Okay, I Missed This One: Days Gone
Days Gone is a post-apocalyptic pseudo-open world survival game. I say “pseudo-open world” because the game progresses in mission-based modules that, at times, artificially restrict the play area in ways that seem arbitrary. In one case, it essentially forces a the player character to traverse an area in sight of a RIPper (followers of the Rest In Peace doctrine) guard tower in spite of the fact that there is a pathway behind it that is otherwise relatively efficiently traversable. The game’s open world seems artificially large in spite of comprising an area of only around 10 square kilometers at most. Given those dimensions, the game world is ridiculously varied, from snowy peak to mucky marshes to dense temperate rainforests to dusty mesas. It is a combination of zombie and wasteland in the Patton Oswaltian categorization scheme for fantasy fiction.
The game features a biker gang-member who ekes out a living as zombie bounty hunter (earhunter rather than “headhunter”) in the Cascadian rough rectangle of the American Pacific Northwest. Deacon St. John is a Veteran of the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division, the regulars who were famously present in the disastrous mission in Mogadishu that became the inspiration for Black Hawk Down (autobiographical info: I actually served under the command of rugged Ranger Captain Steele from that very movie, though many years after the Somalia incident). Given this backstory, Deacon possesses an implausible combination of abilities and inabilities: for instance, he can rapidly switch between a right-handed and southpaw firing orientations and shoot equally accurately with each, yet tires after fast-running for less than the length of a football field. He also cannot swim for more than five to ten seconds before drowning in water shallow enough to wade through on his tiptoes (an especially frustrating inability when being chased by a swarm near the water). He can manage to rapidly reload a sidearm and perform self-aid while piloting a motorcycle at high speeds, perhaps his most extraordinary abilities.
The game feels asymmetrically developed. In some ways, the attentiveness to detail is laudable. If Deacon is carrying a gas can, he will hold it while performing one-handed tasks but drop it to perform two-handed tasks such as harvesting flora with his pocket knife. In other ways, there are some risible oversights. Without upgrade, Deacon’s motorbike cannot carry him three kilometers on a full tank of gas. It’s amazing how limited internal combustion engine technology has degraded since the Collapse. It’s either that or the quality of available petroleum has dramatically diminished. Not to worry though, because the gas pumps and occasional street lights are still functioning normally, all before a successful completion of a mission requiring you to escort an attractive engineer to clear the local hydropower plant in order to get the turbines spinning again.
The primary antagonists are the hordes of zombies. The zombies’ swarm behavior is one of the more interesting mysteries of the game and aspects of play. When on the chase they will conduct a Zulu Bull’s Horn formation and try to bilaterally outflank the player character. When under gunfire, they will try to run sidewise and then abruptly cut in the opposite direction like a basketball player doing a crossover dribble drive. But with a little practice it is easy to predict their movements and lead them just enough to put rounds through them. There is also a useful Focus Shot ability, which puts the player character in bullettime and allows him to reload and finish off zombies as they get close.
However, the enemy AI is not a salient source of challenge. Rather, it is the fact that enemies appear in numbers far greater than Deacon can take on given the limited quantity of rounds and explosives that he can can carry at one time. This resource management requirement is what gives the game its survival horror feel. This is also yet another source of confusing asymmetries. Deacon can carry over one hundred and twenty rounds of machine gun/automatic rifle ammo when wielding a high volume of fire, casualty-producing special weapon, but can only manage to initially fit five rounds of long rifle ammunition in his kit at one time when carrying it as his special weapon.
As far as s techniques go, high stopping power automatic shotguns are best for dispatching zombies up close and personal, whilst human and human-like enemies can be beset by sniper rifles from a long distance or overwhelmed by machine gun bursts from a superior firing position at a moderate distance. Zombies will stupidly fall for simple hit-and-run tactics, and are easy to lead into disadvantageous combat situations such as hopelessly fording a river. The marauders and RIPpers will not so easily blindly give chase when on patrol or in defensive positions. After being hit with an initial barrage of higher volume of fire, they will kindly stay put in cover long enough to be hit with thrown explosives in parabolic geometries over interposed cover (and Deacon has quite a good arm on him at times, his most exceptional athletic talent) or to be outmaneuvered on the exposed flanks or obliques. Deacon will not do traditional Individual Movement Techniques, so he will not go prone. The lowest he will go is a low crouch, and this doesn’t seem to improve his aim stability by any appreciable amount.
The ranged combat in this game is actually rather realistic, especially as far as the game of angles goes and the bullet drop which prevents basic small arms from being unreasonably effective at unrealistic distances, like in many shooting games. Melee combat and stealth kills are always a tempting option for resource conservation, but Close Quarters Combat is a risky proposition in this game. Deacon cannot sustain much in the way of physical damage without first-aid treatment, and most enemies are brutally competent at close combat and move with violence of action when in close proximity.
The story is actually a princess rescue mission, of sorts. Deacon is out to rescue the memory of the final days of his presumably departed wife, Sarah Irene Whitaker. To accomplish this, he must make strange bedfellows with NERO scientist. NERO constitutes the remnants of the American Deep State, replete with bureaucratic accoutrements like paperwork and even the utterly archetypical black helicopters. Deacon also has a bromantic relationship with his road dawg, Boozer, and Deacon’s efforts to support Boozer are also a major source of action. The characters in the game are well-acted. The dialogue is melodramatic at times, but manages to be consistently intelligent without being overwritten or unbelievable. This is a tall order and the game’s writers pulled it off much better than any Netflix writers have managed.
Thematically, the game revolves around the various and sundry all-too-human reactions to life in an unceasingly hostile zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic hellscape. There are opportunistic slaver camps, there are psychopathic fanatics who’ve made a proto-religion out of zombie worship and undead transitioning, and there are decent but desperate people struggling to survive and maintain their sanity and humanity in a world ruled by inhuman forces. The game is not too somber, but nearly every richly detailed character in game struggles to maintain loyalty and battle depression in an environment where despair is in the air.
The game is boldly regressive at times, such as when Deacon is called upon to gleefully execute a camp of a dozen anarchists who’ve wandered in from the city. The visuals are compelling in some parts. And there are good progressive folk rock songs in the soundtrack that sound like original content. There’s plenty here to like and to dislike, alike. I recommend the zombie wasteland open world enthusiast give it a cursory play-through. I think you’ll find it frustrating but on balance worth your time.