- Joined
- Dec 29, 2000
- Posts
- 13,184
I said it and I don't regret it.
The Last of Us was, I think, an experience more fully realized than anything we'd ever seen offered in the genre as a video game before. It had some pretty good themes in it, well represented and executed, a compelling relationship between its two protagonists and a twist ending that is actually a 'happy ending' for the characters despite the dishonesty Joel exhibits at the end.
The problem with the game, in my opinion, is that it's all set pieces. There is no spontaneous element to any of its encounters, which I think is odd for a game set in a world of this type. It's not open world, which is to its benefit given the focus on the narrative, and every enemy area is placed strategically to pace the story.
Days Gone, on the other hand, offers an open world, free roaming, great customization with both the character of former outlaw bikeer turned wasteland mercenary for hire Deacon Saint John (ably voiced by Sam Witwer) and his motorcycle. There are numerous factions in the game; you have the Truthers, conspiracy nuts that blame the world's collapse on government conspiracies. You have Tucker's settlement, run by a stubborn old woman that works her tenants to the bone so they can stay behind the walls of her community. You have Lost Lake, run by Iron Mike, a humanist that believes 'the world is what you make it', and later in the game you have a militia run by a religious zealot that has organized his people into an army with the express purpose of hoarding knowledge and storing it in an 'ark' of sorts for future generations to benefit from. Each of these factions hires you to do jobs for them, and as you build trust with them, their shops open up with better weapons and better upgrades for your bike. They each also have their own currency as well, so the money you make in one isn't transferable to another, which I think is pretty cool. These settlements don't really interact with one another, but they all know you.
The enemies you face can be rogue anarchists, who are happy the world has fallen apart, militia fundamentalists living out in the woods, rogues that ambush people on the roads, R.I.P.pers, who are a crazy faction that have abandoned their humanity because they want to forget the things they have lost and finally, you have the 'Freakers', this game's term for the zombies, which are more of the 'I Am Legend movie type-fast moving screamers that will overwhelm you if you don't stick and move. They also have a few mutated types to provide a variety of extra challenges.
What's really cool about the settlements is that there isn't any one 'perfect' group. They each have their good parts and their bad parts. Of the four settlements factions, Iron Mike's Lost Lake community is the most benevolent but that mercy sometimes leads to bad things. The thing I really like about this is that it isn't so simple a view of the different types of people. It's complicated, much like real life is, and it's hard to demonize any one faction entirely.
The game takes place in Oregon, and the environments are both fun to navigate and beautiful to explore. There are tons of small communities, lodges, hotels, farmhouses, gas stations and even a saw mill to explore and forage. There are also NERO stations that you have to clear, after which you can get a boost to stamina, health or focus (slow motion while in combat). NERO is the federal organization that still flies through the area in black choppers, landing to do their research and then taking off. They are the best armed faction and you have to do stealth missions to learn what they're about.
You can craft a staggering amount of weapons and items to help you in your journey, from noise makers that draw large groups of Freakers in for crowd control, proximity bombs and minds and remote bombs and mines that you can set off when groups of enemies are right on top of them. You can craft molotov cocktails and pipe bombs and health, stamina and focus cocktails by gathering herbs from the countryside to give you temporary buffs.
As you clear enemy encampments, you can unlock formulas for new items to craft, such as nail bats, crude axes and so forth. Clearing enemy encampments also builds trust with the communities closest to them, which gives you more of their currency and elevates your status with them to the point where you can 'rank up' to buy better weapons and bike modifications. Completing certain questlines also unlocks special weapons and paint jobs for your bike.
The gunplay is quite good and the melee combat is brutal and effective, if a bit simplistic. The motorcycle is a lot of fun to drive around in, and once you equip nitrous and get a good enough engine, you can really pick up some steam. But enemies can sometimes spring from nowhere, infected animals can sometimes keep pace with you and pull you down, and some ambushers put ropes across the road and when you're going that fast, you don't see them coming. Animal fights are sort of annoying, though. Especially bears, which sponge a lot of bullets. Luckily, you can eventually enhance your bike to carry saddle bags with reloads so you don't always have to travel all the way back to a settlement to do it. You also have to concern yourself with gasoline because if you run out of gas in the wasteland, it's a long walk home. Fast travel will consume gas as well, but you can only use it when near or on your bike and only to the settlements and any cleared enemy camps or NERO checkpoints.
The most fun and challenging part of the game, by far, is taking on the hordes. Massive groups of Freakers that need to be killed down to a man and some of these groups require expert kiting. A couple of the hordes are events in carefully laid out areas where you can pull down obstacles, run between narrow spaces, go underneath small breaches in obstructions and lead the enemies through your trap invested areas. They can get pretty intense, and even with the right gear it isn't always easy. In the endgame, there are a ton of hordes of varying sizes scattered throughout the countryside you have to clear to cull favor and make the area safe for travel. The only thing I don't like about the horde events is that you have to scavenge for a while to get the materials to make your traps and molotovs. But once you have what you need, they are a real blast.
The story itself is pretty standard zombie stuff but because of the different factions and characters informing the various quests, it feels fresh and new and invigorates the genre. I had a huge 'Red Dead Redemption in modern day with zombies vibe going, especially with the annoying animal encounters. But really, it's the free roaming, the character customization, the good combat and the interaction with different factions that draws the strongest comparisons.
I bought this game for $20 bucks on Black Friday and I must say that it was well worth it. This game is worth $60 bucks. I checked online and there is no DLC for it, either. Not sure if they had plans and ditched them or if it was never in the cards. The most recent update added some Death Stranding paint schemes and gas tanks for your bike, but they were totally free.
This game is EASILY worth $60 for all the content, variety, gameplay and fun it offers. In my opinion, not to be missed and at $20 bucks, it's a fucking steal.
