for the PS5 and Bend Studios can iron out the issues
As someone who loves red dead redemption 2, i am happy that its not an incredibly depressing story. Theres nothing inherently wrong with it all working out, but they certainly fumble the journey to get there
They fixed most, if not all of the glitches. The game is fantastic. It's the right length. You don't want it to end once you get into it. Quite possibly one of the best games ever made. Ranks up there with Red Dead Redemption 2 and Horizon Zero Dawn.
I REALLY wish that this game had narrative choices. I'm such a fan of games like Telltales TWD, DBH and RDR2 that give you the option to choose your own story, even if it's the illusion of choice, it still allows you to decide the personality and morality of your player. There were so many times that Deacon was in a situation when he could decide whether to kill or save someone, whether to side with one character or another. The story would've been so much better if they gave us these choices
I can confirm that almost 85 percent of the bugs in this video have been patched amazing game if you wait you may be able to get this game for around 20 under
21:50 Oh yes, your totally right. A sepsis (infection of the bloos stream), which one can assume by the hallucinations and the changes in behaviour, is serious. My late husband had one (caused by MRSA after a surgical operation). Even after the amputation of his leg, the sepsis ravaged in his blood. they had to put him in an artficial coma for two weeks, hooked up on half a dozen different antibiotics (with at least one from the reserve list of the reserve list) and three more months with antibiotics until he could be released from hospital.
When Boozer shows up at the end (after the truck scene), I literally thought it was Deacon having a hallucination… sort of like saying a proper goodbye to his friend. One last conversation, so-to-speak. But nope. He was alive and well lol. Gotta agree with Luke on this one, it felt a little too cliche at that point. BTW - if you are wondering whether to try this game and you have a PS5, absolutely try it out. The PS5 handles it beautifully with no technical issues that I came across at least. It’s definitely worth a play, awesome game!
Happy to report in 2021 playing for the first time and on PS4 Pro that those glitches and slowdowns are long gone, it looks and plays fantastically, had such a ride playing through it.! Great overview and analysis 👍
Psychologically, deacons reactions are sound. The mind wanders to a time where he hadn't killed anyone yet. To when he was cutting people down because he had to survive. It was showing how he has grown, and devolved. It gives charchter development. Near the end his voice even becomes softer, less rough. Showing less aggression. The game was shown a lot of love in this aspect.
Looking at this review now, I can say that the PC version doesn't have the glitches you mention in chapter 6 of the video. Kudos to them for fixing the problems.
I finished Days Gone on PC yesterday, and the glitches are still there. During one of the marauder camps I couldn't figure out where I was getting shot from. Turns out the enemy was floating in the air, and he kept hitting me with his AK47. I experienced the double audio glitch multiple times whenever I took over a Nero research site. Ghosting behind the tires. I still has fun with the game, but it needed more polish. I wish there were more zombie types. I wish I could buy Molotov cocktails from one of the vendors. I drove past a ton of freaked nests because I didn't have a Molotov cocktail. Super annoying.
I bought this day one for 50 dollars at Walmart. I don't not regret it. I suggest you play on the hardest difficulty if you want a last of us type of game. It's not perfect and lag make me mad sometimes. I enjoy this game so much and it puts gameplay first. That is all I could ever ask from a video game.
In what kind of way its like TLOU? Because when i first saw the gameplay trailer i felt it was kinda the TLOU in the way that you need to find supplys and all that, which i really love btw.
@@samuelesquivel6202 It's kind of like Last of Us in that respect; gathering supplies to craft traps and search for ammo and stuff. But the combat is less confined, you have way more ammo, the zombies are way more numerous. It's basically like if The Last of Us was an open-world RPG. Obviously the cinematics and writing isn't as good, but I think it's much more fun to kill stuff in this game than in TLOU. TLOU is a more intense emotional experience. But they are very similar in theme.
