GEEK - Fall 2017 - 31

G
D

WALKING TARGETS

By Matt Cabral

DAYS GONE BREATHES FRESH LIFE INTO THE UNDEAD APOCALYPSE.
IF YOU'VE PICKED UP A GAMEPAD IN THE LAST
FEW YEARS, you've probably blasted some
virally infected foes full of buckshot. Zombie
shooters have become so prevalent that
putting an original spin on the genre has proven
tougher than surviving a meeting with a barbed
wire-wrapped baseball bat.
Despite the odds, though, developer Bend
Studio is attempting to freshen up the rotting
corpse space with their ambitious open-world
action entry Days Gone. A PlayStation 4 visual
stunner that appears to have the powerful
platform firing on all cylinders, the game stars
outlaw-biker-turned-postapocalyptic-bountyhunter Deacon St. John.
Much like a certain fan-favorite character
from The Walking Dead, Deacon cruises around
on a bad-looking bike, wields a corpse-piercing
crossbow and has no qualms about putting his
life on the line for his friends. In fact, during our
recent behind-closed-doors demo of Days Gone,

the protagonist braves a snowstorm in the
game's Pacific Northwest wilderness to rescue
a buddy who's been abducted by a rival group
of survivors.
After slipping and sliding a bit through
the increasingly hazardous terrain, he hops
off his ride to stealthily approach the enemy
encampment. Quietly introducing his hunting
knife to the side of a target's head, he stomps
another mark's noggin to pulp.
Much like the unsavory survivors populating
The Walking Dead's world, Days Gone's
desperate people often present more of a
threat than the zombies, or Freakers, as they are
referred to in the game. To that point, the first
undead creatures we actually encounter have
been hung from trees - apparently by humans
- around the camp's perimeter.
Upon carefully navigating this manmade
security system, Deacon discovers a bear trap,
and we get a taste of Days Gone's emergent

gameplay and dynamic combat. We're told
the hero can enter the camp behind a flurry of
bullets or clear it from a distance with a sniper
rifle, but the developer steering our demo gets
a bit more creative. He sets the hunting trap,
then lures a clueless guard into its metallic
teeth; when the victim's friends try to assist
him, Deacon tosses a Molotov cocktail into the
crowd.
With his path clear, he pushes forward,
pausing only occasionally to open an enemy's
chest with a fireman's ax or pop a guard's
melon with his rifle. He eventually finds his
kidnapped friend, but their escape is thwarted,
at least temporarily, by a zombified grizzly bear
blocking their path.
Our time with the game concludes with this
pulse-pounding cliffhanger, but our promising
demo has us counting down the days until
its 2018 release... and wishing Deacon hadn't
wasted that bear trap on a puny human.

walmartgeekmagazine

31



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GEEK - Fall 2017

Contents
GEEK - Fall 2017 - Cover1
GEEK - Fall 2017 - Cover2
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 3
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 4
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 5
GEEK - Fall 2017 - Contents
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 7
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 8
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 9
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 10
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 11
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 12
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 13
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 14
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 15
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 16
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 17
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 18
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 19
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 20
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 21
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 22
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 23
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 24
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 25
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 26
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 27
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 28
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 29
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 30
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 31
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 32
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 33
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 34
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 35
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 36
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 37
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 38
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 39
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 40
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 41
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 42
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 43
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 44
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 45
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 46
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 47
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 48
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 49
GEEK - Fall 2017 - 50
GEEK - Fall 2017 - Cover3
GEEK - Fall 2017 - Cover4
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com