What's This Game All About
In reality, the Oregon wilderness is a beautifully diverse place teeming with colourful flora and distinct fauna. In the post-apocalyptic world of Days Gone, it couldn’t be further from this. It is a vast and lonely place and nowhere is truly safe. The beautiful scenery still exists, but it pales into the background when you are constantly looking over your shoulder. Days Gone is the embodiment of an underrated title. IGN gave it a 6.5/10. How!?
There isn’t a bad word I can say about this game at this point. I have put nearly 80 hours into it and to me, it still feels as fresh as when I started. There is no burnout, and I still want to play to chase down and kill the many remaining hordes. Maybe even jump into a NG+ and chase the DLC trophies.
The main character Deacon St. John may appear a little rough around the edges at first. From the outside, he may appear as a generic protagonist, but there is much more of him than meets the eye. I haven’t felt as connected to the main character for a long time, perhaps since Joel in the original TLOU. Deacon does what he needs to survive, but he is also loyal, honourable, as well as charismatic, and empathic. The more you play Days Gone, the more you discover about Deacon as a person. He turns into one of the best main characters that I can remember, even if his character arc starts a little slow.
From beginning to end, Days Gone keeps you emotionally invested in its outstanding story. A fantastic array of side characters from very likable to despised, keep you entertained through the journey. The way the game moves from one protagonist to the next is also seamless, and never seems mundane or forced. You feel everything that Deacon feels, from his highest highs to his lowest lows, you are there with him and you want to help. When he is vulnerable, you feel vulnerable, and when he is hopeful you hold the same amount of hope. I can’t think of many other games that do this so successfully, and I doubt I will find many in the future.
Days Gone transcends the boundaries of what’s possible with an open-world video game. The relationships you build feel real, and I felt like I had built true friendships with everyone that Deacon has. His best friend, Boozer, is one of the better side characters in memory. He is a second main character, and I felt as though he was my best friend as well.
If you’re looking for an enjoyable, memorable journey that takes you on a rollercoaster ride from beginning to end, Days Gone is the game to play. If you want to feel like you are in the middle of a real zombie apocalypse, jump on board. The game runs beautifully on the PS5 in 60fps, and the Oregon Wilderness is a perfect setting.
Days Gone Trophies
Trophy Hunting in Days Gone was a very enjoyable experience. There aren’t any difficult trophies where you have to go out of your way, and most come naturally whilst playing through the story. Most of the trophies are completion-based, such as completing a certain questline. These include locating NERO checkpoints, which are abandoned government locations with specific upgrades available, destroying zombie nests in Infestation Zones, and clearing Marauder and Ambush Camps. All of these missions will be communicated to you via radio. None of them are missable, but I would advise completing each task as they arrive, as they unlock certain rewards There are 6 total regions and 5 allied camps that you can move between. Whilst there are certain points of “No Return”, once you finish the story you can always return to any area of the map, so don’t be afraid to progress here. You also only need 75% of the collectibles, and many of these will come through the story. You will still likely need to clean up a few post-game.
There are no difficulty-related trophies in Days Gone, so you can play on Easy if you like. I would recommend playing on at least Normal though, and Hard if you want a significant challenge, especially at the start of the game. The early areas of the game can be quite unforgiving as you are quite underpowered. Deacon is limited to a bolt-action rifle and a semi-auto machine gun, with limited options for crafting items. The first thing you should do is try to level up camp trust with Tucker at Hot Springs, as this is the first camp that allows you to purchase much better weapons. The best way to do this is to complete story missions, but also clear zombie nests and marauder/ambush camps in the region of the camp. You get a decent amount of trust for this. Additionally, turn in all of your Freaker ears at the camp you want to increase trust with, as this contributes too. I would recommend grabbing an automatic machine gun as soon as possible.
Upgrading Deacon’s skills also gives you a significant advantage. Depending on your play style, you want to choose skills that will help you. If you are stealth orientated you want to grab the skills that allow you to sneak and drop quieter, as well as locate enemies using your using R3. These skills are mostly located in the survival section of the tree. If you are going with an all-guns-blazing then a combination of the melee skill tree and the ranged skill tree will do just fine. It’s still advised to look into all of the trees, and unlock any skills you think would be handy, as in the end most of them are useful.
While traversing the Oregon Wilderness you want to take note of a couple of trophies. You’ve Got Red on You required you to loot 541 items from human enemies. It may sound like a lot but I only started focusing on this in the second half of my playthrough and still finished before I completed the story. Also, Lend Me Your Ears requires you to collect 989 Freaker ears in your playthrough. Again, it may seem like a lot but it will come naturally. Just make sure to run near the Freaker corpses and you will collect them automatically. You also want to take note of Farewell Drift, where you need to accumulate 10 minutes of drifting time on your bike. Just drift around every corner you can and this will unlock fairly early.
After I completed the story I still had a few trophies to collect. Best Friends Forever (For Life) requires you to gain the allied trust level with three camps. This means reaching the max level. To be honest, it’s not much of a grind. Just make sure you clear out all the nests and enemy camps, then just clean up the hordes in the region of the camp. Hordes’ approximate locations are displayed on the map, so they are easy to find. Remember to turn the Freaker ears into the respective camp to level it up further. You can usually get around 800-1000 trust from a single horde’s ears. Killing the hordes will also help you reach level 46 and unlock Mr. Farenheit. Hordes give you a good amount of XP depending on their size. I would also suggest making Diamond Creek one of your three allied trust camps if you can. For Burnout Apocolypse you need to use nitro and drift at the same time on your bike for 5 seconds. This requires the Nitro upgrade 3 which can only be bought from Diamond Creek. I didn’t realise this until late so I had to max out another camp’s trust.
With updates to the game, you can also reset all Hordes, Ambush Camps, and Infestation Zones. This comes in especially handy if you need to grind for You’ve Got Red on You. You can only reset each one when you have the respective storyline at 100%.
Trophy Hunting Trophy Facts
Trophies Available – 28 bronze, 15 Silver, 2 Gold, 1 Platinum
Time to Platinum – 65-80 hours (Difficulty dependent. You can also skip cutscenes)
Platinum Difficulty – 2/10
Number of Missable Trophies – 0 (All trophies can be obtained in free-roam post-game)
Hardest Trophy – Best Friends Forever (For Life) (Gain the allied trust status for three encampments)
Number of Playthroughs – 1
Fun Factor – 9/10
Read my previous trophy hunting review here – BioShock Trophies – Platinum Obsession Review