Originally posted by nano:

The big problem with the game is that it assumes that the protagonist knows everyone, but in your first game you don't know anyone, you don't even care about your great boozer friend.

I keep hearing this complaint, but I cannot understand why it is an issue. You are playing a character in a game who has skills, relationships, attitudes, and other issues that you may, or may not actually share. The relationships are all explained (albeit casually) in the cut scenes, so if you skip them you miss it. If you really really really need to have a deeper knowledge and understanding of who these people are, and what their relationship is, you can google it and find a TON of info.

Did you really think the developers of Days Gone were going to make a biography film of Deacon and his life from conception to game? If the back story is so important to you, maybe you could make one up and write it down.

Originally posted by Bohemian Rap City:

Originally posted by nano:

The big problem with the game is that it assumes that the protagonist knows everyone, but in your first game you don't know anyone, you don't even care about your great boozer friend.

I keep hearing this complaint, but I cannot understand why it is an issue. You are playing a character in a game who has skills, relationships, attitudes, and other issues that you may, or may not actually share. The relationships are all explained (albeit casually) in the cut scenes, so if you skip them you miss it. If you really really really need to have a deeper knowledge and understanding of who these people are, and what their relationship is, you can google it and find a TON of info.

Did you really think the developers of Days Gone were going to make a biography film of Deacon and his life from conception to game? If the back story is so important to you, maybe you could make one up and write it down.

People dont seem to understand fiction or listen to the story as it develops. They talk several times about the past and how Deek and Boozer were even banned from Iron Mikes. This complaint is not only invalid, it is a failing of peoples critical thought skills.

Of course Deek knows all these people. It is literally stupid to state otherwise.

Originally posted by RageMojo:

People dont seem to understand fiction or listen to the story as it develops. They talk several times about the past and how Deek and Boozer were even banned from Iron Mikes. This complaint is not only invalid, it is a failing of peoples critical thought skills.

Of course Deek knows all these people. It is literally stupid to state otherwise.

I think the crux of the issue is that too many lock themselves into a hyper gamer focus and just race past all the "window dressing" in order to grab the next loot or experience reward.

I can understand that. If you paid your cash for the game, play it however you like, but complaining that they never heard the back story that they 86'd on the way to the next mission is kinda silly.

Originally posted by nano:
The big problem with the game is that it assumes that the protagonist knows everyone, but in your first game you don't know anyone, you don't even care about your great boozer friend.

well that's on you and no one else

Originally posted by nano:

The only relationship of friends between the protagonist and Boozer is the intro and some radio messages, nothing more. Maybe later in the game they explain or show more, but for the moment Boozer could be my twin brother and not know it.

They share the colors, the 1%r patch is prominently displayed on each. This, all by itself, should speak volumes about their relationship. Add to that the early cut scenes of Deacon, Boozer and Sarah and you don't need to be clairvoyant to gain some understanding.

I'm not sure when we got to a point where we lost the ability to draw valid conclusions from small data points. It is like we all need to be Nero and have someone plug us in so we can say, "I know Kung Fu!" without having to actually exercise our brains.

I agree on the need to acquire knowledge. Life is a learning process for everyone. I find the script well-written, and had no problem investing in the characters.

Deacon - He is angry at the curve-balls that life keeps throwing at him. As a Nomad, he is used to being free to follow his own path (think Ronin Samurai) but is torn between his responsibility to Boozer (his last brother) and his desire to learn the truth about Sarah's fate.

Sarah - Deacon's love interest who he thinks is dead (the title and running number of days marks the time back to when he last saw her). He is angry at the world because he stayed to help Boozer (his brother) and feels responsible for not going with her. It is a twist on the Sophie's Choice dilemma.

Boozer - His brother Mongrel, who is severely injured in the opening scenes and is dealing with major burns, infection, fever, and fever induced psychosis. He acts as the anchor that holds Deacon there (much as his past life in the MC is an anchor, since they are all gone). His staying with Boozer keeps him from pursuing info on Sarah's fate, as well as tempering his ability to wreak vengeance on the world around him.

I'm almost 50 hours in, I think I was grinding for more credits to get the last bit of stuff unlocked..

On the brink of finishing the game, (I think) yet it was so spaced out and some of the missions were so boring that I lost interest for the past two months..

