Sony and its sister studios Sony Interactive Entertainment are renowned for the excellent single-player AAA games that come out
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Like the hotel itself, with dubious ceilings andthe roof. In fact, we were lucky to get to this hotel while it is abandoned. In the near future it will be rebuilt, restored and will begin to work for its intended purpose.
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What did Emmanuel Roth tell about?
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Days Gone is being developed by SIE Bend Studio.which was formed in 1993 under the name Eidetic. The studio existed under this name until 2000, when it became part of Sony Interactive Entertainment and changed its name to Bend Studio in honor of the hometown of Bend in Oregon, where the studio is based. Among the significant projects, it is worth noting the Siphon Filter series. For a long time, the studio was producing games for the PlayStation Portable and Vita, and Days Gone became the first truly major project in a long time. We will not publish the full text of the interview, but will concentrate on the most interesting facts that Emmanuel Roth kindly told us about.
- The studio was very happy to have the opportunityto work on such a large project and the first work on Days Gone began immediately after the release of Uncharted: Fight for Fortune for PS Vita. Overall, “Life After” has been in development for 6 years;
- the concept and theme of the game were invented almost immediately;
- Days Gone was initially conceived as a story-driven Single Player project and a multiplayer component was not planned at any stage of development;
- Freakers are not zombies as we are used to themunderstanding. Freaks are infected people and animals that eat and sleep like all living creatures. And they behave more consciously: they know how to move quickly, build “nests” for themselves, gather in flocks or entire hordes, and can also steal the desired item right from under the nose of the main character;
- Day and night, different weather conditions will directly affect the gameplay: starting with the behavior of freaks and ending with the bike's handling, which will significantly decrease in the rain;
- large plot DLC is not planned (at least for now): the studio wants to release the game in the form of a full, completed story;
- Days Gone takes place in a “post-apocalyptic” Oregon, “native” studio staff, so that nature, landscape and climatic conditions are conveyed close to reality;
- The game uses the Unreal Engine 4 (unlikefrom most of the biggest exclusives for PS4 in-house). Unreal Engine 4 is simple, easy to use and copes with all the necessary tasks, including hordes of freaks in the amount of about 300 individuals on the screen.
What are Days Gone all about?
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The plot of Days Gone is one of the most importantcomponents of the game. The action takes place two years after the pandemic, as a result of which the vast majority of the population has turned into the very freaks from whom we have to fight. However, not only against them: in the game there are gangs, sectarians and the military, along with scientists who clearly know much more about the virus that has decimated the population than the rest of the surviving population.
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The protagonist of Days Gone - biker DeaconSt. John, who lost his wife during a pandemic. By the way, he is played by Sam Whitver, who is probably familiar to the gaming audience through Star Wars: The Force Unleashed games, in which he gave his appearance to the main character (the actor is a big Star Wars fan). I remember him most as Neil Perry on Dexter, although he has a number of roles in other shows and films. The main character turned out to be quite charismatic, with its past, cockroaches in the head, a certain sense of humor, goals and approach to solving problems.
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Initially the main plot idea looks likeIt's corny, but Bend Studio did a ton of work to make the story interesting. Yes, we have a “backbone” from the open world after the pandemic, phreakers, various groups, collecting necessary resources, safe shelters, locations for “cleansing” and camps where you can “stock up” everything you need, refuel and improve your bike and get a new task. But all this is richly seasoned with an abundance of interesting additional characters with their own stories, relationships with Deacon and additional plot branches. The whole thing feels very good.
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Deacon survives in a not very favorable world,while trying to figure out a bunch of open questions: what happened to his beloved wife Sarah, where did that same virus come from, how the military is involved in all this and why they and scientists are studying freaks. In this, Deacon will be helped by his very colorful friend named Boozer. All the characters are written very well; they are not idealized, as is often the case in games. They survive and are ready to do a lot, including very dubious actions.
