In 2019, Sony released the initially PS4 exclusive Days Gone, a thrilling open world zombie adventure set in central Oregon. Although it was scaled back in some aspects from its original ambitions, it’s still a remarkable collection of ideas and game design advancements, and it pushes story, pacing, and fun mechanical depth to the forefront in new ways that most other superficially similar games can’t even begin to approach.
You can’t watch or read any of the criticism around the game from its launch five years ago without seeing many pointed comparisons to The Last of Us, Sony’s other in-house zombie franchise. I think those comparisons are rather unfair, and indicative of the surface-level thought that so often plagues the gaming industry and its surrounding discourse. Yes, both games have zombies in them. Yes, both have broadly similar color palettes. Yes, both are telling an emotionally-infused story about people dealing with harrowing situations.
But where Last of Us is a nightmarish, intense, super-focused linear action adventure with some wider spaces in its sequel — Days Gone is a massive clockwork open world machine made of wildly different core parts. It has dozens more miles…
