2019 video game

Days Gone is a 2019 action-adventure video game developed by Bend Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It is set in post-apocalyptic Oregon two years after the start of a pandemic that turned a portion of humanity into vicious zombie-like creatures. Former outlaw biker Deacon St. John discovers his wife Sarah, having been assumed dead, may still be alive and goes on a quest to find her. The game is played from a third-person perspective in which the player can explore an open world environment. Players can use firearms, melee weapons, and improvised weapons, and can use stealth to defend themselves against enemies. A major game mechanic is Deacon's motorcycle, which is used as the player character's main mode of transportation. The enemies, known as "Freakers" in the game, can congregate to form a large horde to chase down Deacon.

Days Gone was Bend Studio's first open-world project, its first original property since Syphon Filter (1999), and its first development project for home consoles after spending decades working on spinoff games for handheld consoles. The game's development took approximately six years; Bend Studio expanded nearly three-fold to support it.

Central Oregon was chosen as the game's setting due to its diverse terrain and landscapes. The game's storytelling method was inspired by several shows on Netflix, while the narrative was inspired by World War Z, The Walking Dead and Sons of Anarchy. The game was unveiled at E3 2016; its release was originally planned for 2018 but was delayed several times.

The game was released for the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, and Windows in May 2021. A remastered version for PlayStation 5 was released in April 2025 alongside a downloadable content pack with the new game modes for Windows. Upon release, Days Gone received mixed reviews from critics, who criticized the game's mission design and technical issues but praised the graphics, artificial intelligence, and Sam Witwer's performance as Deacon, while the story received a mixed reception. The game had sold 7.32 million units by February 2022. In 2021, it was reported that the development team had unsuccessfully pitched a sequel to Sony. A film adapation is currently in development.

Source: Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA.