Days Gone drops you into a broken Pacific Northwest overrun by Freakers, and somehow the motorcycle ends up being the real main character. Two hundred hours later, the bond between rider and road still holds up.

A Grindhouse World That Grew On Me

The map is enormous and mostly empty in the good way — long stretches of forest and ruined highway where nothing happens until suddenly everything does. Horde encounters remain the highlight: hundreds of Freakers moving as one, forcing you to actually plan instead of panic-mash triggers.

The best horde fight is still the one you almost lose because you got greedy with your last molotov.

Combat leans survival-horror in the early hours, then opens up as your bike and gear improve. It never fully sheds its jankiness, but by the midpoint that stopped bothering me.