The editors thank Sony for the kindly provided game for review.
So we waited for the exit
Welcome to the post-apocalyptic Oregon
We find ourselves in a huge and picturesque open worldpost-apocalyptic Oregon. The studio decided to show its home state as diversely as possible; a wide variety of locations await us: forests, mountains, plains. All this looks beautiful and alive thanks to the change of day and night, different weather conditions and the presence of living creatures in these places. The story of the game tells about the events that take place two years after the global apocalypse: a mysterious virus destroyed most of the population and turned it into the so-called “Freaks” (Freakers). These are infected, mutated people and animals that eat and sleep, make “nests” for themselves, go out for food and, in some cases, behave together as a single organism. These are not zombies in the usual sense: they did not die and become “walking”, but mutated. In the game we will not see stereotyped, slow and stupid walking corpses; freaks are much more dangerous.
The protagonist is biker Deacon St. John, whoThe apocalypse took his beloved wife Sarah. Two years later, he has never recovered from the loss and has never been able to forgive himself for sending her alone in the helicopter of the mysterious NERO corporation to a camp for survivors. We saw this episode in one of the story videos: Sarah was cut by some boy and Deacon and Boozer are trying to save her. A NERO corporation helicopter lands nearby and evacuates survivors. But there is only room for two on board. Deacon decides to put Sarah on the helicopter and stay to help Boozer, being fully confident that Sarah will be safe. As the game progresses, we see flashbacks that tell about Sarah, their acquaintance and relationship with Deacon.
Deacon was made interesting and very charismatica character with his own history, character, principles, shortcomings, tragedy and capacity for compassion, even despite everything he has experienced and a hostile world that is constantly trying to kill him. There is no feeling that the main character is somehow secondary or primitive, which happens very often in games. He is played by actor Sam Witwer, who is probably familiar to gamers (Star Wars: The Force Unleashed), and he appears regularly in films/series. A significant role in the plot is played by Deacon’s best friend and partner, nicknamed Boozer, and a bunch of minor characters, whom the studio also did a great job with. They all have their own backstory of a difficult relationship with Deacon.
The player will have to find answers to a lot of questions:what happened to Sarah and the survivors in the Three-Fingered Jack camp, where she went on the NERO helicopter, where did the virus come from that turned most of the population into bloodthirsty aggressive creatures and what is the NERO corporation, which is actively studying freaks as, hiding from the survivors? experimental animals (in fact, this is true). As you progress, the storylines develop interestingly, intertwine, regularly delight with unexpected turns of events and are supplemented by secondary tasks and episodes.
Bend Studio has repeatedly emphasizedon the fact that the plot plays a key role in Days Gone and the multiplayer component was not originally planned. It is worth noting that the studio managed to “promote”the rather hackneyed setting and plot of the game. into a truly interesting and captivating plot. Everything is implemented at an excellent level: the story develops interestingly, there are an optimal number of cutscenes and they are done very cool, and the dialogues are written competently (not without platitudes, but this is difficult to avoid given the setting). Overall, the game, in terms of story, feels like a Hollywood movie with a massive budget, and it's objectively long.
What is the gameplay, combat system and game world?
The open game world is made according to the classica proven formula that always works. We have a huge map with a variety of nature, landscape, changing weather conditions, day and night. And all these nuances have a very tangible effect on the game. You will have to move around the game world on a bike, which needs to be refueled, periodically repaired and, of course, improved. The need for refueling and repairs is not too intrusive, but does not allow you to relax during long journeys. In emergency situations, you can repair the bike yourself if you have parts (the so-called scrap), and you can always find a can of gasoline in the surrounding area. Controlling the bike is easy to master, and the physics are well-developed. The bike gets damaged during unsuccessful landings and becomes difficult to control on roads washed out during a rainstorm. Survivor camps are scattered throughout the map, where you can get a side quest, refuel, upgrade your bike, stock up on ammunition and new weapons. There are areas with nests of freaks, camps of marauders and other unpleasant characters, blocked tunnels, “NERO” checkpoints and random events that randomly appear near the character.
