Very soon,Sony is finally going to unveil the PlayStation 5to the world and offer a proper first look at new games that are coming to the next-generation console. While the company is yet to make any official announcement regarding what may be shown, it’s safe to say players will be given at least a glimpse at the future of first-party with potential appearances fromGod of War 2,Horizon Zero Dawn 2,Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, andDays Gone 2(not all of them obviously, but even one or two of these would be big for the PS5).
Days Gonereleased in April 2019 to less than stellar reviews, failing to meet the same critical success seen with so many of Sony’s first-party PlayStation 4 catalog. However,Days Gonemanaged to create a strong following with fans and outsoldGod of War,The Last Guardian, andDetroit: Become Humanin its first month, enough to greenlight a sequel to Bend Studio’s open-world zombie adventure. If Bend Studio decided to go ahead withDays Gone 2on PS5, it’s going to need to address some of the first games major issues and hopefully become the nextUncharted 2orAssassin’s Creed 2.
RELATED:Both PlayStation Plus Free Games for June 2020 Are Available Now
Deacon St. John & the Supporting Cast
One of the biggest issues withDays Goneunfortunately came down the game’s main characters and its supporting cast. The story follows outlaw-turned-drifter Deacon St. John, excellently portrayed byStar Wars: The Force Unleashedactor Sam Witwer, as he attempts to uncover the truth about what happened to his wife Sarah after the outbreak. While Sam Witwer’s performance is truly a highlight, Deacon himself is incredibly uneven and his lust for murder and revenge often becomes too much.
As for the supporting cast, no other character is fleshed out beyond their basic role in advancing the narrative besides Sarah. For example, marketed asSons of AnarchymeetsThe Walking Dead, players are immediately introduced to Deacon’s best friend and fellow drifter Boozer, and almost immediately, Boozer is injured andspends the first 5-10 hours of the gameonly playing a minor role over the radio. There’s simply too many side-characters, catalyst characters, and camp leaders that could’ve been used to flesh out the core cast of characters, including its villains.
Nero and the Evolution of the Virus
Warning: MAJOR STORY SPOILERSahead for the ending ofDays Gone(skip to the next point to avoid).Days Gonefeatures multiple storylines that run concurrently throughout the game and one of the most important ones follows a government agency called Nero that a seemingly still alive and well, and studying the Freakers while leaving humanity for dead. In theory, Nero helps usher in a fascinating government conspiracy that works best when its a mystery, but in practice, Nero never really went anywhere and ended up as more of a gameplay excuse to upgrade Deacon’s health and stamina.
The end result of the Nero storyline comes to full fruition in a secret ending when players visit the graveyard after the credits and learn that Nero has been experimenting on humans, creating super-soldiers who are coming for the rest of humanity.Days Gone 2needs to decidewhether it wants to be an intimate story about surviving in a post-apocalyptic world or the war of factions against the government and its supersoldiers.
Jack of All Trades, Master of None
Bend Studio went all out with the creation ofDays Gone, creating an expansive and gorgeous open-world with a cinematic story, light RPG mechanics, multiple hub-worlds, vehicle gameplay and combat, hundred of collectibles,challenge modes, and endgame contentin the form of the games biggest hook, Freaker Hordes.Days Goneis a ‘Jack of all Trades’ that manages to do everything reasonably well but never great.Days Gone 2could greatly benefit from tightening the experience, focusing on everything it does really well such as the vehicle gameplay, and then expanding on that. Great games don’t attempt to do everything; they do select things really, really well.
Performance Issues & Bugs on PS4
Despite any of the major issues mentioned thus far,Days Goneis a well-made game and a lot of fun to play. Where things really start to fall apart and a major contributing factor to its negative critical response comes down to howDays Goneperforms on PS4. Even after a years worth of updates,Days Gonedoesn’t perform very on a base PS4, suffering from major issues with frame rate, screen tearing, textures popping in and out, environments not loading, andenough glitches and bugs for a highlight real.
In the mission What it Takes to Survive, players to this day are still experiencing an issue where the environment doesn’t l0ad properly before the player enters a cave at the beginning of the mission. If the entrance doesn’t load in properly, a story mission horde can’t enter the cave and therefore players are unable to defeat the horde and finish the mission. There’s currently no known fix outside of restarting the game and hoping for the best.
RELATED:Sony Reportedly Starts PS5 Console Production
Before the release ofDays Gone, Sony Bend Studio was best known as the developer ofUncharted: Golden Abyss, a PS Vita spin-off that released in 2011, and theSyphon Filterseries on the original PlayStation. The studio hadn’t previously worked on the PS4 or the open-world genre, makingDays Gonean incredibly ambitious title for the studio that seemed to pay off. When it came to the game’s critical response, the negative reviews forDays Gonecame down to a lack of polish on the final product: uneven frame rates, texture pop-ins, a lack of cohesion between missions and side content, and far too much bloat whereGod of WarandMarvel’s Spider-Manproved that more isn’t always better.
Taking everything it learned from the development ofDays Gone, there’s a lot of potential for an inevitable sequel to course correct and create a thriving franchise that PlayStation fans adore. Using the groundwork as the first game and addressing the issues mentioned here,Days Gone 2could be a much tighter, focused, and polished sequel that doubles down on the game’s story and zombie horde hook, separating it from being just another post-apocalyptic game. Hopefully,Sony will have a few surprisesin store at the PS5 reveal event.
Days Goneis available now, exclusively for PlayStation 4.
MORE:Ubisoft Should Remake Splinter Cell on PS5 and Xbox Series X
