Days Gone Review Thread (See Staff Post)

[Invisible Cities]

This certainly seems like the widest distribution range of scores I've seen in a while.

Still, how did no one stop this earlier in the process? It always looked like what it is.

 

[NightOnyx]

I wished it reviewed better but it is what it is. Really disappointed with a lot of people in here taking so much joy in a game not reviewing super well though. How can we have a site where so many act so high in mighty about things like crunch and then celebrate when a game fails to meet expectations? Obviously that not everybody, but it does suck to see. Never understood that, why cheer about a game not being great?

I'm still looking forward to playing it. I wasn't blown away by a lot of initial showings of the game but thought some of the recent previews looked solid enough. There is clearly reviewers that really liked the game just as there are some that hated it, so I'm hoping I have a good time with it.

 

[DCBA]

The review scales nowadays rarely trend that low. The best you can do is look at Days Gone's score and compare it to other games of its ilk. It's there that you see that the game is way below similar games in terms of reception.
There seems to be nothing about this game that justifies its existence in a market absolutely bouncing with excellent open world game of this type.

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Has any other good open world game released this year so far? I can't remember one...

 

[haveheart]

This is the problem when people on this site run full fucking free PR campaigns for games and studios and let their hype get wildly out of control. We get the usual faces posting multiple upon multiple threads pulled from the official PlayStation site/blog with no thoughts of their own, just copy and pasted videos. We got a hype thread with people discussing the glowing previews. It happens all the time but it's overlooked because it's strangely the norm. It's no wonder people expect the world and then feel let down when a game just turns out to be average to good.

I'll be picking this up in a few months with a heavy discount no doubt. The horde mechanic looks great, sadly it seems like it's not used enough.

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Yes, but this is not the place. Please go ahead and make a separate thread.
I've tried to touch on that topic in the past but this will always get buried in topic discussion.
We need to stop acting as free hype generators and more like a critical consumer community.

On topic: I wish it would have scored better. I'm very much depending on scores as I simply don't have the time to play all the games I would like to so I have to pick cherries.
Makes you wonder though: horizon was basically also a checklist open world game but they made something really special nevertheless.

 

[Aaron D.]

This reception is genuinely disappointing.

For the longest time I dismissed it as being another tired check-the-box open world game featuring a gruff white dude doing gruff white dude power fantasy shenanigans.

Then when the long, hour-plus gameplay vids started dropping only just recently I did a complete turnaround, thinking there might be something more here, making it worthy of a second look.

I was really rooting for it in an underdog kinda way.

Damn shame.

 

[Inuhanyou]

Nah, good graphics but story and gameplay look spookie, i predict a 77-82

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We dont know a single thing about the story and the gameplay looks fine enough. I dont really get what your saying

 

[Bundy]

Well I'm glad you are happy and I hope you enjoy the game but "It's a good game" is not a factual statement. Especially when there is enough evidence to disprove that. For a first party AAA game it's average at best imo as we expect higher quality from first party studios.

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In the first years of development, this games was made by 60 devs. That's pretty good. Just look how good it looks.
Of course you can expect higher stuff from first party studios. No problem with that. Do it. Sometimes, you will get masterpieces like God of War and sometimes, you will get good 7/10 games like Days Gone :)

 

[Deleted member 22585]

So it seems like the negative buzz we've heard leading up in the last couple months wasn't some random occurrence.

Game looks like it's not for me. Fetch quests, survival, empty open world, rather bland looking etc.

 

[MillionIII]

Even if it sells well, I wonder... will Sony greenlight a sequel or maybe new IP?

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Two words: knack 2

 

[Deleted member 10737]

6.5/10 from God Is a Geek
https://www.godisageek.com/reviews/days-gone-review/

Days Gone is fantastic at times, but there're so many bugs that I wasn't sure if the game was stable enough to continue. Being a Sony first party game, I expected so much more, especially as we've been blessed with games like God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Marvel's Spider-Man in recent years. The hordes are excellent, and portions of the story are great, but pacing towards the end, a wealth of issues in the gameplay and its technical side make the journey through a destroyed Oregon a real burden at times that I came away more disappointed than impressed.

