'Days Gone' rethinks zombie hordes as a puzzle you shoot through
In Days Gone you don't run from the zombie horde; you shatter through it.
It's not technically zombies you're fighting, to be fair. Similar to the stampeding, not-quite-undead armies of 28 Days Later, the game's "Freakers" are living creatures that have been infected. "Zombie" just offers an easy point of comparison.
Taking on Freaker hordes isn't the singular focus of Days Gone, an open-world action/adventure from Sony's Bend Studio, but it's what was highlighted for the game's E3 2016 reveal (watch it above).
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"What we showed in the ... press conference was a mission in the game," senior designer Eric Jensen told Mashable. "You're trying to find something, so you have to get rid of the horde to get out of there alive with the thing that you need."
It might not have seemed it during the stage demo, but there were a finite number of Freakers in that horde. All the explosions, all the gunplay, all the collapsing bits of scenery were meant to whittle down the numbers.
"The cool thing about the horde is they can show up all over the world, but there are going to be hotspots," Jensen said.
The sawmill featured in the demo was one such hotspot, and the horde was drawn there for a specific reason. A derailed train left the ground littered with corpse-filled body bags, providing the Freaker horde with a much-needed source of food.
"The horde is drawn to those areas where they can eat, because they're living, breathing creatures," Jensen said. "They need to eat food, they need to drink water, they sleep."
"Everything out there is trying to kill you, but everything out there wants to survive just like you."
Those behavior patterns play out naturally without any interference from players. It's a key piece of the "systemic" open world in Days Gone, with Freakers and other beings just doing their own thing until you interrupt them.
In practical terms, the game's "living world" quality opens up different approaches for tackling its assorted challenges. In the case of the sawmill demo, everything from the time of day to the weather to the ruckus you create can affect how everything plays out.
"If you're making a ton of noise and [the Freakers] are making a ton of noise, there's potential for them to bring other guys out of the forest," Jensen said. "If you know you're at the time of day when they might be sleeping, then you may be less likely to bring other guys out."
Freaker sleep patterns open up the tactical possibilities as well. Even with a big, blockbuster "kill the horde" challenge, stealth is an option.
"[If] they're all sleeping you can go around, plant explosive devices and set traps, and then just kite them through this path that you created to take them out," Jensen said. "It just depends on what equipment you have; that really determines how you can play out the scenario."
Jensen stresses that Days Gone is about more than just fighting Freaker hordes. The story -- which follows survivor and former motorcycle club rider Deacon St. John -- remains a mystery, but the Freaker threat fits into a much larger world.
"In the coming months we're going to be showing different examples of gameplay that will be a big contrast to what the horde is," Jensen said.
The Freakers might be the product of whatever apocalyptic event shattered the world of Days Gone, but the environment as a whole is dangerous to both Deacon and his motorcycle, your primary mode of transportation.
"You're riding around on a bike that you've outfitted to take on this terrain, but it's rugged terrain. It can hurt you, it can hurt your bike," Jensen said.
"There's other people out there that could potentially come after you [as well]," he added. "Everything out there is trying to kill you, but everything out there wants to survive just like you."
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Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
