DAYS GONE PC

 

Days Gone:

                  Days Gone ran into a bit of a problem when it released in 2019. The problem was that the game said Sony on the box and PlayStation exclusives come with standards these days. Please expect that big budgets, and the production values that accompany them accomplish storytelling, it's solid, but probably not revolutionary gameplay. Most of all, they expect to polish. Sony has made its bones on delivering consistently high quality narrative driven single player titles, those titles may not be the deepest or best playing games in the market, but they almost always play well enough, and they tend to do almost everything around their gameplay better than most in the industry. And then came days gone, the game released to middling reviews in 2019 for the PC version gives us a chance to re evaluate it, and based on my experience, I think folks will be more positive on the game this time around. If you're not familiar with it, Days Gone is an open world survival action title set in a post apocalyptic Oregon that has been overrun by precursors to games term for zombies. Yes, Days Gone is a zombie game, but it's one of those stories about zombies that categorically refuses to use that word, as though it's something that makes the game story less generic. It's a terrible name. In days gone use of it should tell you all you need to know about the games writing.

                Play is it dropped into the cut of Deacon st John, a biker who lost his wife when the world ended, and still insists on wearing his mongrels MC cut as though it's in the patches on it mean anything anymore. A man's got to have a code you see Deacon pals around with Boozer, his brother in arms from the good old days doing jobs for the local survivor camps but never joining up with them. Live Free don't join seems to be the Paris model, and do their credit, they've made it work so far. Deacon isn't the most original character but I did enjoy it, and while he understandably starts off as a bit of a jerk. He does get better as the game goes on. Praise also must be lavished on Sam Woodward, who gives an excellent performance, the deacon does have an issue it's his utter inability to shut up. He is constantly talking to himself and fighting constantly. Some of these instances work fine. When you're burning out several mess of weaker say, and then appropriately nervous Deacon is trying to psych himself up. We're patting himself on the back for a job well done. But sometimes they can ruin the mood. Think of an item beacons gonna tell you if it's useful, do something cool deacons got to quit. Get lost. Deacon is here to tell you what you need to know, listening to the crazy survival nut on the radio well deacons got to let you know how wrong he is usually by yelling so loudly it echoes into the surrounding environment.

            Some of these are fine, and the latter most is generally funny and relatable, I hate those guys too, if a bit unrealistic sound attracts speakers so you'd think is the last thing you'd never want to do is yell, but the constant barrage of it can sometimes ruin sequences that would otherwise be more somber terrifying or otherwise, or inspiring if the player could just focus on absorbing them instead of what Deacon is saying.

            

            Days Gone storytelling is an equally mixed bag. He tries a lot of things, some work and some don't, and that's fine. But what bothers me most was the games dialogue, which is all over the place. Some of it is legitimately great, but just as much doesn't land, largely because Dave's gonna try to emulate how people actually talk pauses and repetition at all.

 

            Sometimes this works but it just as often makes for awkward transitions where you can tell the dialogue is trying to deliver exposition and winds up repeating the obvious or of gravity tops and instead serves up cheese.

            The other major storytelling issue is the game's cutscenes, which feature black screens between transitions, it's awkward, given how well the game looks and animates and how good the acting is there wouldn't be an issue if there weren't just so many cutscenes, it's entirely possible to go from a cutscene to a scripted sequence to another cutscene without having done much as a player, and it can be a bit frustrating when you just want to play the game with Days Gone does do well, however, is the world, atmosphere and gameplay, and this is where the PCs improvements begin to come into play. Days Gone is a gorgeous game, the PC version just makes it better. The major improvements here are based on the level of detail and draw distance, particularly in terms of foliage, which has a huge impact on selling the vastness and beauty of the Pacific Northwest, static and dynamic objects are also more detailed, as are the game shadows.

            There are no huge overhauls here ray tracing and dlss, ai upscaling are absent, but the upgrades here are appreciated as is the support for unlocked frame rates and ultra wide monitors. I'm not kidding when I say that I spent a lot of time admiring how gorgeous Days Gone is one of the most beautiful games I've ever played. And while the upgrade Sony been made art transformative, they easily make this the best version of the game.

            The game also offers mouse and keyboard support, and the team at Sony been has clearly put a lot of work into it to make sure that the game plays well on a keyboard and mouse controls their maps nicely by default but you can naturally remap things and change your sensitivities around if you'd like, aiming in particular is a huge upgrade on the mouse and keyboard, and I found it much easier to nail difficult shots with a mouse. There is also gamepad support which works just as well. No matter what you choose the days gone plays well, and quality of life improvements like an FOB slider, make a big difference.

            In fact, the gameplay loop is really the reason to play the game. Days Gone is a survival game, which means the player will spend most of their time scavenging items, ammo, weapons and just about everything else as they fight the breeders, like most modern games there are RPG elements to allowing players to upgrade deacons fight, abilities, and everything else. None of this is particularly new. But days gone does as well. The gameplay is also surprisingly thoughtful, and always gives you choices. Sure you could speed through an area on your bike, but the noise will attract precursors, sometimes better to sneak through especially if you're low on ammo. Thinking about hitting a quest on your way back to base, well better make sure that you'd have the fuel to get home, or you might end up having to walk your bike back to base, as I once did, taking on a freaker nest where you can hit them during the day or at night, both of which have benefits and downsides, one might offer weaker enemies, but the other will mean you fight, less. Even the gameplay itself is tactical, it takes Deacon, a moment to properly sight in on an enemy, meaning you'll have to take your time, if you want to head shots. Managing fuel resources health and other items means encounters are always intense, whether you're fighting flickers, or hostile humans, which will engage you in different ways. It doesn't hurt that everything from riding your motorcycles to firing a gun or swinging a bat at a freak or just feels and sounds really good.

            It's here that the PC delivers its final upgrade boards are Days gone's biggest spectacle moments, as hundreds of zombies come at you as though they're a single moving object. They were impressive enough in the base game with a PC version ups that count from 300 in any given Horde to 500, and it's nice to see Days Gone, the biggest and the most unique mechanic, getting upgrade days gone largely runs well on PC, but I did encounter a few technical issues, well the game ran at a rock solid 1080 P and 60 FPS on my RT X 2060 Super and I 5 6600k Most of the time they did suffer some dips during heavy rainfall in another area. It also had issues loading textures in geometry properly, resulting in untextured strangely constructed areas where cars stuck out of the ground. Aside from those two instances, however, Days Gone ran very smoothly for me I rarely had any issues.