i just finished this game and my only real complaint was that when trying to finish a lot of missions that required Deacon to radio back or when you’re waiting for someone to reply, it wouldn’t happen until i’d left the camp to go do something else, so then i’d have to turn back around to go turn the mission in and then leave again. Happened a ton
Great video Luke! I myself was really hoping Sarah was dead. Before he leaves to go find her, Rikki scolds him about not accepting his place at the camp and the people he has around him. She also says that they "need him". I thought It would have been a great ark for Deacon if, when once you set off over the mountains, you found that Sarah HAD died (maybe in a sacrificial moment?) during the outbreak. Then maybe Iron Mike's camp gets attacked by the Rippers, causing Deacon to accept Sarah's death and realize that he is about to loose all he has here and NOW, leaving you to head off to defend the camp and all your friends in the final act. Ultimately the ark being Deacon gets over his grief of Sarah, is inspired by her actions and accepts/loves the friends he has left (Boozer, Rikki). I still love this game though. 8/10 from me, though the technical issues annoyed me too.
Well he had to play the role when he found her alive and knew that she's in an area that would persecute her or him once they found out he lied. That's why he wanted to think of a way of freeing her. She's fully removed from him and stuck on her mission for all those years when all he had was her memories and Boozer. Boozer had no purpose and didn't care if he died when on the roof. Deacon kept Boozer alive because of their past and he connects his memories to Sarah, even Boozer told him to forget her. All Deacon had was Zombie runs and misery while she had camp and security. Maybe they should've had choice breaking decisions in the game but I think they just wanted their story. He's going to keep his mindset because she hasn't had the option to lose her mind on killing the Freakers, just like growing up on a farm you get used to seeing animals die for food, while others look at you different for care towards the animal. Yes it was crazy that he met O'Brian again and he still had the whole suit get up again even though he rose in ranks. Maybe give him the Greenish Yellow suit or Black and say 'hey I knew an O'Brian, you wouldn't be, that, O'Brian are you?' then have O'Brian recognize him and say 'oh my God I can't believe you survived all this' then let them speak in secrecy. They shouldn't of met so fast. Deacon should've had search missions where he had to track the Copters and then finally getting to one and seeing the name tag through his binoculars and get a flashback.
@@CodyCha I know that and when Boozer was on the roof after getting bit or hurt, he told Deacon he was finished and for them to leave him and go but Deacon couldn't leave his bro like that. If it wasn't for Deacon, Boozer would've offed himself already.
Glitches don't tend to bother me, but there was an incident in which my bike disappeared into a mountain and I COULN'T SAVE. Other than that it was great though.
Really excellent video Luke 👍. The worst glitch I came across for taking me out of the story was early on during a flashback cut scene when Sarah was walking with Deacon and she was teaching him how to find a pick water lilies. The entire.scene plays out and Deacon was carrying his entire arsenal of weapons on his back which obviously he only has in the future. So weird to watch him and Sarah chatting as they walked talking about and picking flowers and he had 2 machine guns and a nail studded baseball bat on his back !! Loving you work Luke, cheers for another great video 😎
I paid £30 and I'd have happily paid double, if I'd known it was as great as it was. It is a great game. I loved the story, the pacing, the side missions. Everything.
Great review (as always). It was interesting to me how much you focused on the story elements and themes that didn't pay off emotionally, whereas I was focused on plotlines that didn't seem resolved (like gathering dynamite to explode the caves and stop the Freakers migrating...then using those explosives to blow up a dam and never bringing up the caves again at all?) But despite its flaws I loved the game, played through it again on Survival difficulty (some small gripes there but performance seems improved). Still some major bugs. But I love the early hours of the game honestly, where it feels like I need every bullet. I find it much more interesting to be killed by 5-10 zombies that catch me unawares than trying to take down a horde once I'm fully equipped! But that's just me. Except for the biker aesthetics and the "fast zombies" this is almost my perfect zombie apocalypse scenario!
One of the most important jobs of any creative story telling process, is a really good editor. Doesn’t matter if we’re talking films, the stage, books, television, or video games.....knowing what to keep and what to let go of, can make or break the entire story. The writers are usually too close. They fall in love with certain characters or locations, and can’t see how they add nothing to the main storyline as a whole. Its weird in a video game though, because often devs will brag about the “length” of a game. I think we’d all rather have 35 hours of cohesive story/gameplay, than 55 hours where 20 hours is padded repetitious bullshit. I think as the medium continues to grow, I hope that this concept will be realized and appreciated more. We are starting to hear the word “pace” used when describing video game narratives, and thats a good thing. God of War’s recent story had excellent pace, rarely dragging, and other than a little too much “your princess is in another castle”, had excellent pace at about 35-40 hours. Red Dead 2 had a slow pace, but consistent, only with a bit of dragging through late game stuff, like the Native American story line. Both of these games were almost there. Wither 3 did the best job with pace for me, despite being huge, because often, side quests were entire separate story lines, compelling all on their own. Everything weaved together beautifully. Days Gone needed better editing. If it was 40 hours like God of War, I think the low 70’s on Metacritic, become low 80’s rather easily.
