Days Gone

If you want more: Zombie-themed survival horror
Notable differences: Open world structure, less stealth oriented, dramatically more zombies
Availability: Windows (Steam Deck OK) PS4, PS5

Days Gone firmly sits in the shadow of a much more successful post-apocalyptic Sony-published series, The Last of Us, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t deserving of your attention. In fact, Days Gone has enough that’s different from TLoU to make it not just feel like a lesser attempt at the same kind of game.

Firstly, Days Gone gives you a very pretty and detailed open world to persist through—and it’s more than happy to fill that wider space with oodles of zombies. The scale of some of the hordes you’ll come to face dwarf even the largest group of infected bastards in TLoU or its sequel. This presents a neat timing and combat puzzle to deal with. It sufficiently delivers that fantasy of dealing with The Horde and is one of the game’s most memorable achievements. Oh and the motorcycle is fun and manages to strike a nice balance of resource management without feeling too burdensome.

Various details of Days Gone’s plot won’t grab your attention as effectively as TLoU, but I found protagonist Deacon’s story somewhat poignant. Separated from his significant other, Sarah, during the zombie outbreak, the story explores what life is like for Deacon in the years that have followed, and you’ll continue to try and survive this ravaged world on your motorcycle as you unravel more than a few surprises. Overall, I found Days Gone to have a slightly brighter and more optimistic tone, with more cartoonish and campier themes than The Last of Us. That might be a welcome change of pace given that it’s yet another zombie romp—at least it’s not as depressing as the last one, though. And though some foes will put up a challenge, I found Days Gone just more fun to play as a video game; there’s enough here that’s different for it not to just feel like a lesser TLoU and it might help reinforce what you loved so much about TLoU