Well, this is different. Developers typically keep their games underwraps right until launch, but Sony Bend has opted to share the opening hour of Days Gone with Game Informer. And you can watch it. In its entirety. Right now. Note that this is an alpha build – the title’s not out until early next year – so there’s still plenty of polish and improvements to be made.
We’re going to be honest with you, we didn’t watch much of the video. The reason for that is we want to experience the release fresh, and frankly experiencing the entire intro this early feels wrong. However our takeaway from the few snippets we did see is that the voice acting is surprisingly good – even if its biker cast is sure to irritate the hell out of some.
It looks decent, too; it’s got all of the components you’d expect from an open world game, spanning everything from crafting through to detective vision. Whether that excites you or irks you will come down to personal taste, we suppose. There’s certainly potential here and it does have some pretty visuals, but its biggest challenge remains whether it’ll be able to stand out from the crowd.
You can watch the footage on Game Informer’s website right now if you want to. What do you make of putting out an entire hour of gameplay this early? On the one hand, it’s completely transparent; on the other, we can’t help but feel a bit weird about it.
[source gameinformer.com]
Comments 30
Has a AAA game ever put out its entire opening hour before? An alpha build, no less!
(The bits I watched looked pretty good. I can imagine it really coming together with another ~9 months work, although I don't think it's going to be to everyone's tastes. Also going to be interesting to see how it shapes up in a post-Red Dead world, which could turn the open world genre on its head.)
They said the reason for this coverage is that they will not be present at E3.
@AlejandroMora Do you have a link? I didn't see that.
@get2sammyb its in the interview they had not sure at what time but they did say they will not make an e3 appearance.
@AlejandroMora The quick-fire questions one? I'll need to watch again; it seemed a bit unclear to me. Cheers!
I wanna learn more about this game, but this just doesn't feel like the right way. Not watching,. It I'll probably buy it anyway.
@AlejandroMora yes days gone will not be at this years e3.word up son
Where is everyone getting this not at E3 thing from? In the interview they ask the question, and they end up just showing a thumb neither pointed up or down?
Is there any more definitive source than that? Please help me to do my job here by giving me a link.
@get2sammyb It's just wishful thinking. No one wants to see this trash AGAIN
@ShogunRok You hush your mouth or I’ll make you review it. Forced to spend 30 hours in solitary confinement with Deacon St. John.
@get2sammyb Ugh, he looks like he stinks as well
My confidence in this game has officially shrunk significantly after seeing this.
Rather than showing the first hour of alpha gameplay, I think studio bend should shows the game like god of war, a little bit of gameplay, a little bit of story and a blowout previews 2-3 weeks before launch. Why shows the game while it still in alpha stage?
@CK97 why exactly
I want !
Ok I watched the first half of the video and than skimmed the second half because I think it looks amazing imo and didn’t want to spoil anymore of the opening. The graphics are beautiful,the dynamic weather looks awesome,the crafting looks like it’s going to be deep,the combat looks weighty,voice acting is done well,the huge freaker groups look awesome,the bike gameplay looks fun,I love how there’s going to be choices not only during the story but when it comes to combat too,the story with being a bounty hunter/MC member is unique and I loved how so much of the environment was lootable I’m a huge sucker for that in a videogame. All in all I’m def getting day one and feel confident it will be amazing like most of sonys first party exclusives
Yeah it wont be at E3 it will be shown at a later date.... When the days gone.
@CK97 Really? Seems to be the opposite for most people from what I’ve seen.
@ShogunRok Stop it or you will review all the Final Fantasy XV dlcs!
I only watched a few minutes here and there and I’m sold. Day 1 purchase for me.
The opening hour of a big story-driven open world game is when it makes its biggest impression on you, surely? Or am I alone in thinking this?
If i've already seen the opening it will lack that wow factor on its first playthrough, so ill give it a miss.
However in an age of elaborate scripted demo's & presentations etc (lookin atchoo NMS, Anthem) gotta give props to Studio Bend for their transparency here, they clearly have a lot of confidence in their product & its refreshing to say the least..!
Saw the whole thing, learned new things about the game & liked it.
One reason why they show this much is because there are different ways you can tackle those missions. Different weather or time conditions as well.
I liked what i saw. Definitely a buy but after playing GOW i really going to miss the dialogue between kratos and atreus
Interesting. I'm already sold on this game so don't really want to watch too much of this.
A couple of notes from what I've watched so far:
1) I think the radar map in the bottom right corner needs to go. Most of the best open world games are starting to move away from an over-reliance on having to use a HUD. Obviously I'm not even playing that first sequence and I already find myself glancing down to the corner map far too often. I think it'd be nice if they were able to spend the last few months of development trying to make the game work without that.
2) The intro (first 10 mins at least) isn't as gripping as you'd hope. Comparison isn't perhaps fair but put it up against The Last of Us, for example, and it makes it look like Days Gone was written in the PS2 era.
3) I already like the amount of player-choice given. Even within the first few scenes we're given a fair amount of different options. You can follow a path one of two ways, you can choose whether or not to kill someone and from all they've said about the game it definitely does seem very dynamic.
@AlejandroMora ok, that kinda explains why they're having coverage of this game this early out from release. Also, that's (potentially) good news that we won't be seeing it at E3 for the third year in a row. Should open up a slot for something new and unannounced from Sony or one of their partners #CrashTeamRacingRemake
Its not the first game to put out an opening hour but I can understand why they may be doing so. All the people who are thinking this is just 'the Last of Us' or 'just another Zombie game', can use this to see that its a much different and more unique game.
@PS_Nation Anything but that!
@dark_knightmare2 Thanks for the in depth analysis!
I watched it, it's pretty cool. As long as the game isn't too hard, I'm in
Not interested in spoiling it for myself. The only thing I want to see from this game is a firm release date.
Tap here to load 30 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...