Many gamers were excited whenDays Gone’s first gameplay trailer showed a horde of zombies chasing a leather vest-wearing biker who was setting off traps that decimated the horde left and right. This game seemed to be another zombie shooter, but with hordes like no one had seen before. However, when the game released in late April 2019, it was to an audience that didn’t love the protagonist who they now had to play.Days Goneis a fun third-person zombie shooter that tries its best, but it doesn’t help that the protagonist is a raspy tough guy who varies wildly between cool and crazy.
Deacon St. John, or Deek, is a character that seems to have truly been driven mad by the zombie apocalypse. When he’s not talking to himself in a low whisper, he’s yelling at the various zombie and human enemies that are unfortunate enough to cross his path. While not the ideal leading man, he can still fight off a few zombies, making sure the player knows when he does, and then repair a bike to make a hasty escape. However, he’ll be sure to let everyone know just how annoyed and angry he is with the overall situation. This constant complaining, amongst his other failings, have madeDeacon St. John infamous inDays Gone.
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It is really hard to stress how much Deacon talks throughout the course of the game. The dialogue can seem a bit silly, and it quickly becomes grating when the lines are constantly repeated after a few hours. That’s obviously not due to thevoice actor forDays Gone,but a good rule of thumb is that if a protagonist is constantly hating, yelling, or angry about what they’re doing, so too will the player. Maybe it was an attempt to fill the silence, but in a zombie apocalypse silence can be a close ally.
Not that Deacon is always yelling, but when he whispers, it can be equally as jarring. Deek often switches between yelling and whispering throughout the campaign, and each can make for equally silly moments based on how it is implemented. It’s not really anyone’s fault other than the result poor communication throughoutthe character inDays Goneand how he acts in the world, but it’s a far from endearing quality.
No one is asking for the hero to be right 100% of the time, but it should always be the goal to at least try and do good most of the time. Deacon St. John, however, doesn’t have time for the moral hang-ups of normal folks and has made several decisions that go beyond questionable. To be fair, he was living as an enforcer in a motorcycle club before the zombie pandemic, so he was used to doing brutal things. However, his motives andmurders inDays Gonesometimes felt hard to justify.
Deacon St. John has a vicious streak that has caused him to act in furious moments of vengeance or aggression. While some retribution might be understandable, drowning a whole tribe filled with as many women and children as enemies seems to be overkill. Some of theharder moments inDays Goneare the ones where players are forced to watch Deacon’s “mercy,” either when he kills a woman who had just been tortured or lethally overdosing a man with a drug addiction. Deacon made choices that don’t really feel like his to make and it can rub the audience the wrong way when the protagonist verges on cruel.
That isn’t to say that Deacon doesn’t have his positive attributes as well, as some of his negative actions seem to come from a place of seeking peace for himself or others. That seems to bewhat drives Deacon St. JohninDays Goneas he hopes to find some kind of purpose after losing his wife. Even though the way he exhibits himself can be extremely off-putting, to say the least, Deek does his best to survive in post-apocalyptic Oregon.
