Days Gone 2

I sort of broke a rule here in that nothing in this render seems to show much of what we might consider gameplay. But holy hell did Dall-E nail the vibe here.

I was going to skip this one, then I considered how much I was actually endeared by the characters in the original Days Gone. This was mostly inspired by a Kotaku slack conversation in which everyone chimed in with their favorite video game couples in relation to Ashley Bardhan’s awesome piece on keeping the magic alive. How could I not bring up Deacon and Sarah? They’re one of my top video game couples, and I played that game to see them reunited—I didn’t care whatsoever about that zombie shit.

This render reminds me of the real loss of a sequel we’ll never see. Days Gone enjoyed a bit of intrigue around its world’s fiction, and its conclusion had an entertaining-enough twist. But one of the things that stands out for me most compared to Sony’s other zombie gore fest, The Last of Us, is that Days Gone was much more about the struggle to preserve what these characters lost.

The Last of Us seems to always be too cynical, with tons of violence-for-violence’s sake to say…what exactly? I could actually relate to Days Gone far more than any other zombie romp. Who doesn’t think about what could’ve been with the people who’ve left your life as the world around you changes? I often think about that cast of characters and wonder how they’re doing in the sequel we’ll never get, and Dall-E mini let me wander down that train of thought once more.