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[jett]

Oh it's Jett arguing that all the Infamous games, they made four by the way and also a standalone DLC, are all the same. You're honestly anhedonic.

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If you so. I played them all (1&2 to completion, SS I gave up on late in the game). If you want to be pedantic and consider Festival of Blood and First Light as fully-formed, individual games, be my guest. They're all (the three "main" games) exceedingly similar in how they control (the same weirdo-feeling ground movement, jumping and platforming), how their missions are designed (without a lick of variety or complexity), and how their worlds are structured (how are the devs themselves not tried of always splitting the game world in three sections). I sure hope the island Ghost of Tsushima takes place isn't divided in three sections, each gated until you reach a certain point in the story, and all three filled with the exact same type time-wasting "missions."

And they all were very good. :)

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They were enjoyable for what they were, yeah. I was lucky enough to get them first two for free and SS for five bucks.

 

[zedox]

I thought it was gonna be an 85+...guess I was wrong. Still looks like people will have fun with it (i'm not into zombie games)

 

[Corky]

There are some crazy overreactions in this thread. The game's entertaining; it never, ever looked like some Game of the Year winning magnum opus. It's exactly what the Metacritic of 71 suggests it is: good, honest open world entertainment.

Like I wrote in my review, it's gaming comfort food: unremarkable but enjoyable all the same.

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Well some reviews disagree and really dislike the game, gamespot for example clearly don't think the game is good or very entertaining

 

[CornIsGood]

I guess my instinct to cancel my preorder was right. It's a shame the game didn't turn out better.

 

[joe_zazen]

Always entertaining when reviewers get to unleash their pent up hate at a skinny puppy.

Scores are fine given the team size; although it does put a damper on marketing. Sales and customer satisfaction are the only metrics that matter, and we'll see how those turn out.

& you really dont have to worry about bend shutting down. Sony is needs studios and they cant be shutting anymore down.

 

[sleepr]

Even if it sells well, I wonder... will Sony greenlight a sequel or maybe new IP?

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If the first game prints money then yes (depends on budget and profit). Kack also had terrible scores and they did another game.

Too bad the order 1886 didn't get another chance, one of my favorite worlds this gen despite the game being just okayish.

 

[Ada]

GoT will easily do 85+

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People said the same of this game. Looking at the poll above, that's a lot of wrong people. For reference Sucker puches' previous games metacritic score in reverse chronological order are 73, 80, 78, 83, 85.

 

[IIFloodyII]

Ghost of Tsushima is next and they(Sucker punch) are doubly fucked as Sekiro is already out.

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But Sekiro was doomed because of Niho releasing before it, which was doomed because another game had a similar setting.

 

[Memento]

Two words: knack 2

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That is a low budget effort though.

Days Gone had a massive marketing campaign, and considering the years it has been in the oven the budget is probably pretty big too

 

[Zedelima]

It is?

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I saw a review that said that ir only encoutered 2 hordes in the entire game

But reading more, i think thats false because you can "clear" some nests that have hordes. I dont know in who i believe

 

[Serene]

Seems really all over the place and divisive.

 

[GamingCJ]

You think they've been working on this game for 7 years to be happy with a 71?

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I think they are relieved they managed to release their first AAA game in ages, after starting with canceled projects and only 70 devs.
I mean, they probably hoped for a score around 80. 8 points lower is neither great nor a disaster.

 

[higemaru]

Has any other good open world game released this year so far? I can't remember one...

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Crackdown 3 is legitimately fun and if anything, is the opposite of bloated.

 

[ClarkusDarkus]

I can't believe some people are using the word "massacred". lol. It's a 72 on Metacritic!

Dying Light is a 74 on Metacritic and it's one of my favorite games this generation.

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Wow didn't know that, Really at 74. Dying Light was fantastic, visually and gameplay. Co-op ton of fun, And the dlc was a great add-on. Warranted a sequel and sold well too so Metacritic scores mean jack sometimes.

 

[nib95]

Do the reviews talk about the game being grindy or having busy-work/boring quests etc?

