TL;DR: if you own a PS4, you should try this game.

First post of this blog. It took a videogame to get me the inspiration to write on this site something different than short stories, and therefore change its initial purpose. I was waiting for something interesting to write, and here it is: this game is awesome. I know it aready has good votes on Metacritic, but I have the feeling that it's more underrated than it should, so I wanted to give my contribute to share the word.

Damn, this game is almost perfect in so many ways. The soundtrack is amazing, with the orchestral music that follows perfectly what happens on the screen. The graphics are very good and the acting is phenomenal — except for some very loud replies in some dialogues which I can’t explain, and some inevitable hate for some of the characters. The weapons are fun to use, you can feel the weight of each one. They well balanced and I can’t wait to collect all the pieces to get the secret one!

Anyway, the main protagonist is the nature. I love hiking, I love creepy spots and Days Gone is the perfect match. Misty lakes in the woods, abandoned farms, lush hills with huge blood pools where hundreds of zombies —Freakers, pardon— feed voraciously… yes, the environment is definitely the best part of the game. In general, during your trips to survive among monsters, ambushers and infected wild animals, you can really feel an amazing atmosphere, even better than in TLOU — I still haven’t played Part II because it hasn’t been on sale yet :)

Then there are bugs and glitches… well, they could deserve a dedicated post. They could force you to restart the game or just make you laugh a lot… I personally love collecting these funny moments, and this game is a great source of material indeed! Maybe I’ve been luckier than other players, but I mostly enjoyed the glitches. They may ruin the atmosphere, but a laugh every now and then helps to manage the tension.

The gameplay is well-balanced because it allows the player to both plan a strategy to take out a camp of batshit crazy people —or a horde of hundreds(!) of Freakers— and allows a good freedom to roam the roads of the amazing landscape with the motorcycle. Sometimes you feel a bit too much obliged to scavenge airbags, bottles and cans to build some pieces of equipment —attractors rule!—, but after a while it becomes part of the mechanics: drive - discover an interesting spot - hide - loot for anything useful - shoot - profit. It is definitely repetitive, but it works better than I expected.

Last but not least, this is one of the very few times that I wanted to start over with New Game+ at the highest difficulty — honestly, normal mode is quite easy. Also, the Photo Mode is very good and I enjoyed taking some screenshots like the ones in this page. This is a great game, not good as God of War, but definitely one of the best experiences I had with a controller in my hands.

Final note: Bend Studio is the same software house that created Syphon Filter for PSOne… I have good nostalgic memories of playing the demo of that game, it was so fun to roast the enemies with the taser!