Days Gone Devs Discuss Overcoming 'Zombie Fatigue'

The zombie genre has become incredibly convoluted through the years, with an oversaturation seen in this particular niche in no small part due to the wild popularity of The Walking Dead. With the genre seemingly everywhere, coming into the scene with a fresh title might seem daunting but the upcoming Days Gone looks like it might be able to rise above the monotony and beat that 'zombie fatigue.'

The Creative Director behind the upcoming PlayStation 4 exclusive recently sat down with Game Informer to discuss the challenges this title faced. He started out addressing the elephant in the room head-on, "Zombie fatigue is something we've dealt with from the very beginning." To combat that, the team needed to be crafty in their narrative, in their design, and not grow lay upon relying on the stale mechanics. That control over direction is why John Garvin promises "it's not like any zombie game you've ever played.

Another popular gaming niche happening is the thriving nature of open-world games. To compete, this is what the Creative Director had to say about how Days Gone will be able to stand out among the rest:

"You don't have to go find faction wars, and get involved in that," Garvin told the site after opening up about the mechanics. "You can be on your way to a mission and get knocked off your bike by a Runner, which is an infected wolf, and the same time, you're running low on gas, and you've done a bunch of squirreling around off-road, and your bike's damaged.

"So, the story's something like 30 hours, but it's going to take a lot longer than that, because things are going to happen to you along the way depending on how careful you are, depending on how much you pay attention," he mentioned after talking about how further discussing just how different their new game is. Don't call it another zombie flick, it is far from it.

For those that are still hesitant to give yet another undead title a try, he had one final message just for you:

"I would say the overall message for skeptics is that we are not the zombie game you think we are." According to Garvin, one of the best ways for fans to dispel suspicion that it's just going to be another drab open world post-apocalyptic affair with the undead is to "play it and see what you think."

Days Gone does not currently have a release date at this time.