Let's Be the Hero of the Plague - Days Gone PC

The story of the game begins with a small section from the beginning of the virus epidemic. On the one hand, we have our brother, and on the other, our wife, who was stabbed by a small child, and we are trying to leave the city with one of the rescue helicopters. However, the helicopter can only pick up two people, and while we send our injured spouse to find support, we stay with him, not allowing our "hero" to be alone. Early in the game, even if we haven't gotten into the story yet and haven't gotten to know the characters, the introductory sequence is pretty impressive and "Halal, you're man!" I can say it was the kind of thing that made you say.

After this impressive introduction, we are going to the grouping of humanity that has adapted to the epidemic, two years later. As two bikers with our friend Boozer, we immediately find ourselves in a training session. In this part where the gameplay comes to the fore for the first time, the basic mechanics of the game and in fact the humanity that the epidemic has destroyed in people are shown. I will go through these areas superficially, but the beginning of the script goes through the intensity of feelings such as hatred and brotherhood until the development part. In this sense, as soon as he enters, he manages to convince the player how cruel the world has turned into a place and everything is now more dangerous.

However, I can say that I saw something about the story that bothered me at least. Supported by cinematics at the entrance, the story becomes faint as it progresses. Although I felt that the story was continuing somehow, I could not grasp the linear progression of the story. Thinking that the game will hide and show something, although I compiled what I learned as I progressed, there were parts that were skipped from time to time. So we somehow had two years but we know very little about our past, we slowly remember during the missions, but big question marks remain. If these little gaps are filled, the storytelling that would work perfectly falls short after a while due to tiny breaks.

There is also some confusion between the main and side missions. In other words, while we are moving towards our goal in the game, this progress suddenly branches off. Would we go north with Boozer, take care of his recovery, or try to figure out what NERO was up to? Believe me, it was very confused in the episode right after the introduction. As I progressed, I realized that these were actually complementary sections and that I had to do these too to eventually move the main task forward. Nevertheless, was there a need for such confusion? That is discussed. This branching, which some players might like, failed to catch me. While storytelling can get stronger in places and really hold the actor, it falls out of power in such a place that it can even make it difficult to understand what you are doing.

Also, another thing I don't like is that our main character lied to the people living in the camps on the right and left, and after these lies were revealed, the game left the load to us. We should have at least made a choice here. Of course, if I pay homage to the fiction of the game, they may have wanted to shed light on what kind of person our character was before we built it.

However, the main quests, side quests, loot hunts and open world activities are not presented to the player in a very descriptive way in the interface. Therefore, trying to understand what is what and associating it with the story told in a disconnected way, "Oh, this was the main task!" It takes some time to say. I should not go without specifying this.

Of course the beauty of the gameplay makes up for this disconnection

Of course, there is one more part that we should not skip in our Days Gone PC review content. No matter how disjointed and complex the story progresses, one of the admirable aspects of the game is that they have handled the gameplay mechanics very well. From the motion animations of our biker main character, to melee combat and the use of ranged weapons, Bend Studio has done this job! The toughness in the character animations, the hit feeling you feel when using melee weapons, and the finishing animations are quite satisfying. The shooting feel of the ranged guns is quite nice. If you have upgraded to the PC version but want to play the game by feeling the vibrations from the controller, that is also possible. In addition, although it is switched from console to PC, weapon controls, character controls or melee mechanics are not badly affected by this, it is quite compatible. It doesn't feel slow.

There is also a skill tree that manages to differentiate your experience as you progress in the game. I cannot say that it is very deep and detailed, but when you use your skill points in the direction you want, you can easily feel the difference it creates. The skill points you spend in melee, ranged weapons and survival branches give you the chance to reflect your own style into the game.

Other mechanics aside, I also need to open a paragraph to motor driving dynamics. Driving through the forest paths in Days Gone's magnificently designed open world is super fun! The driving dynamics of the engine and the way you feel every step of the road you are driving is truly magnificent. I can say that perhaps one of the strongest aspects of the game is these motor travels. Of course, like every good thing, it can come to an end. You need to maintain your engine regularly and check its fuel constantly. If you run out of fuel, you may need to push your engine with your feet for 1.2km as I did and take it to the nearest fuel station. Of course, another option is to have gas cans around that you can detonate with your gun or use for your engine. Luckily for me, when I ran out of fuel, there were no bins around. However, I have to say that it was a pleasure to even go downhill and go as far as possible with that acceleration without fuel. The beauty of the engine driving dynamics supports the open world of Days Gone and the gamer's sense of exploration.

If we want to stop following the story and have some fun, we will be greeted by the struggles section. Here you can test your abilities in various modes and earn credits to return stronger next time. Challenges mode, which has a credit system in itself and allows you to create a kind of "loadout" before you enter every fight, is an excellent option for players looking for action. As you progress through the story, here you can fight with herds that you could not deal with until at least a certain power level was reached. While it's nice to have such a variety, it's even better if it's well handled.

Landscapes are beautiful

"Does Days Gone, released as a PlayStation 4 exclusive game, look that good on PC in 2021?" I can hear you ask. I can say yes to that with peace of mind. Not only is the open world beautifully designed, the graphics, textures, particles and post-processing effects push today's standards. Even when we remove the power of the graphics developed with the PC port, it is possible to see that some of the scenes are a great job of section design. So a few great designers came out of Bend and said, "Let's design a beautiful view here, open up the nation." While it breathes the atmosphere of the apocalyptic and dangerous world you are in, it also makes you admire the harmony of nature.

However, it is also possible to see different climates in different parts of the map. While the area where we start the game is adorned with the views of dense forests and streams, you can see that the surroundings become dry and deserted as you move north. This sharp transition between regions does not make you feel like you are constantly traveling in the same place when you are caught up in the flow of missions. In this regard, I can say that I like the game.

Days Gone PC port was better than expected

Perhaps the most anxious point for the players will be the transition from the PlayStation 4 version to the PC version. Days Gone, which never shines as well as it should - at least for me - because it had some problems when it first came out on console, seems like it won't have this problem on PC. If we compare it to Horizon Zero Dawn's PC port, Days Gone is really smooth, it works smoothly. I kept playing until my graphics card caught fire and had neither a stutter nor a crash. Of course, since the hardware variety on the PC platform is extremely rich, the game will be presented to a larger audience when it is released, and the notification from here will provide you with more clear information on the subject. My system with AMD FX-8370e, 1050Ti and 16GB RAM ran the game quite fluently (50-60FPS) at high settings.

However, the details such as key assignments for the mouse & keyboard, the game mechanics being fed to these controls are also very good. If the game had been released for PC in the first place, perhaps this much mouse & keyboard would be compatible as the controls. In this sense, we can say that the game has passed from PS4 to PC quite smoothly. In addition, the improved graphics that come with the PC version removes some restrictions due to the hardware of the PS4 console, and the sights of Days Gone, which broke the chains, look even more impressive in the new version.

Before I forget! Nowadays, I have to congratulate the developer and publisher side, as the big game companies do not add Turkish language support to their games released in our country and start to interfere with the patches. I have to say that I was a little more sensitive about this issue, as most of the games published in our country did not show this sensitivity and this issue was mentioned a lot by the players. In addition, the translations of Days Gone are very nice, I should mention that I have not encountered an annoyingly big mistake. Still, you can see dialogs that seem strange to small people.

Since Days Gone is an open world game, it has a fairly long gameplay time. However, players should pay attention to this when calculating the price / playing time. How much do you love to explore details in the open world and hunt for side missions and loot? If the answer to this question is "I love it" for you, it means that you are waiting for a very long gaming experience. However, even if you do not want to go through the story and waste much time with side missions, an experience of at least 30-35 hours awaits you. Of course, the time may vary depending on the difficulty you play and your style of play.

Days Gone PC Review: Long story short

If I briefly summarize the titles I mentioned in the review and make a decision, the PC version of Days Gone is quite suitable for players who want to try the game on a different platform and want to start from scratch. If you don't mind trying because of technical problems, you might be less concerned about this than in Horizon Zero Dawn. Even with my average computer system I shared with you in the article, I did not experience any bugs, crashes or low performance problems. In fact, this surprised me quite a lot. In this sense, he managed to get a passing grade.

Of course, if the story comes first for you, it's a good idea to approach Days Gone with some caution. Even though I like the general story and the cinematics used in the narration, I sometimes got away from the game because the flow was unstable. Of course, this is not a firm conviction that you will have the same experience. Nevertheless, Days Gone is a production that is close to being "very good" but remains a "good game" with a story that makes you say "I wish it was better processed" and its open world waiting to be discovered and I recommend you to play it.