Sony’s Oregon Studio Takes a Stab at Northwest Zombies In "Days Gone"

According to Seattletimes, the upcoming PlayStation 4 video game "Days Gone" should feel particularly familiar to folks in the Northwest: the forest setting in which the game’s protagonist is trying to survive is inspired by the landscapes near Bend, Ore.

According to Ron Allen, a senior designer with Sony’s Bend studio  which was formally SIE Bend, for Sony Interactive Entertainment, stated in Seattletimes that  “Days Gone” was teased here at the E3 video game trade show a year ago, but as is typical for high-end games that can take years to develop, the studio went quiet afterward. (“State of Decay 2,” the Xbox-exclusive zombie game being built by Seattle’s Undead Labs, is on a similar timeline.) 

He continued saying “Days Gone” is an open-world game, a model in vogue among adventure games, with players free to explore the environment around them and take periodic detours into scripted missions that drive the story (developers were mum on the plot, aside from a trailer that shows a protagonist, Deacon, rescuing a comrade captured by a rival band of survivors).

Allen said the goal was to make the game dynamic, with changes in the in-game weather and time of day affecting how the infected “freakers” in this universe behave. A behind-closed-doors demo showed how the mission depicted in Sony’s showcase this week can play out completely differently in a snowstorm.

As reported by Seattletimes, when Ron Allen was asked what other zombie fiction influenced the game’s development, Allen was reported saying only that the studio took inspiration from film, music and other games. 

He continued saying “The thing we like most about  ‘Days Gone’ is it’s an always-dangerous world,” Allen said. “You don’t have to go looking for trouble here. Trouble will find you.”  

The game is scheduled for release December 29.