Days Gone isn't a particularly good game; however, I had no illusions of that going in. It's perhaps the ultimate culmination of the incestuous nature of Sony's first-party development - a game full of systems and storytelling that have been aped from other places internally and executed better elsewhere (seriously, this game even steals the "talk to the gravestone of your loved one and update them on the story's events" gimmick of Horizon Zero Dawn). It's a title that desperately wants to punctuate itself with moments of quiet poignancy but instead hits you over the head with what feels like the unhinged ramblings of a madman. It's a game I would describe as unflinchingly competent but inherently uninspired.

There were, however, a few things I took away from Days Gone for which I will give it credit, even if by accident:

1. Despite this being one of the most unpolished AAA games I've ever played, it did result in at least one amazing glitch. After catching a stray Molotov, my character became engulfed in flames and remained in that state even after technically putting it out. I spent the next several hours with this visual glitch ostensibly cosplaying as Ghost Rider, and it carried through several of the game's most important cutscenes until I had to reload my save.

2. Days Gone actually lets you kill children. Zombie children, granted, but most games of this nature kind of pretend kids don't exist or lock you out from hurting them, so I'm glad they had the balls to let you do it.

3. One of the few games brave enough to have part of its core message be "Revenge is based, actually." Kudos.