When Days Gone was first released, it was critically panned. Countless reviewers at major sites dealt with severe bugs, crashes, and some couldn’t be bothered to play more than an hour or two of the game. They felt it was a bland and empty experience. Now, we’re here. Should you play Days Gone in 2023?
You’ve likely heard from fans and friends that, despite the initial reception, Days Gone is an exceptional single-player game. And hey, it’s all true!
The Story of Days Gone
The story and characters of Days Gone were, upon release, criticized for being too generic and too “problematic,” whatever the hell that means.
The reality is, Days Gone features memorable, iconic characters that appear rough at first glance and wind up with fantastic character development over time. Especially in Deacon St. John!
You’ll meet a cast of characters that leave an impact on you, like Boozer and Skizzo.
As for the actual storyline, yes, we’ve all read, watched, and played through countless post-apocalyptic tales about a virus or infection that transforms people into monsters. It’s an old tale.
In Days Gone, it’s not just the Freakers that prove problematic. It’s the people more so than anything. Everyone has an agenda, and they’re willing to go to great lengths to further their goals.
That, and the world is realistically and beautifully realized, with so much intricate detail to be both believable and fearsome at times.
The Gameplay in Days Gone
Overall, the gameplay in Days Gone proves relatively simple. But that’s not a bad thing by any measure!
It’s your standard third-person action game with both melee and shooting mechanics. You’ll also craft a few basic items, like molotovs, pipe bombs, and first aid consumables. It’s the drifter bike that genuinely shines, however.
Over time, you’ll customize and upgrade your bike to move faster, travel farther, and take more than one hit before its engine begins to smoke.
Alongside the basics, you’ll tackle various story missions for a few memorable characters in various regions. You’ll also take down ambush camps to help clear the road, burn out Freaker nests with molotovs and gas tanks, and take down the fearsome hordes roaming the game world.
It’s the hordes that most remember from Days Gone. After all, much of the marketing material in the early days focused on the sizable and ferocious hordes, like the Sawmill Horde.
Any Bugs or Crashes?
During my first 70-hour playthrough of the main storyline, I experienced nothing more than a few graphical glitches. One of these, unfortunately, forced me to reload my game from a checkpoint.
Without revealing any spoilers, I was traveling back through a tunnel and was forced to use explosives to progress. The wall in which I was supposed to demolish, sadly, glitched and I was stuck on the opposite side from my objective.
Nothing worked, and so I had to reload a save. It wasn’t a major deal, but certainly a pain in the ass.
Overall, however, I never crashed nor experienced any other bugs or glitches in my playthrough,
Cult Following
These days, it’s more common to hear about Days Gone through its cult following than anything else. All announcements and news of the game have dried up completely.
But that’s okay because the people still playing the game, like the fantastic folks over on Reddit, absolutely adore everything about Days Gone.
These players take the time to create guides about everything within the game, including starter guides and horde locations. They welcome new players with open arms. They talk about the game and its future, along with its troubled past, and don’t hide the fact that they found one game they love more than any other.
That’s admirable!
So, yes, you should play Days Gone in 2023!