Like you said, it got repetitive. Which many games do, but man.. at a certain point it stopped "flowing".

Once I got boozer squared off and seen Sarah again.. I stopped caring.

As I think about it, I still need to finish the game just to see what the plot behind the cause of the infection in the first place. To see what happens to Deacon and Sarah? Meh... even role playing as Deacon, I'd simp for better. It just seemed like the love wasn't mutual..

Played on Survival mode as well.

I think this really added to the game. The early hours were really intense. The motor bike gas mileage was really overtuned though which contributed to derailing things a bit. In a mode where you can't fast travel, it was super annoying to drive 10 miles and have to gas up. The mpg should of varied between the survival and other modes. I did find a mod to double the mpg and after upgrading the bike further, it did get better.

Not hating on the game, definitely was worth it.. at the sale price.

With a little more TLC though... it could of been S tier.

OK, I'll fill in some back story for you.
I'll try to avoid spoilers. In case I drop a couple, if you don't want to know, stop reading.

If you look at Deacons cut, he has a badge on it which says Enforcer. Boozer has a Sargents stripes on his. That means Boozer was the MCs Sargent At Arms (chief enforcer), Deac was his right hand man. Therefore they've been friends for years. Sarah, who you've only seen in flash backs, is a biologist working near Farewell. They meet as per the cut scene video, Deacon courts her, they get married. I dunno how much later, but not long, a zombiefiying virus hits the world. For whatever reason, Deac, Sarah and Boozer are together when the zombies hit Farewell. As you've seen, Sarah gets stabbed, Deacon gets her onto a NERO helicopter. He and Boozer get out of Farewell, and go to get Sarah from where they're told the chopper is going, but it's been overrun by zombies. They kill every zombie and check every body, but Sarah isn't there. Deacon thinks his beloved wife is probably dead, but he's not certain. He hopes she's alive and until he see's her dead body he still has hope.
The game starts 700 days later. He and Boozer have been keeping each other alive for 2 years through a zombie apocalypse. And Deacon is having great trouble with his grief, because of guilt for going with Boozer instead of Sarah. Even though Sarah should have been in good safe hands and an injured Boozer would probably not have made it out of Farewell on his own. When Boozer gets grabbed by the RIPpers and burnt, Deac blames himself. He put his friends life on the line, for a bike part. This same friend who has been keeping him alive through the last 2 years of hell. Deacon tells you this part himself. And that's why he's sticking with his friend Boozer.
That's as much of the back story I'm going to tell. You should have got almost if not all of this from the game yourself anyway.

I've played this game all the way through 3 times. I'm now on my 4th play through, on Hard 2 now. Some of this backstory I've pieced together myself, but 90%+ of it is shown to you in cut scene videos or told to you by Deacon during the game. I've just filled in a few bits from my over 60 years of life experience. I was a soldier for 12 years, I've been a biker for over 40 years, and still am. I'm a long distance truck driver, and have been driving all over Western Europe for more than 20 years. I started delving into computer programming 30+ years ago, for the fun of the challenge. I'm a third of the way through a degree (BSc) with the Open University, just for the hell of it. I've been a Royal Yacht Association qualified Windsurfing instructor, with open sea and competition instructor add ons. I've got a shelf of silver cups won in windsurfing competition. I'm also a dad and grandad.
Just saying, I'm a working man who's done a bit. Not bragging (well not much). Not anyone special, but I do like to keep active and keep my brain active too

I would definitely NOT like this game if I had to play "The Story of how Deek and Boozer Met" mission(s) ala walking around picking flowers like he did with Lisa or whatever her name is. I honestly don't know why people need the back story, but there's already enough there.

"Caring" about Boozer is irrelevant, he's a plot device. Whether you want to save him or not, the game doesn't let you choose. If the game let me choose, I would have stopped looking for whats-her-name shortly after the first forced "slow walk" flashback.

Devs: "How do we keep the momentum going in a post apocalyptic zombie game where you run from hoards of hundreds of zombies?"
Person That Shouldn't Be a Dev: "I know, let's have a bunch of flashbacks before the zombies, and force several unskippable slow-walking boring conversation parts."