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We were able to build the game without someparts of the plot, with the goal of showing as many game mechanics as possible, a variety of locations, tasks and characters. But after this first acquaintance, the game managed to interest me and I will play through it with interest after release. The plot cannot be called a masterpiece, but it is engaging. Main “plot” takes about 30 hours, 6 of which are cut scenes. Which is quite normal for a story-oriented game. Performing numerous “side effects” can significantly increase the time in the game.
How to play?
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Estimate the scale of the open game world atIt’s difficult at the moment, but it’s done beautifully. The nature and landscape are very diverse: forests, mountains, plains, streams. All this beauty can be either flooded with bright sunlight or heavy rainfall, under which you have to get to the next location. Scattered all over this world are settlements with surviving people, in which you can either be in good standing or “damn” your reputation. These settlements are used to receive tasks, buy everything you need and upgrade your bikes. In each settlement, Deacon has a reputation indicator, which increases with the completion of tasks.
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There are also separate locations where you canprofit from valuable resources, but for this it is necessary to organize a “cleansing” from freaks. There are also some pleasant little things: in some places you can find notes with information about locations or events from the game. Separately, NERO (the same military organization) checkpoints were scattered across the map, which you need to get into. Deacon's most faithful and irreplaceable companion is his bike, which must be taken care of, repaired and improved as much as possible. Situations often arise in the game in which the only correct solution is to flee. And you simply can’t do without a bike. The mechanics of riding a bike are implemented very cool: adaptation occurs quickly and riding is really interesting and exciting.
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Combat system without any uniquefeatures, but also made soundly. As we play, we find or buy new weapons, modify them. There are pistols, machine guns, sniper rifles, shotguns, crossbows, baseball bats and so on. The classic set, what weapon against whom to use is already a matter of taste. There are projectile explosive and flammable weapons, in particular, Molotov cocktails that need to be crafted by yourself. And, it is necessary to recognize, in many cases they are very helpful. Not only for burning freak nests, but also against large crowds or large opponents with a lot of health.
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It's not just freaks in differentvariations and quantities. There are also cultists, bandits, road ambushes, snipers in trees and wild animals. For example, “fail” a huge bear is not the most trivial task, as it turned out in practice. In battles you can and should act in different ways. Brute force and brutality don’t always work. With two or three “ordinary” You can deal with freaks without any problems, but if there are more of them, this trick will not work. They also didn’t forget about the stealth component: it exists and it is very effective. Hiding in the bushes and waiting for the right moment is the best solution in many situations.
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Collect supplies and craft a lot to: ammunition and remedies are always lacking, and cold weapons break. In this regard, everything is well known in other Action / Adventure with elements of RPG games, but implemented as it should, it is intuitively clear. This also includes the leveling system: we get skill points, study or improve skills, progress the skills tree further. The pumping is not formal, it significantly affects the course of the game and some skills are simply irreplaceable. For example, the ability to independently repair cold weapons in the presence of parts.
What does all this look like?
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The technical part of the question is not entirely appreciatedexpedient at this stage: we were allowed to play not the latest “build” games. At the time of the event, the studio already had later builds. In general, there were some nuances, both in terms of bugs and some elements of the graphical component. But nothing critical or irreparable. Moreover, there is still time before the release on April 26. In general, the picture looks very nice, the world looks picturesque and varied, and the change of day and night along with changing weather conditions visually “enlivens” world of Days Gone. We'll leave this part for a full review of Days Gone after release.
In the dry residue
From some projects you immediately expect the maximum,This is especially true for high-budget exclusives for Sony PlayStation. To be honest, the old gameplay videos weren’t very inspiring; Days Gone seemed “secondary.” But at the current stage, having personally played the preview version, my opinion about the game has changed dramatically. It is worth giving Bend Studio its due: the developers had the courage to set out to develop such a game, without having any experience in creating such large-scale projects, and it seems that they achieved their goal. Days Gone feels like a complete, well-made AAA project with all the necessary components. A well-developed, engaging plot, interesting characters, the now fashionable open world and, albeit not unique, but well-implemented mechanics, thanks to which Days Gone is truly fun to play. And let “Life After” will not go down in history for many years with the title of “masterpiece,” but it will clearly bring gamers a lot of pleasure. So we are waiting for April 26th.