Above all else, what really captured the attention of gamers when Days Gone was revealed at E3 2016 was the crazy scope in the amount of Freakers on-screen at once. The demo showcased 500 rampaging cannibals as Deacon utilised the environment to thin their numbers — it was basically a video game version of World War Z.
Since then, new info and gameplay for Days Gone hasn’t really shined a spotlight on its approach to hordes, seemingly in an effort to focus on other aspects of the game. While the number of Freakers might not be as large, Game Informer were able to take on a 300-strong horde during a play session with the alpha build of Days Gone, and it looks pretty promising.
So, first things first: Days Gone isn’t nearly ready for the public yet, so much so that Game Informer even admitted that Sony made cuts to the footage to gloss over some of the issues with the game as it is now. It’s pretty clear from the framerate that it has some ways to go yet, along a whole lot of clipping, buggy climbing, and it just lacking a bit of polish.
That being said, it’s hard not to be fascinated by what Days Gone could be when it launches next year if Bend get everything together. The footage shows that there are different approaches to thin out the horde with explosives being the go-to for most. Watching as the crowd quickly ambles towards Deacon and divides onto different paths to swarm him is pretty interesting; there’s a lot of different AI in-play at one time here.
Admittedly, it bugged me that the team at Game Informer didn’t really test out all possibilities. It would have been cool to see how the horde reacted when you climbed atop a truck, or other routes Deacon could take away from the “pit”, such as the house on the hill. It also might just be me, but Sam Witwer’s delivery of his lines is off-kilter and just a bit strange, too.
There’s clearly a lot for Bend to action from this footage, which makes me glad that Days Gone was pushed back until next year. I’m a sucker for zombies games (even if they’re vehemently against the zombie label), so here’s hoping they can clean some things up before Days Gone lands on PS4 in 2019.
As a bonus, here’s the E3 2016 footage for comparison’s sake.
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