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Repetitive fetch type quests was a complaint in a few of the reviews, yes. But that seems to be a complaint for most open world games.

 

[Border]

Agree with this - I would definitely give the game a shot if it was a limited 12 hours experience or so on.

The longer a game, the better it needs to be to hold my interest for all those hours.

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It sounds like the game's excessive length is only made worse by the fact that a lot of the time is spent travelling around and/or looking for supplies that you need to travel/upgrade.

 

[Bundy]

Why is it nonsense again?
A reboot would be at least pretty fresh setting instead of more zombies.

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Because the Syphon Filter IP is dead. They're done with it. Just like Naughty Dog is done with Jak & Daxter.
And you do know that

Spoiler

Gabe died

in the last Syphon Filter game. It's over. Bend doesn't want to make Syphon Filter games for another decade.

Spoiler

They killed Gabe because they said they are done with the Syphon Filter IP.

 

[Terror-Billy]

I wrote the Slant review and didn't go into a lot of the story stuff both for space reasons and perhaps being overly cautious re: spoilers, but the thing about the slaves is....yeah.

Spoiler

The game tries to obfuscate some of the bad things Deacon does (or did in the past) so they're not TECHNICALLY slaves so much as people in a "work camp" or whatever and Deacon somehow acts confused about all this, and I can see some folks trying to defend it on those grounds, but...those are slaves, man.

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Man, David Cage solved slavery on one Sony game, only to be shat on by another Sony game.

 

[Segafreak]

Bend will survive to strong sales. IP will not.

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I just hope it doesn't take them another 7 years to come up with a groundbreaking concept.

 

[Marcus Brutalius]

The scores are bad, but the 4players review (80/100 - their highest review ever is RDR2 with a 94) makes me keep my pre-order.
The same reviewer gave Metro Exodus a 68 because of the bad AI and technical issues. He describes in detail
how he likes the strategic approach of how you can tackle encounters in DG. That's all I wanted to hear.

So people, calm your tits and ask yourselves what you expected from this game in the first place.

 

[get2sammyb]

Well some reviews disagree and really dislike the game, gamespot for example clearly don't think the game is good or very entertaining

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And like every game ever, there are others who really like it. And then there's everyone else in that 7/10 territory like me. And that's absolutely fine.

 

[joe_zazen]

But Sekiro was doomed because of Niho releasing before it, which was doomed because another game had a similar setting.

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All derivative shit. The only media worth consuming has to be 100% original, thats why I only consume El Castillo cave paintings.

 

[Ceerious]

This is not a " love it or hate it " game. It's a fillers-ridden mediocre open-world action game.

 

[Mikebison]

Wait what? Horde is a late game stuff??

Wtf this is the main selling point of the game

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Gamespot review suggests you do it about 40 hours in.

 

[Pagoto93]

I'm low on things to play so I was really hoping this would be good. Thank God I listened to reason and didnt pre-order. The scores I don't mind but nothing's worse than an open world with tedious, repetitive missions.

 

[FusedAtoms]

Reviews are all over the place but I'm def still going to try it myself , hopefully I enjoy it

 

[Bumrush]

Not interested at all in the game but it's a bummer to see for Bend and Sony. I hope people still have a lot of fun with it

 

[Lant_War]

It isn't ;) But all the "generic" guys who crapped on all the previous Days Gone threads are here, letting it all out.

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Oh come on, when at least some reviewers are using words like very good and give it 9/10 and 8.5/10 scores, then it's kinda "good"? It's not great, but it's a 7/10 and so, still a good game ;)

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Anthem is a 5.5/10 game (see Metacritic) and Days Gone is a 7/10 :)

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It will still be a ~7/10 game. Anthem never will :)

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It at 73 right now. It will drop to 70 is my guess. In the end, (yes, I'm saying it again) it's a 7/10 game. It's a good game. And that, yes, makes me happy :)

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This is pathetic dude

 

[Seganomics]

Dying Light is only 74 on MC.

