I’ve posted recently about making my second journey through Days Gone—the first being about 5 years ago—and decided to share random thoughts I’ve had about the game. Since it’s such a long game, I’m doing a little write-up every time I move to a new map. Since I just rode south to Crater Lake last night, it’s time for some thoughts on the middle portion of the game:

* The songs that play when you first ride to Lost Lake and then when you head south over Thielsen Pass are both excellent. It reminds me a lot of the songs you get in Red Dead Redemption when you first cross over into Mexico and then when you return to your ranch later on.

* Speaking of heading south, it’s kind of funny how the early part of the game is Deacon and Boozer talking about heading north, but then the entire game is spent heading further and further south. Nothing ever goes quite the way you plan, I suppose. 

* I’m kind of amazed how much of the Lost Lake segment I forgot about. In my mind, Boozer lost his arm as soon as you get to Iron Mike’s camp, but really, it takes quite a while. I also forgot all about Camp Sherman, Boozer’s drunken wanderings, and the missions with Skizzo. I also somehow combined the power station mission and the dam-busting mission into one. I did remember the dog,though, and Deacon and Mike spying the horde north of Lost Lake.

* Rikki may be my favorite character in the game. She’s an interesting character and I wish we got more with her, although I know this is Deacon’s story, not hers. One of the things this makes me sad about not getting a sequel is not finding out more about her. I can imagine a Days Gone 2 where she’s even a playable character for part of the game.

* Iron Mike is another character who has an outsized impact despite his somewhat limited screen time.  You get some of his backstory in the Camp Sherman mission, but I’d have loved a little more.

* A couple really nice cutscenes in this section: the one where you restore power to Lost Lake and the conversation where Rikki patches Deacon up in the infirmary. Good character moments.

* I can’t say I’m a big fan of the whole Carlos/Rippers storyline. I’ve always had a tough time resolving the Deacon we see in the flashbacks with Sarah being the same character who did what he did to Carlos. I get that Deacon’s supposed to be this outlaw-with-a-heart-of-gold archetype, but it feels like those parts were written at different times in the game’s development, and maybe the Ripper stuff was left over from when they were going for a darker tone for Deacon.

I’ll finish up with a couple notes from the Belknap/Cascade part of the map:

* In my first playthrough, it wasn’t until I was pretty far into the game that I realized there was a car near Sarah’s gravestone that gave you a shortcut back to your bike. I spent a lot of time running back and forth through that NERO camp. This time, though—I made sure I pushed the car out of the way my first time up there.

* Jezzy, the Bounty collector in Copeland’s camp, is kind of interesting. She seems friendlier with Deek than many other merchants and I know at one point, Deacon even offers to take her north with him and Boozer. I’m not sure the backstory is ever fully explained, but it definitely feels like there’s something there.


Mid-game thoughts