So this game launched exclusively on PS4 early last year and was critically panned. Some even questioned the writing in the game(which clicked and connected with me, the writing was good imo). Some criticized it for performance issues like frame rate drops here and there, frame rate hitches, texture pop ins and some audio dropping off type issues. I waited for the audio and other performance-related issues before I could play it on PS4 and then the game fell off my radar.
A little over a month ago I was lucky enough to get a PS5 and that's when and how I discovered this underrated gem. The game is a free PS Plus game as part of the PS Collection for anyone who'd buy a PS5. 57 hours later the story concluded, credits have rolled, platinum trophy got unlocked. The ending was so well rounded.
Things that clicked with me:
-The beautiful bleak world of Oregon with a stunning time of day, dynamic weather conditions, volumetric fog, and god rays.
-Voice acting by main cast was spot on in many scenes. Deek has plenty of emotional moments in the game. Rikki Paatil, Boozer and Iron Mike voice actors knocked it out of the park.
-The shooting is very satisfying and the precision you get thanks to 60fps, has to been seen and experienced.
-Melee combat is fun too, weapon craft system is quite nice.
-The characters in the world are memorable. They've got an emotional arc in them as you progress through your questline.
-Clearing out Hordes is tense and satisfying.
-Riding the bike across the vast open-world is actually quite fun and the bike physics and handling are quite good.
-Enjoyed the realism in the bike mechanics, you run out of fuel you stop and you got to continue your journey on foot until you find a gas station around or find a fuel can.
-Games audio design can lead to scary encounters with infected humans, infected and noninfected wolves, and bears.
-Skill Tree upgrade was easier to understand and without this taking out the hordes would've been extremely taxing.
What I am neutral about?
-The game is long, like really long. I approached this game from the start as somewhat of a completionist mindset. Searching everywhere, collecting items, and crafting weapons. Exploring every nook and canny from the start till the end. I never got bored, not once. My sessions with the game were 2 hours during week days and 12 hours during weekends. I enjoyed every minute of it. That being said this game could be tedious for some.
Things that were weird
-I ran into some bugs. One had Deek flying like superman tossed by Zod up in the air, he'd then go fall on the far side of the world and die
-In another bug, deek would become invisible, the mouse aim reticle would go missing along with deek. I'd to multiple restart from checkpoints to address this and then it never happened after that. This happened fairly early on in the game.
-Random NPC's whom we save from marauders and rippers, they all look the same. I'd have saved this dude and a few minutes later, it's the same dude whom I saving again despite having told him to go and stay put in one of the camps around lost lake or crater lake.
-Cleared out a crucial horde that's dependant on main mission in the end. But the dialog conversation failed to acknowledge that I'd cleared out the horde well in advance.
-Transition from cinematics to gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. Too many loading between cinematics to gameplay to cinematics (Fade to black).
So yeah I think Days Gone is a game that people need to experience it on the PS5. The higher frame rate, the sharper resolution really makes the game world pop and feel alive than ever before. The texture pop ins have greatly reduced on the PS5 and loading is reasonably fast. I wholeheartedly recommend this gem to anyone who'd missed out on. But please make sure you're first experience of this is on PS5 and not PS4. Playing this on PS5 has been so damn transformative!
Sony Bend Studio being a relatively smaller sized studio pulled this major AAA game off. Kudos to them. I now badly want a sequel to this!