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And you chose Dying light because it's a zombie game?
Do we only judge RDR2 against other cowboy games?
I'm talking about the open world genre of which Days Gone is an example, and (when weighed against the competition) a poor one.

 

[El-Suave]

I'm surprised by the scores. I skipped all of the preview footage and just watched a trailere here and there, so I'm pretty impressed by the video review footage, except for when bugs are highlighted of course. Also some reviews sound more promising than the score ends up being. I guess I'll find out where I end up when I get it tomorrow. I was hoping for the game to get me out of the gaming slump I'm currently in, so fingers crossed it can still do that.

 

[DrDeckard]

it's sitting right with world war z on opencritic right now. I think i'd prefer to get that and play co op with the buds.

 

[Shpeshal Nick]

Hmmm...reading about the bloat, I wonder if the delays were due to pressure from Sony to artificially pad out the game.

I've found that for me personally, most of Sony's games, regardless of the overall quality of the game itself, were all longer than they needed to be.

As I've said all along, the E3 build I played was good but I did wonder how it would hold up over 20 hours or so. Hearing how long this game is, I guess maybe the consensus seems about right? Because even the most enjoyable games can drag on too long and start to not feel fun anymore.

 

[SirMossyBloke]

But, but, but... the preview thread was glowing.

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I'm honestly surprised it was glowing. Other than the very first trailer I saw nothing of the game other than an hours playthrough on Gamespot yesterday, and here's what I saw within 40 minutes:

1. Stamina bar
2. Having to gas your bike
3. Durability in weapons
4. "Detective" mode

These are literally things people have been complaining about in games for a while and want removed, yet here we are with a game with all 4 thing in it. How is this a surprise?

Add in generic white guy and you basically have a "paint by numbers" style video game.

 

[Porg in a morgue]

I'm still looking forward to playing it tomorrow. Enjoyed plenty of games with similar scores (7/10 is in no way deserving of a lot of these reactions imo) and this one seems just like what I'm currently looking for from a game.

 

[Bundy]

Even if it sells well, I wonder... will Sony greenlight a sequel or maybe new IP?

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Bend's gonna decide. Is a 7/10 game and a million seller good enough for them? Can they improve the DG concept? I think they can and will, but let's see. You never know these days.

 

[Logan Hardy]

Was expecting 80-85 so wrong and disappointed in bend

 

[Nintendo]

And you chose Dying light because it's a zombie game?
Do we only judge RDR2 against other cowboy games?
I'm talking about the open world genre of which Days Gone is an example, and (when weighed against the competition) a poor one.

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Because it's the closest one and was Dying Light a poor game? Absolutely not.

 

[DevilMayGuy]

Wow didn't know that, Really at 74. Dying Light was fantastic, visually and gameplay. Co-op ton of fun, And the dlc was a great add-on. Warranted a sequel and sold well too so Metacritic scores mean jack sometimes.

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It was a 74 for very different reasons though, when you read the reviews.

 

[Blackbird]

There are some crazy overreactions in this thread. The game's entertaining; it never, ever looked like some Game of the Year winning magnum opus. It's exactly what the Metacritic of 71 suggests it is: good, honest open world entertainment.

Like I wrote in my review, it's gaming comfort food: unremarkable but enjoyable all the same.

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I think at this point people should realize that being soulless, unremarkable, generic or anything you wanna call it, is probably way more offensive to some than others.

If i read a review which claims that the game feels like a "AAA" checklist without anything else, it would throw me off more than a experience trying to be something unique but at the same time flawed in its execution.

I don't think there's such a need to defend mediocrity tbh.

 

[midfalutin]

Not defending it and I obviously haven't played the game so I don't know exactly how the concept is being conveyed, but isn't slave trade a fairly common theme in post apocalyptic stories? Mad Max and Fallout are two series that immediately come to mind.

Anyway, this game is looking like a big letdown. I had pre-ordered it years ago for $40 and I'm still debating cancelling.

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That's true, though I think the issue is less its presence than the game's hesitance to be honest about some of this stuff in a way that makes any particular sense. Deacon is both meant to have Done Things and be plausibly oblivious and I just don't really buy it at all.