The director of Days Gone blames the “awake reviewers” for the mediocre reception

We are talking about Days passed Again, three years after the release of the open world zombie survival game. You may remember the one-time PlayStation exclusivegarnered an average reception Disappointing sales it seems. the reason? Well, according to writer and game director John Garvin’s response to a fan on Twitter, “Wake up the reviewers [couldn’t] Dealing with a gruff white biker looking at his ass.”

Days passed is Sony Bend Studio’s first real foray into an open world and was released in April 2019. Following the ex-outlaw turned hacker Deacon St. John Traversing a horrific, zombie-infested Oregon, the game relegated to mediocre critical reception. received score of 71 on Metacritic And the 72 on OpenCriticMost reviewers rave about the game for its lackluster world, frustrating exploration, and bland storytelling. in Kotakureviewsaid former writer Joshua Rivera Days passed fail[ed] To offer anything new in favor of mashup without form in the arguments made by 10 years of the walking Dead and countless other post-apocalyptic games like it.” In other words, Days passed It was a completely unoriginal experience, albeit a fun one at times.

Read more: Days passed The director says it was a “disappointment” for Sony despite selling for the millions [Update]

The game sold nearly eight million copies between its initial PlayStation 4 launch three years ago and its own PC port which dropped in May 2021. Eight million is a huge number to celebrate, but considering Sucker Punch Productions’ Kurosawa-like open world Ghost of Tsushima He sold the same amount in less than two years to the senior management at Bend Studio, including former manager Jeff Ross, announce Days passed Disappointment.”.

Now Garvin has shared some of his own theories about why critics exist Days passed It was disappointing (free VGC). In a since-deleted tweet (Archived here), Garvin gave the fan three reasons why he thought the game was doing so poorly:

Three reasons:

1. It had technical issues like bugs, streaming, and frame rate;
2. She had reviewers who couldn’t be bothered to actually play the game
3. And the third, he had woken up reviewers who couldn’t handle a gruff white biker looking at his ass

If you have played Days passed, you probably know the scene Garvin is referring to. But for starters, there it is early flashback sequence As Deacon and his date Sarah Whitaker (who later became his wife) explore Oregon, they walk a trail, and they take in the scenery. Sarah stops by for the show [Deacon] what [he’s] looking up” and bowing. Deacon leans back and says, “Yeah, I found it,” and the camera pulls back to show him jumping on it. 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 do better than it did. she was on it.

Kotaku I’ve reached out to Sony and Garvin for comment.

Other people on Twitter were quick to dispute Garvin’s assertions.

“Claim Protage”Days passed“It was just too much too bad for all these awake reviewers, it’s so ridiculous,” one tweet. “We are told that Deacon is a gruff biker, but in reality he is boring, docile and does whatever those in power tell him to do. His agency is limited to whining to himself.”

“I think that’s the main reason Days passed It got mediocre reviews because the game wasn’t very good. said another.

Video creator Chris Franklin might have summed it up best. “The wild thing for me is that I don’t think anyone actually hates it Days passed“,” he tweeted. The consensus was pretty good. Cromulent. What’s on the box? In a time full of open-world games and zombie games, it was definitely one of them. So it’s kind of saddened by critics who didn’t rip off your title (it’s at 71 on Metacritic!) but didn’t. They praise him with sufficient joy.”

I Written in JanuaryI did “nt find Days passed Fun to play. “The controls were heavy and cumbersome. Hunting resources was a chore. I enjoyed riding the motorcycle in beautifully awful Oregon, but the novelty wore off after constantly running out of gas.” And all of this is exacerbated by the fact that both the open world and zombie survival genres are incredibly saturated, and Days passed It didn’t do enough to set itself apart from other games at the time.

I wouldn’t begrudge anyone who was enjoying it Days passed. for each one of them. But saying “awake reviewers” was part of the reason the game’s reception seemed so out of step with reality. The reality was that Days passed It was just a good, nice mid-range game. Notice the world, and act accordingly: No need for “woke” conspiracy theories.

Garvin has since moved on from Sony Bend Studio, and is now Working on a game with NFTs.