Days Gone

Days Gone is Bend Studio's open-world action-adventure originally released for PlayStation 4 in 2019 and ported to PC in 2021. The setting is the Pacific Northwest two years after a global pandemic devastated the world, leaving its survivors scattered across feral wilderness, splinter biker gangs, scavenger camps, and the constant pressure of the Freakers — zombie-like creatures created by the pandemic that move in genuine swarms across the landscape.

You play Deacon St. John, a former outlaw biker now working as a drifter and bounty hunter, searching for meaning in a world that no longer has much to offer him. The Drifter motorcycle is his most important tool — an invaluable companion across the vast game world, customisable across mechanical and cosmetic dimensions, and genuinely a character in its own right. The terrain spans forests, meadows, snowy plains and desert lava fields, scarred by millions of years of volcanic activity and now scarred again by the recent end of civilisation.

Combat is brutal and pushes you toward variety. Customisable traps, weapons and upgradable skills are necessary against the Freaker hordes — genuinely large swarms of enemies that move and react as fluid groups rather than discrete units — and against the human gangs and feral wildlife that share the territory with you. An ever-changing environment with dynamic weather, day-night cycles and Freaker behaviour that evolves over time keeps the world from settling into a fixed pattern. The PC release includes ultra-wide monitor support, unlocked framerates, improved graphics, New Game Plus, Survival Mode, Challenge Mode and a range of bike skins.