{"id":151241,"date":"2022-12-07T23:58:21","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T23:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/days-gone-director-blames-woke-reviewers-for-mid-reception\/"},"modified":"2022-12-07T23:58:21","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T23:58:21","slug":"days-gone-director-blames-woke-reviewers-for-mid-reception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/days-gone-director-blames-woke-reviewers-for-mid-reception\/","title":{"rendered":"Days Gone Director Blames ‘Woke Reviewers’ For Mid Reception"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image: Sony Bend Studio<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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We’re talking about Days Gone<\/em> Again, three years after the open-world zombie survival game came out. You may recall the one-time PlayStation-exclusive rreceived a middling reception and saw apparently disappointing sales<\/span>. The reason? Well, according to writer and game director John Garvin’s response to a fan on Twitter, \u201cwoke reviewers [couldn\u2019t] handle a gruff white biker looking at his date’s ass.\u201d<\/p>\n

Days Gone<\/em> is Sony Bend Studio’s first real foray into the open-world genre, and came out in April 2019. Following the former outlaw-turned-grifter Deacon St. John<\/span> as he traversed a post-apocalyptic and zombie-littered Oregon, the game landed to a mid critical reception. it received a score of 71 on Metacritic<\/span> and 72 on OpenCritic<\/span>, with most reviewers panning the game for its dull world, frustrating exploration, and bland storytelling. Of Kotaku<\/em>‘s review<\/span>former staff writer Joshua Rivera said Days Gone<\/em> “perpetrator[ed] to offer anything new in favor of blending formlessly into arguments made by 10 years of the Walking Dead<\/em> and countless post-apocalyptic games of its first.\u201d In other words, Days Gone<\/em> was a wholly unoriginal, if occasionally enjoyable, experience.<\/p>\n

Read More:<\/strong> Days Gone <\/em>Was A ‘Disappointment’ To Sony Despite Selling Millions, Director Says [Update]<\/span><\/p>\n

The game sold approximately eight million copies between its initial PlayStation 4 launch three years ago and its PC port<\/span> that dropped in May 2021. Eight million is a massive figure to celebrate, but considering Sucker Punch Productions’ open-world Kurosawa-like Ghost of Tsushima<\/em> sold the same amount in less than two years’ time, upper management within Bend Studio, including former director Jeff Ross, declared Days Gone<\/em> a \u201cdisappointment.\u201d<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Now Garvin has shared some theories of his own as to why critics found Days Gone<\/em> was something of a disappointment (h\/t VGC<\/em><\/span>). In a since-deleted tweet (archived here<\/a><\/span>), Garvin gave a fan three reasons why he thinks the game performed so poorly:<\/p>\n

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Three reasons: <\/p>\n

1. it had tech issues like bugs, streaming and frame rate;
2. it had reviewers who couldn’t be bothered to actually play the game
3. And three, it had woken reviewers who couldn’t handle a gruff white biker looking at his date’s ass<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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G\/O Media may get a commission<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

If you’ve played Days Gone<\/em>, you probably know the scene Garvin is referring to. But for the uninitiated, there’s an early flashback sequence<\/span> in which Deacon and his date Sarah Whitaker (who later becomes his wife) explore Oregon, walking a trail, taking in the sights. Sarah stops to \u201cshow [Deacon] what [he\u2019s] looking for\u201d and bends over. Deacon steps back and says, \u201cYep, found it,\u201d and the camera pulls back to show him ogling her. While this sexually-charged moment between the two characters was a point of contention for some critics, it’s hardly one of the main reasons why the game didn’t score better than it did.<\/p>\n

Kotaku<\/em> reached out to Sony and Garvin for comment.<\/p>\n

Other folks on Twitter were quick to dispute Garvin’s assertions.<\/p>\n

\u201cClaiming the protag of ‘Days Gone<\/em>‘ was just too much of a badass for all those woke reviewers is very silly,\u201d tweeted one<\/a><\/span>. \u201cWe’re told Deacon is a gruff badass biker, but in actuality he is dull, docile & does whatever he’s told by those in authority. His agency is limited to whining to himself. \u201d<\/p>\n