The connection between the narrative tone and gameplay came through loud and clear during our hands-on time with Days Gone, which at times felt more like a survival-horror game than open-world veterans might expect. We don't want it to feel arcadey, which a lot of open-world games can feel when you're away from the story." "A lot of bad stuff has happened, and we've tried to carry that into the open world. "With Days Gone, it's a very serious tone," says lead open-world designer Eric Jensen.
Don't expect Deacon to don a wingsuit anytime during his journey through Oregon.
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Grim storylines are nothing new for open-world games, but once you're set free to do as you please, all that tension and drama is usually shoved aside for sandbox shenanigans. "It's a big game."Ģ. A Matching Tone For Story And Gameplay "There are 20 named characters in the game who are as important as Boozer," Garvin says. Whether that translates to a good story remains to be seen, but Bend is clearly swinging for the fences.
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And when they get bored with that, this other thing happens."īased on the handful of main missions we played, Days Gone's story does indeed feel more thoughtfully directed and cinematic than most open-world games, thanks to the liberal use of cutscenes that feature motion-captured performances by professional actors. "It's a classic novelistic technique.when the player starts getting bored with Boozer, boom, that's when this other thing's happening. Garvin hopes that having multiple avenues to explore will keep players engaged for the long haul. "It's almost like having these three storylines that intertwine and the player is constantly bouncing between them," Garvin says. The final storyline involves NERO, the National Emergency Response Organization that is researching the infection and its bloodthirsty carriers. These missions include player-driven choices that affect how Boozer feels about you, and even lead to different endings. The second focuses on Deacon's relationship with his tattooed biker brother, Boozer. The first focuses on Deacon, offering a drip-feed of revelations about who he is and what he's been through, including playable flashback sequences. We wanted to try to have that, but have that in an open world."ĭays Gone's main storyline (which the studio says is probably closer to 30+ hours) will revolve around three subplots. "A 20-hour game that is very linear and it has a bunch of setpieces and it goes from beginning to end. "Imagine if this were like Uncharted," says Days Gone writer and creative director John Garvin. Sony Bend is setting a high bar for itself from a storytelling perspective. Most open-world games bombard you with an endless array of quest givers and side activities, a scattershot approach to world building that muddies the main storyline and characters. While Days Gone still offers plenty of gameplay loops to keep Deacon busy, the vast majority of scripted missions and characters are focused on the golden path. In fact, the biggest surprise from our recent hands-on time with the game was how unique Days Gone feels. From climbing up towers to taking down bandit camps, and nabbing crafting items every few feet in between, players often know what to expect from open-world gameplay as soon as they strike out in the direction of their choice.ĭays Gone drops players in the familiar stomping grounds of a zombie freaker-infested post-apocalyptic wasteland, and while it doesn't completely reinvent the open-world genre, it does offer enough interesting twists and bold design decisions to stand out from the crowd. As open-world games have become more commonplace over the past few years, so too have the formulaic activities they offer players to occupy their time.