Nothing made me hate that woman more than being forced to slowly take part in their courtship. I didn't buy a dating sim, I bought a 3rd person shooter that advertised massive crowds of zombies. It wouldn't be bad at all if I could have skipped it (especially after the 1st playthrough). But man, it's literally the ONLY part of the game like that you can't skip. You can even skip the dialog of the camp leaders telling you important details about a mission they're sending you on... But god forbid you be allowed to skip the most boring parts that literally have nothing to do with the game at all.

So yeah, I don't need Deek and Boozer's back story. Write some fan-fiction and then read it aloud to yourself before playing the game if you need it.

the stutters every 20 minutes are pretty annoying

People talking ♥♥♥♥ about the story, when those things are in the story, they just have not gotten to yet. Amazing.

Originally posted by Bohemian Rap City:

Originally posted by nano:

The big problem with the game is that it assumes that the protagonist knows everyone, but in your first game you don't know anyone, you don't even care about your great boozer friend.

I keep hearing this complaint, but I cannot understand why it is an issue. You are playing a character in a game who has skills, relationships, attitudes, and other issues that you may, or may not actually share. The relationships are all explained (albeit casually) in the cut scenes, so if you skip them you miss it. If you really really really need to have a deeper knowledge and understanding of who these people are, and what their relationship is, you can google it and find a TON of info.

Did you really think the developers of Days Gone were going to make a biography film of Deacon and his life from conception to game? If the back story is so important to you, maybe you could make one up and write it down.

it isnt a flaw like he or she claims. Theyd just complain that there is too much exposition if they went in depth on everyone he knows. They should have added like a lore thing once you meet a person, that explains the past and such for people who have these complaints. Game does a good enough job on explaining what was done in the past, It just is not all upfront. He is only 27 hours in, this game is nearly 100 hours if you do everything lmao. And the game is a slow starter 15ish hours in is when it picks up story wise prior to that, its setting up the world.

Originally posted by nano:

No, I'm watching all the cinematics, but they hardly tell anything, to think that I'm taking it very quietly, I'm still rescuing the first girl you meet.

I just passed the first cinematic in which the protagonist picks up his girlfriend on a motorcycle and they have just met, although I already have the branch of survival to the maximum

Maybe it is more advanced, but the game puts characters without explaining anything, which is a failure in the narrative, especially if those characters have a strong impact on the protagonist.

youre 27 hours in in a nearly 100 hour game my dude. And the first 15 hours is kinda meh it only starts picking up after 15 or 20 hours, but ye. The more you play, the more you learn. Its a story telling mechanic to avoid a mass dump of info onto the player or watcher. Youd be complaining if they spent 30 minutes explaining all characters. The game does a good enough job on explaining over time. Granted they should have lore notes on characters after you meet them, and you unlock more the further you get in. Just so you can read up on it if you want. Plus he isnt a new fresh character just for the player to experience things. Idk to me they do a good enough job explaining characters in relation to the main character, plus the fact it really is only a handfull of characters that you know. Its not every character, and over the time of playing you get to know each of the people you knew in the past some what well.

id rather have it like this, then a huge exposition dump every few hours, like some games or a ton of games do.

There really isn't much opening exposition on anything that is going on, not even in a "it's a myyysssteryyy" sort of way but just "eh, everyone knows and you'll work it out yourself". There's not an awful lot of storytelling going on here and it is making it pretty difficult to feel at all invested, which doesn't really do much to get you over the initial entry interest needed to get you to the "good stuff".

"There are zombies, you have a friend, you have a wife who is presumed dead, go do some random quests on your new bike that replaces the good bike you were supposed to care about but was immediately destroyed. Nero is something, government bad!"

Well. I may be in the minority, but I am thoroughly enjoying the game. Just got to the scene where Deacon finds O'Brian and I felt it was well written and well acted. The video runs smooth so I have no tech issues with the scenes. I wish they would allow all scenes to be skipped on follow up replays of the game, because I know I will do another play through when I complete the story.

As I said before, I really don't understand a lot of the negative comments about the game, but since everyone complaining about it also bought it, at least some of their displeasure should be focused inward. After all, there are TONS of reviews, discussions, and wiki/source materials out there to review and make an informed decision before buying.

Suffice to say, it was on my Wishlist when it was $30 but I waited until it was under $15 to buy it. I bought it. I play it. I enjoy it.