#freakers

Dawg piling for Deacon St. John

(All 500 freakers from the old sawmill horde in this one pile…what can I say? I love my piles of freaks)

Welcome to part one of my my zombie types series!

Freakers, or freaks, are the zombies in the video game Days Gone made by Bend Studio. Personally, they are my favourite zombie type (Days Gone in general is one of my favourite video games). Needless to say, if you haven't played the game, there are minor spoilers in this post (and one big one at the end). You have been warned! Also, it is not necessary to have played the game to understand this post, as I will explain what I am talking about as I go along.

The reason Freakers are my favourite zombie type is due their very unique nature, which I will outline in this post. The virus which causes one to become a freaker was originally being designed in secret at a lab facility, but it was unknowingly leaked at a bioweapons conference and then spread further when those people returned home across the country not realising they had been infected. The virus is airborne as well as spread through bodily fluids.

One of the many reasons I consider them quite unique is because rather than simply becoming husks of once-human beings, they actually develop into what could be considered a separate species of animal, and they are treated as so by scientists throughout the Days Gone storyline. Days Gone is categorised as a zombie-type game but it is easy to understand why many people may not consider the Freakers zombies, as they behave very differently to the classical zombie. They do not rot, they're not slow by any means, and the virus actually grants them advantages in many cases (strength, agility, speed, etc.)

They consume flesh, but they don't solely rely on human flesh. They also eat animals, and during the story have even been observed gathering and consuming plants and berries. They also tend to live in hordes, ranging from anywhere between 25 freakers to 500! Scientists have also started noticing that the freakers have migration patterns, leading to a lack of security in certain areas that are often used as migration routes by hordes that actually exceed the number of 500 mentioned above, numbering in the thousands. Another note is that freakers WILL attack each other, especially other types of freakers.

Like many other zombie universes, freakers have different strains. These are caused by rapid mutation that scientists still don't fully comprehend. I will name them below.

Swarmers: These are the most basic type of freaker. They are named after their tendency to 'swarm' someone in groups and overwhelming their victims. They live in large nests made of branches and other materials which are often wedged into buildings, vehicles and small caverns. Larger groups (hordes) live in caves. They are what make up the hordes we see in-game, though that's not to say there aren't different horde types out there. In rain and snow, they eyesight is reduced, but they are by no means blinded. Any weapon can be used against these freakers, however as with every type, stealth is preferred.

Bleachers: These are what I would call 'leveled-up' swarmers. They are named after their pale skin, and are stronger than the average freaker, though they aren't the biggest threat you would encounter in this world.

Newts: These are freakers that were infected with the virus when they were children/adolescents. Naturally, they are small, and live in groups. They tend to gather on rooftops and other high places, and don't immediately attack unless you provoke them or enter their territory.

Screamer: These are female-only freakers that have developed the ability to unlatch their lower jaw and release a dizzying scream. This is both to disorientate a victim as well as draw in all other freakers in the area. Physically they are not a challenge to defeat but their scream will absoutely send your head into a spin, and the factor of attracting other freakers to swarm you is a serious threat. Stealth is the best way to eliminate these. Thankfully, they can be identified from a distnce by their distinct white hair.

Breaker: These freaks present a significant challenge, and encountering these in an apocalypse would almost guarantee death. They are huge, muscular freakers with the ability to withstand a massive amount of damage, including multiple bullets, even to the head. They are moderately fast and have few weaknesses, usually needing to be taken out with brute force. Personally, in-game I have witnessed one take down a bear on its own! Although stealth kills are possible in-game with a level-up skill, I would consider this out of the question if applied to reality, as they are huge and their flesh is almost impossible to penetrate.

Reachers: These freakers are of average size but are extremely fast, and will quickly tear you apart without you even landing a single hit. Similarly to the screamers, you can identify these from a distance due to the white hair on their heads and bodies.

As well as the human varieties of freakers, there are a few animal strains. These include Runners, infected wolves that can keep up with motorcycles, Ragers which are infected bears, and Criers, which appear to be infected ravens and will swoop down from overhead to attack. Mentioned also in a scientists recording are infected bats, however these are not seen in the game.

All of these creatures create a world that is extremely unpredictable. Their wide range of abilities make it so that it's hard to know what to expect when travelling through the world. Also, as I mentioned before, freakers are rapidly evolving, which means that on top of all the present challenges, we have no idea what could happen next. More animals species could become infected, and any new type of variant could emerge based on what conditions the freakers continue to be exposed to.

The most insane thing about the virus (and this is the big spoiler I mentioned at the start) is the discovery at the end of the game. O'Brian is a character we met at the beginning of the story, and continue to interact with until the very end. Throughout each in-person interaction, he is wearing a full-body hazmat suit with a darkened face panel, so we never actually see any part of him (he is a researcher with NERO, or the National Emergency Response Organization). However, in a post-credit scene, it is revealed to Deacon that O'Brian is infected. He is a hyper-advanced evolution of a freaker, with full awareness and intelligence. He retains his personality from before infection, now with greyed skin and no hair, as well as enhanced agility, strength, and overall physical performance. A 'super-freaker', so to speak. This scene implies that he is far from the only one of his kind, which opens the door to millions of possibilities. Are all humans destined to become a super-freaker? How many at NERO are aware of his condition, or are the same as him?