I just finished this game on my PS5 and I really enjoyed it. I didn’t have any technical issues besides a few glitches, and one time I killed so many zombies with a bomb my game crashed, oops. I like how long it takes for you to defeat a horde. For the first 15 hours you see one and are genuinely scared, and slowly you unlock better equipment. After I defeated my first horde I felt very accomplished, and from there it just gets easier and easier.
Pacing issues and nonsensical plot points aside, I loved this game immediately. Side note, I never experienced a single glitch. And I played this around the same time you posted this video. Maybe I was just lucky on that end. Excellent video essay.
A very good critique thanks Luke, but just one thing I should point out. In the cinematic flashback when Deacon was forced to shoot the upset man who had lost his wife, this was the first time Deacon had killed anyone (innocent) in his life. When he takes the golf cart ride with Ms Tucker, he tells her (after being asked) that he had been in some minor trouble with the law but had never been to jail. Obviously everyone he kills during the game is out to kill him but even though he mentions he was a veteran from the Afghanistan conflict, there is no clue as to whether he had killed anyone in war or not. Even so, he still had his military training to help him fight his enemies. I personally love the game besides it's bugs. Save often and the bugs don't become a game breaker. Also, play on the hard or survival difficulties as the game becomes way to easy towards the end of normal.
I agree with cutting Tucker.... I liked Copeland's Radio Free Oregan...I'm a conspiracy guy and his radio transmissions are filled with it and predictive programs
Some people say the Newts got to them, because they used to be kids. What got to me was killing “bandits” because a lot of them just looked like strangers trying to survive, defending their camps. And I play as the well armed psycho storming their home and killing everyone. Their final words are kinda heartbreaking. “Hey man we can work it out!”. But we can’t, because I must kill everyone for my credits.
I thought the exact opposite when boozer ran the truck into Wizard Island, I was literally like "there's no way he's dead they're gonna pull some shit."
Now that the PC version is out and people have access to the debug menu: There's a TON of scrapped triggers, cutscenes and dialogue that show just how much they had to scratch. Like for example in the start of the outbreak, you were suppose to have more gameplay and not just cutscenes (a. la Last of Us) And then there was supposed to be a sort of "loyalty" system with Boozer, where some of the choices you made throughout the game affected it. But I guess they didn't have time to make like 2 endings for Boozer nor all those choices so they scrapped the whole system. (This explains all the odd story setups)
I disagree with wanting hordes at the beginning. Because then it would have no impact. We spend the first half of game getting scared from hordes. They show us the glimpses of horde and i wonder damn , i wouldn't wanna get in there 🗿 But, soon after half game, you get weapons, you get powerful, you get used to controls, and then the Story mission tells you to clear a horde I was so afraid, but that feeling of satisfaction after killing that horde was too good and totally worth it. And i would not have gotten that feeling if they gave us all this just in the beginning. Also the game is pretty long. And if they throw everything at us in the beginning then it would become too boring. Which is why keeping hordes after the first half of the game was a fresh thing to encounter
To be honest Luke, for the past 20-30 years it's been a trend for writers to create a 'gotcha' or 'bad' ending rather than a 'traditional' good ending or happily ever after moment etc. We have seen so many examples come and go, and particularly in the 2010-2020 era, we've seen it play out in more huge massively popular TV show season finales and movie endings than I can count with my fingers, Game of Thrones and Walking Dead come to mind as some of the stories that rely on the anti-fairytale ending so much, that it becomes equally as unsurprising and predictable as the happy ending used to be in 1950s black and white love story movies. I would argue that this idea of the anti-happy ending (for lack of a better term) is not revolutionary or against the grain anymore. It has been used so much in recent decades, that it feels like a copycat or a crutch when you see it, almost like it has decayed into a tactic that writers use to bail out of a storyline or section of their story when they can't figure out what to write next, and they can't erase what they've already wrote and released (example: LOST). Personally I think we have actually reached a new era where the fairytale ending is almost more of a surprise, or is just as unpredictable in many circumstances, as