Look, I get it. Days Gone had jank and problems to spare. I admit it. The structure of almost every mission vacillated between antiquated and baffling. The character line deliveries at times felt like there were two separate conversations taking place, with some lines delivered in a hushed, teeth-gritting tone and the next shouted deliriously as if by a crazy person. The story was bloated and full of clichés or idiotic character choices and reactions. Deacon was not very likeable. There were perhaps twice as many skill unlocks as necessary. The gasoline seemed to be heavily watered down based on how fast Deacon’s motorcycle burned through it. The combat was less than inspiring. It felt a little too similar, at least on paper, to Sony’s blockbuster The Last of Us.
But you know what? It was also one of the best PlayStation-exclusive games of the past generation, at least in my opinion, and it was put out to pasture prematurely.
Warning, hot takes to follow…
At its core — after the performance had been tightened and the game was running fairly consistently — Days Gone was a really great experience. It certainly deserves a sequel to expand on the interesting world and to correct all the things that were bungled with the first game. In fact, I would take a Days Gone sequel over another The Last of Us entry — especially if the second game in Naughty Dog’s series is any indication of where any possible third The Last of Us game might go (unless they introduce a new narrative and new characters who aren’t so clueless).
And although Horizon seems to be a darling series of Sony ponies (“neigh” to my fellow SPs), I personally found it just as basic in its overall core design as Days Gone, but with a far less interesting world and weaker game mechanics.
I rather enjoyed Ghost of Tsushima (though not enough to finish it — I burned out about 30 hours deep), it just didn’t speak to my tastes nearly as much as Days Gone did. Heck, I still fire up Days Gone to this day, even if only for an hour or three, which is more than I can say for Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us, or Horizon Zero Dawn or Forbidden West. I actually bounced off Forbidden West pretty hard after I quickly realized it was just more of the original with seemingly less to say. I admit that I dropped off fairly early, so it is definitely possible I didn’t give it enough time to hook me, but a great game should hook a person from jump, not over time after hours of investment (but that’s a topic for another discussion).
I was recently looking at the mods available for Days Gone now that it’s on PC. I figured if I found something that either address some of my lingering issues or, in a best-case scenario, drastically changed or added to the core experience, that alone would warrant purchasing second copy. It would allow me to imagine what might have been with a possible, illusory sequel. Hell, I’ve thought extensively about what a sequel might have looked like, or where it may have gone.
In fact, I think the game world — an incredibly realized Oregon setting — would be perfect for a DayZ-style open-world survival game (or mode, as it’s not too late to at least add some extra modes to the original Days Gone if an outright sequel is too much to ask for). This could be either an online multiplayer game or simply a standalone single-player experience; I’d take either. Give me some survival mechanics and a player creator, then let me have at it; I would scavenge resources and kill freakers ’til the cows came home.
In Days Gone, Sony could’ve found their State of Decay, except Days Gone would be polished and gritty whereas State of Decay is… well, State of Decay, for better or worse.
It has always been suggested that Days Gone didn’t sell well enough to make a follow up, a claim that was sort of dubiously debunked by a the game’s director Jeff Ross. But sales couldn’t have been that dismal, could they? I mean, I guess the reviews were initially not kind, despite the player response seeming to be far more positive. But reviews don’t always correlate with sales, especially in cases where there’s a lot of love from players.
I suppose all of this is just the fruitless rambling of a senile gaming enthusiast, lamenting the loss of a beloved game that seemed to be killed off unceremoniously. I guess at this point, Days Gone is just dust in the wind, much to my chagrin (and the collective chagrin of thousands of other fans who added their names to a petition begging for a sequel).
So it goes.
