Developed by Bend Studio. PS4 exclusive.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/n95IaELdWDU
E3 gameplay demo: https://youtu.be/Olc5WFwF1y4
I was really impressed by the fluid zombie simulation tech. Also one of the only convincing Pacific Northwest forests I’ve ever seen in a game, but that makes sense from a Studio located in Bend. I’m excited to see more.
I just wasn’t excited by spraying bullets into the mass of zombies. I doubt that will be something you actually do in game as a tactic. That demo looked technically very good though.
Are bikers a thing that’s part of the Zeitgeist again these days?
Yeah, impressive tech, but that gameplay looked kinda horrible.
See: Sons of Anarchy
Loved the horde dynamics, but that was the worst kind of scripted and staged bullshot gameplay demo.
And I’m not sure I have much confidence in something like this being handed over to a studio whose experience consists of PSP and Vita ports. Remember how well that worked out with The Order: Eighteen Hundred Whatever?
-Tom
I was thinking that myself as I watched the demo. I think it was being done to slowly wind down the number of zombies chasing him into the building and up to the roof, so that he could be “done” with the swarm just as he got to the bridge to the other building, so they could pan away and show even more zombies surrounding the buildings.
In short, I think it was staged a bit. It wouldn’t surprise me if these “live demos” featured in the Sony conference and other E3 venues weren’t highly tweaked scenarios rather than wide open gameplay. The last thing they need is the main character dying in the middle of a demo, so why even turn character damage on?
EDIT: heh, Tom must have posted that right when I started typing.
Yeah, but I’m still with Simon on this. Is Sons of Anarchy part of the Zeitgeist? If so, where are the biker movies? This is all that comes to mind. I’m as puzzled by this with Days Gone as I was with that biker add-on for Grand Theft Auto IV.
-Tom
This article is from last year, but it still applies.
When somebody is playing a game for a press conference, even the directions where they’re going to move the camera are carefully considered and rehearsed ahead of time.
“The demos follow the ‘golden path,’ which means every camera movement is planned out and practiced,” said one developer. “If you know what to look for, it’ll stand out like a sore thumb.”
Yeah, the moment the dude kneels down to loot a chest and a zombie runs by the doorway conveniently framed behind him, I was calling bull on the whole thing.
Still, this is totally my kind of game. In!
-Tom
You got me. Really I think I am with Simon as well but Sons of Anarchy is all I got.
And uh Daryl from the walking dead. But tapped out after that.
Well, he wasn’t just randomly shooting into the horde, he was leading them to choke points, to environmental hazards, through destructible structures and occasionally shooting to thin and slow the horde. Apparently during the show today they showed multiple ways through the lumberyard with more traps and hazards.
I said to my son earlier “wouldn’t you love a boss in Dark Souls that was a massive demon/zombie horde like that?” Not sure he’s speaking to me now.
Dying Light meets Alan Wake.
That’s a perfect description, judging only from the trailer, of course.
I am always in for post-apocalyptic anything. Why can’t you play a lady biker?
Do we know that you can’t? The new Prey lets you play both male and female, for instance.
It looks to me like the main character in Gone Days is a specific dude with a specific backstory. In other words, not a Bethesda sort of thing where you just pick a gender. Instead, a scripted story. So basically, you can’t play a lady biker for the same reason I can’t play a dude tomb raider. :)
-Tom
I can appreciate the gameplay demo for what it was: a highly scripted demo. Even knowing that, though, there were a number of features that bugged me. Like how the zombies seemed to do absolutely no damage to the guy. Like how he knew exactly where to run. Like how he kept stopping and spraying bullets at the zombies when most of the time it seemed like he should have just kept on running.
Yeah, I get the argument that it’s a demo, and it would be much less interesting if the protagonist were killed in the first 20 seconds, but I feel like if I was playing there, that’s what would have happened to me.
As to the argument that his shooting was herding or helping attract the zombies, I felt like they would have been on his trail no matter what, so I’m not so sure shooting was that necessary.
Also, these are obviously WWZ zombies, not Walking Dead zombies, so I’m astonished that people like Tom like them. I thought we all hated WWZ zombies? Or did I miss the memo where we now like them?
