WHAT’S NEW PLUS-SY CAT?
Digging into the random acts of gaming a lengthy PS Plus subscription offers…
The joy of PS Plus is getting several new games each month – but after a while as a subscriber most of us have a library full of unplayed games. So each issue I’ll highlight not just what subscribers got their mitts on last month but also one other title from my own PS Plus vault.
Think titles you’d never give a second glance were they not freebies – games like April’s Days Gone. Bend Studio’s open world game about zombieslaying bikers held its own on PS4 alongside Zombie Army 4 and Oddworld: Soulstorm on PS5 last month. For future columns I will cast my eye a bit further afield, but Days Gone has been free for PS5 owners via the Plus collection since launch and so, with its inclusion as an offering to subscribers, there’s no getting away from it. I’ve tried!
I don’t think I’ve seen a title any less my cup of tea. Vehicle-based open-world exploration? No thanks. A post-apocalyptic premise played painfully straight? Nah, you’re all right. Sullen biker leads whose arc doesn’t culminate in them kissing? It’s a no from me. But the whole point of loving a medium is a willingness to give things a go that fall outside your wheelhouse, so I hopped on the hog.
All the exploration in Days Gone revolves around your set of wheels, and you can’t save unless you’re near your vehicle. Along with the Oregonian high desert setting, it gives this open-world trek a distinctive feeling.
Were this real life, my poor sense of balance would’ve quickly sent me skidding towards a gnarly case of road rash. Games afford me the mundane fantasy of playing someone who can ride a bike unscathed.
Combined with satisfying gunplay and Sam Witwer’s rounded performance as Deacon St John, I find myself surprisingly endeared to this Days
Gone despite its bleak personality.