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Why do you people accept this? (Days Gone critique)

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
I just started playing Days Gone on PS5 due to the recent Sony Bend leaks. I wanted to see first hand what "working off the systems of Days Gone" meant.

Roughly an hour into my experience playing a game, like the Norway Warning System, my brain identifies a critical failure of game design.

Deacon rides a Vespa with a gas tank the size of a premature babies bladder. The thing tops out at 13 mph, and has to be refueled every 200ft. Fine whatever, they want you upgrading this thing over the course of the 40 hour game. That's silly but I can accept it.

That leads you to having to find gas tanks in the open world every two minutes. THAT means you're getting off your Vespa, running/sneaking up to a gas tank, and getting seen by zombies that are everywhere.

Once you're seen by a zombie you instantly have two choices. You can spend the next 3 minutes of your life running towards tall grass/a dumpster/inside a house and sneaking your way back to the gas can....OR...or you can just let the zombies kill you and respawn 15 seconds back with the newfound knowledge of zombie locations.

THE GAME ENCOURAGES YOU TO LET THE ZOMBIES KILL YOU.

what-the.gif


This is the Ford Pinto of game design.

I can stomach the dialogue, the poor encounter design, the lack of meaningful choice etc...I can not suffer the buffoonery of zombies acting as speed icons in the game world. Now I didn't pay attention to much of the discourse when this game launched in 2019, but was this a frequent point of criticism? I feel like all I ever heard about was the "Ride me like you ride your bike" line. How does this broken design get past any stage in the development process? This is bad and John Garvin and Jeff Ross and anyone wishing for a Days Gone 2 should feel bad. Burn this thing with fire, for the love of God.
 
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It's not much of an issue at the beginning and only gets easier. Only once did I have to abandon my bike. Having a bit of maintenance for the bike was what added an enjoyable layer of realness to the world where you felt like you existed in rather than just a gamey theme park to run through. As usual, what clicks varies from person to person and what they want out of the game. For me I loved that shit and have been staring at a gaping hole it left that nothing really has filled. Atta boy, bike. Atta boy.
 

JayK47

Member
Clearly it was a design decision to keep you are the edge of your seat, much like the flashlight with a 5 second battery. I agree it was nothing but an annoyance. But I managed.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Clearly it was a design decision to keep you are the edge of your seat, much like the flashlight with a 5 second battery. I agree it was nothing but an annoyance. But I managed.
Having to grab a gas can every two minutes isn't a deal breaker for me.

Learning the game rewards the player for letting the zombies kill them is the deal breaker.

It's unforgivable game design. The zombies shouldn't be helping the player accomplish their objectives period.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I found it funny how they kept promoting the giant sawmill zombie battle and it turns out people said that happens near the end of the game. The other zombie horde fights are much smaller.
 
Weird. I just refueled at the home base and encampments that far into the game. There is not many places you can survive that early. If you screw up the game doesn't waste your time and throws you back to the nearest checkpoint. I think you will start to appreciate it when you do stealth missions. Most multiplayer games have respawns so it is strange that you would take issue with this particular quality of life feature.
 

Rubim

Member
I just started playing Days Gone on PS5 due to the recent Sony Bend leaks. I wanted to see first hand what "working off the systems of Days Gone" meant.

Roughly an hour into my experience playing a game, like the Norway Warning System, my brain identifies a critical failure of game design.

Deacon rides a Vespa with a gas tank the size of a premature babies bladder. The thing tops out at 13 mph, and has to be refueled every 200ft. Fine whatever, they want you upgrading this thing over the course of the 40 hour game. That's silly but I can accept it.

That leads you to having to find gas tanks in the open world every two minutes. THAT means you're getting off your Vespa, running/sneaking up to a gas tank, and getting seen by zombies that are everywhere.

Once you're seen by a zombie you instantly have two choices. You can spend the next 3 minutes of your life running towards tall grass/a dumpster/inside a house and sneaking your way back to the gas can....OR...or you can just let the zombies kill you and respawn 15 seconds back with the newfound knowledge of zombie locations.