There are many conclusions that can be drawn from this scene, and I myself still question what I want to believe about this. Personally, I think there's a possibility that O'Brians condition could be the original intention of the manufactured virus. It reminds me of the super-soldier serum from the original Captain America story; the end result being a human like O'Brian who retains all previous intelligence and awareness, while gaining extreme physical advantages in speed and agility. You could argue that it was being developed as a weapon, but why would you want to turn your enemy into SUPER-STRONG animals? Sure, you'd destroy a country easily but why give them all the physical advantages? How would this be a better weapon than a bomb that will just wipe people out? It would be preferable to create an army of people like O' Brien that are as smart as humans and faster and stronger than many animals. I think that the lost human intelligence of the freakers we see was NOT the intention, and that O'Brian displays the desired result.

Deacon, far from bike: Making my way downtown! Walking fast-

*Horde begins chasing*

8/19/20

Developed by SIE Bend Studio, released April 2019

Days Gone is an ambitious effort from the company that made the Syphon Filter and PS Vita Uncharted games. This is their first major title attempting to stand head and shoulders among other major open-world franchises. Days Gone is a game I had some interest in, but only picked up about a year later, curious to see if it brought anything significant to the genre. Combine Sons of Anarchy with The Walking Dead and throw it into a sandbox landscape, and that’s about what the elevator pitch must have been for this game. Days Gone is a huge accomplishment for what is a relatively small studio, but it needed a lot more polish and commitment to new ideas to be as good as the more well known franchises. 

Deacon St John is a survivor of a zombie outbreak, and gets around on his motorcycle doing odd jobs for friends at fellow refugee camps. This game’s most unique aspect is how it centers around the chopper itself. You cannot simply hop into a random vehicle and drive anywhere you want. The motorcycle is the only mode of transportation in this game, and I thought that was a lot of fun at first. However, at no point does the game or story explain why trucks, cars, and other vehicles aren’t in use. Gasoline is clearly present, as it powers your motorcycle and the many generators found at most camp sites and settlements, so it seems a bit contrived without explanation. The gas tank is shamefully small, not able to go more than a couple kilometres without having to be refilled. This means you need to stop at virtually every abandoned gas station, government release camp, or other settlement to search for a gas can and fill up. 

Having to constantly be on the lookout for more fuel felt extremely restricting, and kept me from exploring the map as much as I wanted. If you run out of gas on the highway, you physically have to walk the bike all the way until you find gas at a settlement before you can drive again. There was no way to fast travel or pay for a Uber in any way I could see, and running out of fuel a couple times were the low points of my experience. I get this game wants to have elements of the “survival” genre, but this aspect took it too far. Guns and ammo tend to be scarce as well, making you rely on improvised melee objects for weapons, and stealth kills to make up for the lack of an arsenal. Melee weapons degenerate quickly, but new ones can be found constantly. Chopping at human and zombie enemies works well enough, as you need to consider your stamina meter to keep from becoming exhausted. The shooting mechanics are nothing special, and each gun doesn’t feel like it packs a lot of punch. 

Much of the routine activities will be very familiar to those who have played any Assassin’s Creed, or open-world RPG of late. The map itself is covered in fog until you visit new locations. Zombies (”freakers”) dot the landscape, especially at night, and burning zombie nests in small towns and settlements acts to reduce the random zombie population of an area. Bandit camps also fill many corners of the map, and killing all enemies in those also renders the area of the map safer (and unlocks fast travel). It’s really nothing you haven’t done a million times before. Camps can be cleared entirely with stealth (something I always tried to do), but with the slightly unreliable shooting and stealth mechanics, it didn’t always feel satisfying. Once I had cleared enough bad guy human settlements, I felt like I was beginning to spin my wheels and lost interest. The only other memorable aspect of this game are the zombie hoards themselves. Days Gone packs a surprising and intimidating amount of zombies in one spot, and having to work around or run from a hoard can be a scary and challenging experience.

SIE Bend Studio is based in Bend, OR, and is the same state this game takes place. As a fellow Oregonian myself, I’m disappointed more of Oregon’s locations aren’t taken advantage of. How cool would it have been to be able to access the coast and see something that resembles Haystack Rock, or perhaps a huge lake in the middle of the map representing Crater Lake National Park? I do like that half of this map is virtually desert; as most of Eastern Oregon (and where Bend is located) is fairly arid, but change the texts and this game’s would have resembled any generic mountainous location in North America. Even a distant inaccessible mountain resembling Mt Hood would have been easy and much appreciated. I don’t know how many major big budget games will ever take place specifically in Oregon, and its a shame the developers didn’t take more advantage of it. 

Days Gone is yet another open-world action-RPG taking place in a zombie pandemic. Much of what works best about it are things you’ve seen in dozens of other games, and no single aspect stands out as the best within its genre or format. Its most unique aspect is its focus and center on the motorcycle itself, but its not enough to make this an all around great game. I actually lost so much interest and faced so many fetch-quests I gave up on trying to complete the game. With uninteresting characters and story, nothing kept me motivated to push onward. The story may or may not have an interesting outcome, but in the 20 or so hours I played, I hardly ever found the narrative or characters interesting. This is a decent open-world game, but if all your appetite calls for is clearing bandit camps, scavenging for spare parts, and unlocking achievements, you may enjoy Days Gone more than I did.