Finished this recently.
I think the game is about 15 hours too long (I played on Survival, which felt great, but definitely had me hurting for fast travel near the game's conclusion), and I found some of the writing and acting around some of the characters (Mainly Deacon, honestly) to be pretty suspect. But...
Yeah, so much of the game is extremely good. Mechanically, despite having a very odd control scheme, the game is excellent. The bike feels so good to drive around (The only thing that was missing was dual sense support; that would have felt amazing). The world is full of interesting world building and interesting locations. The core story and most of the side characters become really compelling as the story goes on (Probably part of the reason the game ends up being so long). The long form quest structure is really unique and well handled... Honestly, I just have so many positive things to say about the game.
People didn't give it a proper chance because it was just another "zombie game" (it isn't) and probably because the writing and acting is very abrasive early on (it is, and doesn't always end up justifying those decisions), but if the game weren't as long as it is, I would recommend everyone play it. Some will say the game is "boring." The game is a "slow game"; a game where they want you to stroll around in it, see the texture and everything they created, and do the mundane like worry about how much gas you have. It sets a very intentional mood and creates excellent gulfs between intense "set piece" feeling moments (many of which appear seemingly organically as you stumble into them). That's going to rub some the wrong way if they want the story to be constantly driving you forward, but was excellently done in my opinion.
As it is, all I can say is that I really hope to see what that studio does next, and I would be excited to see them return to this world, or at least to a similarly styled experience.
I enjoyed Day's Gone more than Ghost of Tsushima if I'm honest.
I'm finishing Ghost of Tsushima now (My last game was Day's Gone, so it's very fresh).
The world of Ghost is gorgeous. The core story is compelling. The mechanics are strong. The characters mostly good.
But I haven't connected with the actual world of Ghost of Tsushima in anything close to the way I connected with the world of Days Gone. The world of Ghost is ultimately a very pretty thing that just passes me by from one map marker to the next. I've frequently thought about how generic the overall structure of Ghost feels by comparison.
Ghost is a game I'm really enjoying, but there's no doubt Days Gone has a lot to offer beyond the ambitions of Ghost.
