At E3 last week, SIE
Bend Studio unveiled its brand new PlayStation 4 title
Days Gone. A brutal, post-apocalyptic open-world adventure, Days Gone follows the story of Deacon St. John – a drifter and bounty hunter eking out his existence in the High Desert of the Pacific Northwest. We caught up with the development team backstage in Los Angeles to find out a little bit more about its main protagonist and why his background is so important to the game.
If theres one thing the team at Bend is keen to impart about the universe its crafting, its the uncompromising, dog-eat-dog nature of things. “Desperate people do what desperate people need to do to survive,” Senior Designer Ron Allen explains.
“In most open world games, when theres danger, its usually because youve brought it on yourself. Days Gone is a dangerous world – always.”
Watching a horde of infected Freakers pour over the environment in the extended footage shown on stage at the PlayStation E3 press conference, were left in little doubt as to what hes getting at.
“Pretty much any of the survivors of the pandemic had to have a certain something about them – the appropriate skills to steal, kill and survive in a harsh world,” he continues.
“If you didnt know from the biker cut on his back, in his previous life, Deacon St. John was member of a motorcycle gang. He learned a lot from being part of that group, and thats helped him survive.”
The team doesnt flinch from its protagonists anti-hero persona. “Hes a dangerous guy. Hes using his skills where he can – his appetite for violence and mayhem help him excel at his job.”
“He can find things out in the field and create better tools. For example, youll see hes actually threaded the barrel of his pistol with the same thread pattern as an oil filter, so if he finds oil filters out in the world he can screw them on and itll allow him a couple of suppressed shots.”
We ask him how much of a role Deacons vehicle of choice – a muddied, off-road, dirt bike – plays in the game.
“
The motorcycle plays a huge, huge part,” he assures us.
“Its extremely nimble – a car cant fit into certain spaces, and cant do certain things a motorcycle can do. Its not the normal biker gang motorcycle. Hes adapted this thing to work in the wild. Theres no way youre going to pull off jumps or cross the kind of terrain you saw here on a Harley-style bike.
Ron explains that not only can you store extra items on your bike, its also your primary means for traversing the game world and, of course, escaping from those aforementioned Freakers.
Despite the teams insistence on an uncompromising world though, Ron is anxious to share Bends deeper ambitions for Deacon and his story.
“Its about the human condition – this guys a broken man,” Ron explains.
“A lot of us are motorcycle riders. Its a really vibrant culture. Its often associated with criminals, mayhem and violence, but its also about brotherhood and family. Because Deacon has suffered so much loss he holds onto that aspect of his past, and cherishes those relationships. Its about him finding himself, because he no longer has his motorcycle gang.”
Well have more on Bend Studios exciting new project as development progresses. In the meantime, make sure you bookmark the Days Gone page on playstation.com.
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