The Last of Us was, I think, an experience more fully realized than anything we'd ever seen offered in the genre as a video game before. It had some pretty good themes in it, well represented and executed, a compelling relationship between its two protagonists and a twist ending that is actually a 'happy ending' for the characters despite the dishonesty Joel exhibits at the end.
The problem with the game, in my opinion, is that it's all set pieces. There is no spontaneous element to any of its encounters, which I think is odd for a game set in a world of this type. It's not open world, which is to its benefit given the focus on the narrative, and every enemy area is placed strategically to pace the story.
Days Gone, on the other hand, offers an open world, free roaming, great customization with both the character of former outlaw bikeer turned wasteland mercenary for hire Deacon Saint John (ably voiced by Sam Witwer) and his motorcycle. There are numerous factions in the game; you have the Truthers, conspiracy nuts that blame the world's collapse on government conspiracies. You have Tucker's settlement, run by a stubborn old woman that works her tenants to the bone so they can stay behind the walls of her community. You have Lost Lake, run by Iron Mike, a humanist that believes 'the world is what you make it', and later in the game you have a militia run by a religious zealot that has organized his people into an army with the express purpose of hoarding knowledge and storing it in an 'ark' of sorts for future generations to benefit from. Each of these factions hires you to do jobs for them, and as you build trust with them, their shops open up with better weapons and better upgrades for your bike. They each also have their own currency as well, so the money you make in one isn't transferable to another, which I think is pretty cool. These settlements don't really interact with one another, but they all know you.
The enemies you face can be rogue anarchists, who are happy the world has fallen apart, militia fundamentalists living out in the woods, rogues that ambush people on the roads, R.I.P.pers, who are a crazy faction that have abandoned their humanity because they want to forget the things they have lost and finally, you have the 'Freakers', this game's term for the zombies, which are more of the 'I Am Legend movie type-fast moving screamers that will overwhelm you if you don't stick and move. They also have a few mutated types to provide a variety of extra challenges.
What's really cool about the settlements is that there isn't any one 'perfect' group. They each have their good parts and their bad parts. Of the four settlements factions, Iron Mike's Lost Lake community is the most benevolent but that mercy sometimes leads to bad things. The thing I really like about this is that it isn't so simple a view of the different types of people. It's complicated, much like real life is, and it's hard to demonize any one faction entirely.
The game takes place in Oregon, and the environments are both fun to navigate and beautiful to explore. There are tons of small communities, lodges, hotels, farmhouses, gas stations and even a saw mill to explore and forage. There are also NERO stations that you have to clear, after which you can get a boost to stamina, health or focus (slow motion while in combat). NERO is the federal organization that still flies through the area in black choppers, landing to do their research and then taking off. They are the best armed faction and you have to do stealth missions to learn what they're about.
You can craft a staggering amount of weapons and items to help you in your journey, from noise makers that draw large groups of Freakers in for crowd control, proximity bombs and minds and remote bombs and mines that you can set off when groups of enemies are right on top of them. You can craft molotov cocktails and pipe bombs and health, stamina and focus cocktails by gathering herbs from the countryside to give you temporary buffs.
As you clear enemy encampments, you can unlock formulas for new items to craft, such as nail bats, crude axes and so forth. Clearing enemy encampments also builds trust with the communities closest to them, which gives you more of their currency and elevates your status with them to the point where you can 'rank up' to buy better weapons and bike modifications. Completing certain questlines also unlocks special weapons and paint jobs for your bike.
The gunplay is quite good and the melee combat is brutal and effective, if a bit simplistic. The motorcycle is a lot of fun to drive around in, and once you equip nitrous and get a good enough engine, you can really pick up some steam. But enemies can sometimes spring from nowhere, infected animals can sometimes keep pace with you and pull you down, and some ambushers put ropes across the road and when you're going that fast, you don't see them coming. Animal fights are sort of annoying, though. Especially bears, which sponge a lot of bullets. Luckily, you can eventually enhance your bike to carry saddle bags with reloads so you don't always have to travel all the way back to a settlement to do it. You also have to concern yourself with gasoline because if you run out of gas in the wasteland, it's a long walk home. Fast travel will consume gas as well, but you can only use it when near or on your bike and only to the settlements and any cleared enemy camps or NERO checkpoints.
The most fun and challenging part of the game, by far, is taking on the hordes. Massive groups of Freakers that need to be killed down to a man and some of these groups require expert kiting. A couple of the hordes are events in carefully laid out areas where you can pull down obstacles, run between narrow spaces, go underneath small breaches in obstructions and lead the enemies through your trap invested areas. They can get pretty intense, and even with the right gear it isn't always easy. In the endgame, there are a ton of hordes of varying sizes scattered throughout the countryside you have to clear to cull favor and make the area safe for travel. The only thing I don't like about the horde events is that you have to scavenge for a while to get the materials to make your traps and molotovs. But once you have what you need, they are a real blast.
The story itself is pretty standard zombie stuff but because of the different factions and characters informing the various quests, it feels fresh and new and invigorates the genre. I had a huge 'Red Dead Redemption in modern day with zombies vibe going, especially with the annoying animal encounters. But really, it's the free roaming, the character customization, the good combat and the interaction with different factions that draws the strongest comparisons.
I bought this game for $20 bucks on Black Friday and I must say that it was well worth it. This game is worth $60 bucks. I checked online and there is no DLC for it, either. Not sure if they had plans and ditched them or if it was never in the cards. The most recent update added some Death Stranding paint schemes and gas tanks for your bike, but they were totally free.
This game is EASILY worth $60 for all the content, variety, gameplay and fun it offers. In my opinion, not to be missed and at $20 bucks, it's a fucking steal.
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