The developers weren't kidding when they said“the whole world is trying to kill you”. The beautiful landscapes of the gorgeously drawn nature of Oregon force the player to lose vigilance and just at this moment you can run into an ambush of marauders: you usually notice a tripwire on the road at the very last moment, and it’s not so easy to hide from a sniper perched on a tree. But Deacon’s problems don’t end there: the freaks are quite nimble and manage to jump and knock the main character off his motorcycle. Yes, it’s also worth considering that at night and in rain or snow there are more freaks and they become faster and even more aggressive. But if there seem to be few freaks, then there are also wild animals that are not known for their kindness. Wolves travel in small packs, it is quite possible to fight them off, but they can fray your nerves. The bear is a more serious threat. My first meeting with him ended in sudden death: you can’t run away from him on foot, hand-to-hand combat is not an option, and firearms don’t do much damage to him.
Freaks are very agile and often unpredictable.creation. There are several types of them and they behave differently. Freaks are the most common, moving either in small groups or in hordes. Jackals are mutated teenagers who usually hide on rooftops, are very cowardly and attack in extreme cases. Banshees are screaming creatures that invite all the freaks in the area. And the Brutes, the name speaks for itself: big, strong, hard to kill. The combat in the game is dynamic and varied: different types of firearms against different opponents and in different situations, melee weapons, combinations of shots and hand-to-hand combat, the ability to effectively use the environment, explosives, decoys - all this can be combined in any way you like. Thanks to this variety, battles don't get boring. Some types of weapons can be improved or created independently if you have the necessary materials in your inventory.
Deacon's knife will never break, but in close combatit's not very effective, there are significantly deadlier weapons in the game, but they break. You can repair them yourself if you have the appropriate skill. The stealth component is implemented in a standard way: we hide from enemies behind elements of the environment, in the bushes and try not to make noise. Some missions must be completed covertly, and in many situations it is much easier and more expedient to eliminate as many opponents as possible covertly, in order to save ammunition and not take unnecessary risks. It’s worth “watching your step”: there is a risk of exposing yourself at the most inopportune moment if you catch a canister or bottle standing nearby with your foot.
Separate “entertainment” - fight againsthordes of freaks. If you can fight off several individuals even “head-on” melee weapons or shoot individually, then this approach will not work with hordes. Even infected areas with nests, where in general you can encounter 20-30 freaks, are not particularly scary against the backdrop of the hordes. They number a huge number of individuals and behave like a single harmonious organism. It looks impressive, especially at the first “meeting”. Of course, there won’t be enough ammunition for this entire crowd, and bladed weapons are not worth mentioning. There are only a few options. The first is escape: we get on the bike and run away. It is also possible to defeat the horde, but to do this you will have to use the environment, explosives, Molotov cocktails and a specific strategy in each specific case.
The game uses a lot of things already familiar to playersmechanics, but they are implemented and composed perfectly and holistically, the gameplay is dynamic and varied, and the surrounding dangers constantly keep the player in suspense and create a characteristic “post-apocalyptic” atmosphere.
What about pumping, weapons improvement and interface?
Upgrade points are given when the hero level increases,for them you can get new skills in three categories: hand-to-hand combat, shooting and survival. There are three separate scales: health, endurance and concentration. To increase them, you have to clear “NERO” checkpoints, where you can find an injector with some mysterious chemicals. For completing missions, we receive experience credits and increase the level of trust in a particular camp. Separately for each camp. Each camp has its own specialization: somewhere you can buy better weapons, and somewhere the mechanic has more parts to upgrade the bike.