THE GAME ENCOURAGES YOU TO LET THE ZOMBIES KILL YOU.

what-the.gif


This is the Ford Pinto of game design.

I can stomach the dialogue, the poor encounter design, the lack of meaningful choice etc...I can not suffer the buffoonery of zombies acting as speed icons in the game world. Now I didn't pay attention to much of the discourse when this game launched in 2019, but was this a frequent point of criticism? I feel like all I ever heard about was the "Ride me like you ride your bike" line. How does this broken design get past any stage in the development process? This is bad and John Garvin and Jeff Ross and anyone wishing for a Days Gone 2 should feel bad. Burn this thing with fire, for the love of God.
Why are you not playing the superior PC Version?


Then after getting some upgrades

Your welcome.
 

Sakura

Member
Never played Days Gone, but what you are saying kind of reminds me of Death Stranding. It would often be easier to just let the baddies grab you so you can kill the big baddy and then cruise freely through the area.
 

NinjaBoiX

Member
“I decided I couldn’t be bothered to deal with the consequences of my in game actions, so I just let myself die to respawn. What kind of game design is that?”

What are you talking about bro, saying the game encourages you to just give up and respawn is beyond stupid.

You don’t like it, that’s fine.

Chill…
 

Seomel

Member
The game literary teaches you in beginning to save gas by not rolling downhills etc. Also with 2nd upgrade which is maybe 3-4h in you can significantly increase capacity. Beginning is like that just because Deacon got some shitty stripped bike, also gas cana are all atound camp spots, nero zones and gas stationa you have on map. I generally dont remember it being anything like what you describe
 

Justin9mm

Member
A lot of people especially when it first released who didn't like it, never gave the game enough time. It was a widely known fact after it released that it was a slow burn to start off with and it builds up. OP sounds like he played like 2 hours which is nowhere near enough to be critical of the game. I remember it taking like 6-8 hours before things started ramping up. It's good game and better than Horizon in my opinion.
 

Stuart360

Member
I'll be honest, i already knew about the annoying bike running out of gas constantly mechanic, so when i played on PC i just used a trainer that gave the bike unlimited gas lol.
 
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GymWolf

Member
I'll be honest, i already knew about the annoying bike running out of gas constantly mechanic, so when i played on PC i just used a trainer that gave the bike unlimited has lol.
It's really a non-problem, gasoline canister are fucking everywhere and it get even better when you upgrade the tank capacity.

I have 3 runs and like 100++ hours in that game and the bike only left me on foot like 3 times.
 

Stuart360

Member
It's really a non-problem, gasoline canister are fucking everywhere and it get even better when you upgrade the tank capacity.

I have 3 runs and like 100++ hours in that game and the bike only left me on foot like 3 times.
Interesting, its not really what i have read.
Still i find these kind of mechanics add nothing to a game except annoyance and frustration, so i feel i would of used a trainer anyway even if reports said it wasnt that bad.
Its like when i play a RPG or open world game, i always use a trainer to give myself unlimired item capacity, carrying capacity, etc. Cant stand always running out of space, or needing to drop something to pick something up, etc. It adds nothing to the game for me except annoyance.
 

GymWolf

Member
Interesting, its not really what i have read.
Still i find these kind of mechanics add nothing to a game except annoyance and frustration, so i feel i would of used a trainer anyway even if reports said it wasnt that bad.
Its like when i play a RPG or open world game, i always use a trainer to give myself unlimired item capacity, carrying capacity, etc. Cant stand always running out of space, or needing to drop something to pick something up, etc. It adds nothing to the game for me except annoyance.


I don't particularly like this mechanic either and it would be bad if it was an actual problem, but it isn't, at best is a minor annoyance because you have to remember to fill the tank everytime you stop to clear an enemy camp etc, but this get progressively better with the tank upgrades.

At best you can say it's half cooked, not all the way in where scavenging for gasoline was really important but not even all the way out where you never have to think about gasoline, for some people is probably fine tuned as it is.
 
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