Following its big reveal during Sony’s E3 2016 press conference, Bend Studio’s new title, Days Gone, has been generously detailed by the devs during streamed interviews with the PlayStation team and Rooster Teeth.
Divulged Days Gone features include weapon crafting, a “huge” wildlife system, day/night cycles, and more. NeoGAF user Loudninja has provided a summary of the transcribed details, which are as follows:
Studio is about 100 people, was around 40 – 50 for Uncharted Vita.
Game is PS4 Exclusive, no PC mode “We are Sony Bend, we are PS4 Exclusive” lol. At Sony Bend, they make it very clear during interview, everyone wears a lot of hats. Many people are involved in different aspects.
One thing I picked up is you ride a special bike, called a Drifter, that can drive off road, they said lots of off roading since the roads are all broken up, “Broken Roads.” The bike is needed to survive, it is like its own character. It has saddle bags that holds your inventory. The bike is grounded, you will need to “know where it is and manage it” Several devs are bikers, lots of research into the bike. Actually got it up on rollers to make sure they got the sound of the bike right.
Also, weather has a big effect on traveling and how the bike handles.
No Multiplayer at all, focusing on their strengths, single player story.
Demo was a bounty hunting mission, hunting down a biker “2 Dog” and tried to show the danger of leaving the safety of encampments.
Wanted the game to be a big sandbox of what you would do when “shit goes down.”
Weapons crafting system, they call a “MacGuyver Mentality” where the you figure out clever ways to build tools to get out of situations.
Their demo they are showing off on show floor has “millions” of ways to play that demo, depending on what tools you bring with you. The environment also plays a huge role in how you deal with certain situations.
Takes place just a few years after the “apocolypse” event. Society is starting to try to rebuild, as supplies are starting to run out. Made it sound like part of the game is figuring out what to do with the resources you find.
Wildlife is in the game, they have a “huge” wildlife system they aren’t going to talk much about right now. But the event didn’t wipe out all wildlife.
Not willing to talk yet about different story paths, different endings, etc. They chuckled but they dont want to talk about it yet.
Zombie hoard was all real, no LOD tricks, there are that many people on the screen.
No release date or time window. They aren’t wanting to do that right now.
It was huge for their studio to be right up there on stage, getting prime focus, along with all of Sony’s other big studios. It showed them how much Sony believes in their product. It meant a lot to them.
Game has been in development for 3+ years, but still its in early development as they just only finished core mechanics/ideas of the game and not ready yet
Exemplifying truly free-form gameplay, Days Gone offers freedom to explore, strategize and play “your way” in the vast high-desert of the Pacific Northwest. The hazardous environments, filled with carved out ridges, mountains, caves, cliffs mines and river basins, deliver a breathtaking backdrop to an equally diverse style of gameplay.
Featuring fully explorable environments and dynamic AI enemies, players will rely on their own abilities to strategize, craft weapons and tools, explore the world, and engage in combat. With almost every car, building and environment searchable, Days Gone delivers emergent gameplay possibilities, making a player’s approach to combat and discovery a vital part of the experience.
Using the power of PlayStation 4 and Unreal Engine 4, Bend Studio has developed a high volume of rendering and gameplay technology to deliver an incredibly realistic open world experience. Realistic weather effects, such as rain, wind, snow and day-night cycles impact the gameplay. The game’s lighting is all real-time and reacts dynamically, the way the human iris does, as players move from one location to the next.
What do you make of Days Gone? Impressed with what you’ve seen and heard so far?
You can check out the 10-minute E3 2016 gameplay showcase right here.
[Source: PlayStation LiveCast & Rooster Teeth via NeoGAF]