the 'idea' of what type of surprise the viewer/reader will experience with the fakeout, anti-happy ending. I can't agree with your opinion that happy resolutions to storylines or arcs are lazy. Especially when they occur only halfway through the story. It actually takes some serious work and skill to have that Sarah is alive moment, and then have to dig your way out of that cavern and resolve all the million questions that might come up when they wake up the next morning. I understand exactly what you mean by saying that happy endings or 'and they lived happily ever after' can be extremely lazy, and traditionally we saw lots of it early on in the film days, but anti-happy endings are as old as time itself, we see them in countless real historical mythology, theology, fairy tale folklore, old popular fables, songs and poems, and we see it more in stage theater than we see the opposite, IMO. I would pose to you this food for thought as I know from all your videos that you will be able to scan the history of recent media, see where I'm coming from, you may still not agree but you are someone wholl get what I'm saying
Completely disagree with any cut to the game, when will RU-vidrs learn the average player does not want a days gone type game that’s 20 hours that’s far to short for $60, if I pick up a 20 hour game I expect to pay most $25, if a pay $60 I expect 35+ hours, days gone is just a amazing game that is enjoyable from start to finish, I’m not going into anything else I disagree with coz I’d be here for to long to write
Days Gone is awesome. It’s a solid 8.5/10. A point and a half is taken off for its clumsy shooting and bugs. Everything else I thought was fucking great.
Jessie leading the Rippers isn't coincidence or "kitchy". The ENTIRE reason why Boozer had his arm burnt and there was a bounty on him and Deacon is because that's what The Mongrels did to Jessie when they exiled him from the MC. You see the scarring in his back. It's literally all explained there's nothing circumstantial about it whatsoever.
I waited and got it on sale during days of play for $40. I have been having fun, its interesting and different, it's really not your typical "zombie game" as far as gameplay. I dont think days gone is worth $60, but it is totally worth $40, if you can get it on sale buy it, you won't regret it.
1) Dude, how is Copeland an uninteresting character? Did you ignore every single one of his radio broadcasts? He's a super interesting character. 2) You mentioned how could Addy not have anything to knock out boozer during the amputation. I had this same thought initially as I watched the scene play out, but then it made sense in the missions afterwards that you perform for Addy because she says they are completely wiped out of medications. So it made sense, but only afterwards and not during the actual context of the scene. 3) I agree 100% with everything you said about the Boozer death fakeout. I was so happy to see him alive, but I felt emotionally drained and manipulated because I had accepted that Boozer died. But when he shows up alive thirty minutes later, I felt jipped. Boozer is the most fleshed out character in the game, imo, and I didn't want him to die, but based on the story they told, Boozer dying makes sense. I just knew that after two hours playing the game that he was going to die. But after fifty hours of investment, they pull a swerve, and it just felt dirty, like they were toying with my emotions. 4) What makes you say the drug Taylor ODs on is heroin? You said it is implied to be heroin, but I don’t think any specific drug is implied. I was under the assumption Taylor was a coke or meth addict because of how geeked up he always was. Heroin doesn’t geek you up, but at the same time, I don’t feel like the encampment would have some spare meth or coke laying around, so I don’t think any specific drug is implied in the scene. 5) You said you “guess” Boozer losing his arm is a consequence. It definitely is a consequence. Deacon’s guilt for sending Boozer into the situation that ultimately causes him to lose his arm is the driving force for why Deacon chooses to live for the first third of the game after he accepts Sarah is dead. 5) One of the biggest issues I found with the characterization in the game is Sarah. She is extremely likable in the flashbacks, but I think she comes across very poorly once Deacon finds her. The whole time I was doing missions for her I was thinking ‘man, I just want to go back to Lost Lake and explore the relationship with Rikki and be with my bro, Boozer.’ 6) I HATED Deacon saying Sarah needed to continue to believe the Freakers were still human and find a cure. It is the perfect case of ludonarrative dissonance. Deacon saying that made zero sense when considering everything that he had done (and you the player made him do) in order to even find Sarah. I was baffled that he didn’t respond to Sarah by saying something like ‘you haven’t been out in the shit like I have to see that these Freaks aren’t human anymore.’ But no, we got a sappy, narratively dissonant response. 7) I actually like Jessie being the leader of the Rippers. I just hated how quickly you killed him. It was seriously maybe an hour after he captures you that you escape, go back to Lost Lake, grab Boozer, and return to Iron Butte to kill all the Rippers. That all happened way too quickly. 8) No doubt, Tucker is the worst character in the entire game. 9) With the game being a 40-60 hour game, I disagree that the player should be drip fed better weapons sooner. I feel like very, very slowly receiving weapons makes sense in terms of progression. If you got a ton of great weapons five hours in, you would immediately stop feeling that sense of progression. But since the best weapons don’t become available until dozens of hours into the game, it actually feels like everything Deacon went through has made him stronger and he wasn’t just strong from the very beginning. I enjoy that type of progression. 10) I played on a standard PS4 and, yeah, the technical issues are bad. I love the game and got the Platinum trophy. It’s a solid 8 or 8.5 out of 10 for me. But man, the frame rate constantly dipped into single digits, tons of texture pop-ins or not loading at all, and audio sync issues. That said, the only time these issues affected my enjoyment was when the frame rate completely tanked while riding the bike. Driving the motorcycle is the best part of the game and it was always disappointing whenever the game start stuttering and freezing.
I thought the game felt short. I wanted more. It does take too long to give you the better tools to take down hordes but in my case i don't think my skills were good enough to fight a horde till almost then anyway. This game is very scary and startling to me it really gets my blood pumping. This is one of my favorite games i really enjoyed the video
I uninstalled this game twice, but I installed it three times. It aggravated me so much in the first 1/3, but then I absolutely fell in love with it for the last 2/3rds of the game.
it's not necessarily the happy endings that I hate, but inconsistent storytelling. If you set up your world as dark, grim, and edgy, you can't do things like have Boozer walk out of the explosion like nothing happened. Use a lighter tone for your world, like Sunset Overdrive, and it would be very okay.
Yeah I dont think I'll be subscribing to this guy's channel. He seems really pretentious. Not objective at all, yet he preaches like we are all hanging on his every word. Days Gone wasn't perfect, but it was an outstanding good game. And no matter how many reviewers sit around sniffing their own farts, we are all enjoying great gameplay.
His wife didn't work for just the government she was ground zero her work at NERO was used to start the pandemic. She had high security clearance at NERO
Thank you for calling out the jankiness and poor optimization of the game in the last part. It's a game I really enjoy but damn i wish it had a stable framerate and not feel like it is about to break every few minute so i could really get immersed in its world.
I liked how long it took to find out SPOILERS Sara is alive. It gave us, like Deac, time to come to terms with the fact that this is the world we're living in, and though we may not like any of these people other than Boozer, we need to get over Sara. And learn, like Deac, that even though we didn't see her go, she is really gone. Which is an experience i personally never had to go through irl. I was a wanderer in a foreign land i wasn't sure i wanted a place in, just like Deac. With people i wasn't super invested in. Just like Deac. And i realized that was the point when we got to Lost Lake. The point of the monotony was to teach Deac its not just ok but necessary to make new connections in order to thrive, not just stay alive. We need to become friends with these people we've met while wandering, because they're the only social interaction we're gonna get. So when she does come back, in what id call chapter 5/6, you get this same feeling like "finally i can have back the people that are truly significant to me, and im not letting them be taken from me." Just like Deacon.
"Days Gone is one of the most confusing games I've ever played..." May I offer you a Kingdom Come: Deliverance? That game is LEVELS of confusing. Both in the speaking in terms of the meta and just the game's mechanics. I thought I was going to breeze by it like any other game because I'm pretty quick on the up-take. Holy shit, I was wrong. I was so fucking wrong. The game humbled me, it humbled me in every way - every mini-game had a learning curve, every gameplay decision on the part of the devs was either a fucking homerun like the alchemy or the literacy component, or it left me scratching my head like the save system and the lack of FOV option "because in real-life you can't adjust your FOV" - like, WAT?
