Days Gone

While similar to other post-apocalyptic open world action games, the mix of game mechanics from other games and reliance on a motorcycle to get around, sets this apart. In Days Gone, civilization has been destroyed by a plague that turns people into feral cannibals. Playing a biker named Deacon, you have to drive around the wooden, rural world of post-apocalypse Oregon, completing tasks, running errands, and surviving random attacks. You'll also need to scrounge around for whatever spare ammo and supplies you might need to accomplish your tasks. But while this may sound like Far Cry New Dawn and Fallout 76, the game's third-person perspective and skittish enemies gives this a different feel by requiring you to be sneaky. While the monsters don't have good situational awareness, and can be killed from behind if you're careful, they're also unpredictable. Not only will they turn around unexpectedly, but they'll scream for their friends when they do. Fortunately, when you're trying to sneak around, the third-person perspective makes it easier for you to smack people with bats, 2X4s, and other melee weapons silently instead of shooting them. The visuals also give you both a sense of your surroundings and the horror you're facing. On PCs, players have even more options to be drawn into the gameplay, such as unlocked framerates for the best graphics cards and ultrawide monitor support. If you have a top of the line computer with an ultrawide monitor or 4K display, it'll be very hard to not be drawn into the gameplay, and utterly shocked by how terrifying things can go from bad to worse when a blown stealth attack results in a surprise horde descending from the woods to swarm your location.

Relying on stealth attacks, and conserving bullets that can put you in dangerous situations is vital since ammo and the size of your backpack are both very limited. Further complicating matters, you're under constant threat from other bikers, who are trigger happy and don't take kindly to strangers like you. Plus, you're forced to use your motorcycle to get around when you don't want to walk, which makes a ton of noise. That can be extremely dangerous since the forests are teeming with freakers, and some even travel in swarms that will attack you like piranhas at a buffet. But this is also where things can go awry. Your bike is a a gas guzzler, and breaks down easily, as do your melee weapons. As a result, you spend a lot of time looking for gas and scrap metal (though the latter is somewhat plentiful). Still, even with the resource issues, and its similarity to other open world adventure, zombie, and zombie-like games, Days Gone is different enough to keep you riding through the wasteland for hours.