Days Gone Review Summary

Engaging and emotional story: The game offers a rich, long, and emotionally impactful story with well-written characters. The narrative is engaging and features deep emotional arcs, making players care about the characters and their journeys.

Excellent graphics and sound design: The game features top-notch graphics, including realistic and beautiful visuals, dense forests, dynamic weather, and excellent optimization. The sound design is also highly praised, contributing to an immersive atmosphere.

Immersive and detailed world: The game world is beautifully crafted, detailed, and feels alive. The dynamic weather, day-night cycles, and roaming hordes contribute to an immersive and atmospheric experience.

Thrilling zombie hordes: The game includes intense and adrenaline-pumping battles with zombie hordes. These encounters are challenging, exciting, and add a significant layer of thrill and strategy to the gameplay.

Recommended for open-world zombie fans: The game is highly recommended for fans of open-world zombie games. It is considered one of the best in its category, offering a mix of survival, action, and narrative in a post-apocalyptic setting.

Repetitive gameplay: The gameplay is criticized for becoming repetitive and boring over time. The repetitive nature of missions and activities can make the game feel monotonous.

Occasional minor bugs: Players have encountered occasional minor bugs and crashes. These issues, while present, are not severe and do not significantly hinder gameplay.

Slow initial pace: The game is noted for having a slow start, both in terms of gameplay and story development. This slow pace can make the beginning of the game feel boring.

Frustrating difficulty: The difficulty in the game can be frustrating, particularly with hordes and enemy behavior. The AI is also noted for being inconsistent and poorly behaved.

Poor audio management: The audio in the game is poorly managed, with issues such as overlapping tracks, repeated dialogue, and abrupt cut-offs. Dialogues are also criticized for being monotonous and poorly synchronized.

Open-world zombie survival gameplay: The game is set in an open world with a strong emphasis on zombie survival elements. Players can explore a large map while engaging in combat and survival activities.

Motorcycle customization and upgrades: The motorcycle is a key element in gameplay, with extensive customization and upgrade options. Players can manage and upgrade their motorcycle to improve performance and capabilities.

Horde encounters and combat: The game features intense horde encounters that require strategic planning and tactical decisions. Players must combat large groups of zombies in various scenarios.

Survival and crafting elements: Survival-focused gameplay includes crafting and resource gathering. Players must manage resources and craft items to survive in the post-apocalyptic setting.

Stealth and combat mechanics: The game offers a mix of stealth, action, and strategic combat. Players can engage in combat using a variety of weapons and traps, or use stealth to avoid enemies.

Frequent minor bugs and crashes: Many players reported encountering minor bugs and occasional crashes. These issues seem to be common but not severe enough to significantly hinder gameplay.

Smooth performance and high FPS: The game is noted for running smoothly with high FPS and good performance. Players appreciate the excellent optimization and impressive graphics.

Excellent optimization: The game is well-optimized, particularly on PC. Players have noted good optimization and well-optimized graphics settings.

Miscellaneous issues: Various other issues have been reported, including subtitle delays, audio quality issues, sluggish controls, and enemies getting stuck in textures.

Enhanced graphics options: The game offers enhanced visuals and graphic options, which have been appreciated by players. This includes detailed forests and weather effects.

Recommended for zombie and open-world fans: The game is highly recommended for players who enjoy zombie games and open-world settings. It offers a unique experience in the zombie genre with a strong narrative and immersive survival mechanics.

Worth playing and highly recommended: Many reviewers simply state that the game is worth playing and highly recommended without going into specific details. It suggests a general positive sentiment towards the game.

Recommended with some caveats: Some reviewers recommend the game but suggest waiting for a sale or discount. This indicates that while the game is good, it might not be worth the full price for everyone.

Desire for a sequel and adaptations: Several reviewers express a strong desire for a sequel and even adaptations like a Netflix series. This indicates a high level of engagement and satisfaction with the game's story and world.

Positive sentiments in different languages: The game receives positive recommendations in various languages, indicating a broad appeal and satisfaction among a diverse group of players.

Community fair range: $29.99 - $39.99.

Game completion: 48.0h.

Story completion: 30.0h.

Days Gone has a slow and repetitive start, but it becomes more engaging and fun as players progress through the story and mechanics, typically after the initial hours of gameplay.

Reported time to anchor: 2h.

Friction: Repetitive side missions; Slow pacing; Tedious combat; Grindy quests; Stiff animations.

Unlock drivers: Progression of the story; Deepening of character development; Exploring the open world; Engaging with main story missions.

Story-Driven Explorer: Explores the world and engages with the story at a leisurely pace, appreciating the details and emotional arcs. Motivation: Emotional engagement and narrative depth. Stance: buy.

Completionist Grinder: Systematically completes all side content, collects all items, and masters the game's mechanics. Motivation: Completion and mastery of game mechanics. Stance: sale.

Challenged Enthusiast: Enjoys the balance between challenge and relaxation, appreciating the unique aspects of the game's design. Motivation: Engaging and challenging gameplay. Stance: buy.

Performance varies significantly across hardware cohorts, with higher VRAM configurations generally reporting better experiences. Lower VRAM and RAM setups often face more issues, including crashes and frame drops.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM: positive. Mostly positive reports with smooth performance and high FPS, though some users experience crashes and bugs.

Windows <8GB VRAM / <16GB RAM: mixed. Mixed experiences with some users reporting smooth gameplay after adjustments, while others face significant stuttering and crashes.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: negative. Predominantly negative reports with frequent lag spikes, crashes, and optimization issues.

Steam Deck: The analysis of user feedback for Days Gone on the Steam Deck reveals a mix of performance issues, compatibility challenges, and positive experiences. Significant performance problems have been reported post-update, particularly with the DLC release, making the game unplayable for some users. Compatibility issues, including crashes and the need for Proton Experimental, are also notable. However, many users have had positive experiences, praising the graphics, story, and overall gameplay. Control issues and variability in Linux compatibility further add to the mixed feedback.

Linux and Proton: The game generally runs well on Linux, with positive feedback on both native support and Proton compatibility. However, there are some reports of crashes, graphical glitches, and stuttering issues that require specific versions of Proton or experimental builds to mitigate. Overall, the user experience on Linux is mostly positive with some minor tweaks needed for optimal performance.

Monetization: The analysis of user reviews for the game reveals several key themes. Many users express dissatisfaction with the value provided by the DLC, feeling that the content is not worth the price. There is significant frustration with certain game modes and features being locked behind a paywall, which users believe should be part of the base game. Additionally, users are annoyed that achievements are locked behind DLC, requiring additional purchases to fully complete the game. Despite these criticisms, some reviews highlight positive aspects of the game, such as the lack of microtransactions and the overall enjoyable gameplay experience.

External guides: The analysis of user feedback reveals significant reliance on external instructional data to understand game mechanics and complete certain tasks. Additionally, there are notable mentions of bugs and navigation issues, as well as frustrations with the game's progression system. These points highlight areas where users experience barriers and require external resources to enhance their gaming experience.

Russian language availability: The game supports the Russian language despite initial indications that it might not. This is a positive aspect for Russian-speaking players.