Cross-post from the other thread, sounds like a solid open-world zombie game if they managed to fix the technical issues with patch 1.03
First(?) Review from German games mag
MGames (not online yet).
Here's a summary:
- Deacon doesn't have a huge amount of HP at the start and has to be careful around enemies
- Large arsenal of weapons and crafting options like Horizon
- Human enemies have poor AI that's easy to exploit, freakers and wild animal offer a bigger challenge
- Weapon and bike upgrades in the camps. Each camp represents a faction that has their own way of dealing with the end times (preppers, forced labor, etc.) and they each have their own currencies.
- Uninspired mission and enemy design (fetch quests and the zombie lineup from Left 4 Dead)
- The narrative throughline often gets lost in a sea of sidequests (tip: yellow symbols indicate missions that are relevant to the story)
- Bike feels slow at the beginning of the game, upgrades change that and make it fun. You should prioritize gas tank upgrades. There is a fast-travel option but it only works if there's enough gas in your tank.
- Time of day and weather conditions affect the size and strength of freaker hordes. Weather also affects the handling of your bike.
- Detailed visual presentation, lots of little details that especially stand out on characters and enemies. Good-looking weather effects.
- HDR doesn't add much, mostly benefits dark scenes like those set during moonlight
- Very long initial loading, followed by more loading during story cutscenes that often takes you out of the otherwise cinematic experience
- Lacks technical polish: Game crashes, pop-in while riding the bike and unstable framerate during later sections of the game (even on PS4 Pro with patch 1.02)
- Good voice acting and surround sound implementation, the soundtrack is a little reminiscent of The Last of Us.
- Deacon becomes a more interesting character as time goes on, but the way the story is told doesn't work in favor of a rising narrative tension
Verdict: 8.3/10
Days Gone is not in the same league as TLOU, Horizon or GOW but Oregon is still worth the bike trip. It offers a unique, detailed playground for you to explore and tense moments when confronted with hordes of freakers.
+ Many interesting NPCs
+ Giant hordes of freakers whose behavior varies with the time of day [and weather]
+ Fine visual presentation
- The game crashes from time to time [note: reviewed with patch 1.02]
- Loading screens that pop up during story sequences
- Bland mission design