Accordingly, to access the most deliciouspieces, you have to complete more additional tasks and kill more freaks (you can get money for their ears and increase the level of trust). Similarly, you can hunt and bring meat from wild animals: there is always not enough food. Grind is present, you have to work hard to level up and get the best stuff. A number of additional tasks a la “clear the marauders’ camp” quite monotonous. But no open world game can do without this now. It was a little disappointing that in some moments you simply cannot do without completing additional tasks: there are simply no main story tasks until you complete several additional ones.
It is extremely important to improve your iron horse.In addition to improving the engine, nitrous oxide, increasing the tank and installing a reinforced frame, it is possible to install cases in which additional cartridges will be stored. An extremely useful thing: Deacon can carry a very small amount of ammunition with him. Decorative improvements to the bike are also available for aesthetes: all sorts of stickers, repainting, and so on.
Variousparts, rags, bottles and other “trash”, which is worth collecting: you will have to craft various useful things from it: Molotov cocktails, homemade silencers, stimulating potions, first aid kits, bait, improved melee weapons and a bunch more. The player gains access to new recipes as they complete story missions.
Menu and navigation made conveniently: everything is divided into 4 sections. Items and craft, task list, map and skills. To quickly navigate to the desired section, you can simply hold on the touch panel in the appropriate direction.
How does all this look, sound and optimized?
Visually the game looks great:The picture is very nice, Oregon looks picturesque and diverse. Various weather conditions are well designed, blurred terrain after a rainstorm, fog, dawn - all this causes aesthetic pleasure. As far as optimization is concerned, things are honestly so-so, at least on the PlayStation 4 Slim: there were problems with some textures, rendering, FPS drops in some situations, several times I got stuck in textures. and there are quite a lot of similar unpleasant features. Recently a large 17 GB patch was released, which significantly improved the situation, but did not fix all the problems. Particularly surprising is the decrease in FPS in some cases while riding a bike (interestingly, this is not observed with hordes of freaks, although this would be more logical). Let's hope that with further updates all these annoying nuances will be corrected.
The soundtrack is provided by Nathan Whitehead, whowas responsible for the sound design of a number of games (for example, Gears of War 3 and Bioshock 2), and acted as a composer mainly in films. The soundtrack turned out to be quite convincing, complementing the atmosphere and stylistically matching the events in the game and setting. The translation in the game is complete: text and voice, there were no questions about the voice acting and translation in general, everything was done with high quality.
In the dry residue
Days Gone - very high quality, large-scale,a full-fledged story-driven AAA project for the PlayStation 4, which is not without noticeable shortcomings. But what is important in a game is the overall impression, and in this case it more than compensates for these shortcomings and makes you return to the game again and again and spend a lot of time in it. It seems to me that when it comes to games, this is the main criterion. “Life After” pleases with an interesting story with several storylines, bright, well-developed characters that make you empathize and evoke emotions. This is complemented by dynamic and varied gameplay with a bunch of well-implemented mechanics, very picturesque pictures and a characteristic atmosphere. Unfortunately, monotonous additional tasks are also present, as in most similar open-world projects, there is no escape from this. And I think the technical problems are completely solvable and I hope that this will happen with subsequent patches. All that remains, perhaps, is to thank Bend Studio for the interesting story and wish them success with the following projects: they have shown that they are capable of making full-scale AAA projects that captivate.
5 reasons to buy Days Gone:
- strong and interesting storyline campaign;
- the picturesque and diverse open world in the scenery of Oregon;
- a constantly energizing atmosphere;
- excitingly implemented game mechanics;
- cool soundtrack.
2 reasons not to buy Days Gone (Life After):
- same type of side quests;
- a decent amount of technical problems (for now).
Days Gone (Life After)
Third-person Sarvival-action about survival in the harsh world of post-apocalyptic Oregon, which is teeming with creatures trying to kill you. Exclusively on Sony PlayStation 4.
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Days Gone (Life After)
Genre
Action/Adventure
Platform
Sony PlayStation 4
Number of players
1
Developer
SIE Bend Studio
Publisher
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Localization
full (text and voice)
release date
April 26, 2019
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