According to one of the actors of Days Gone, there were examples of rushing the review for Sony Interactive Entertainment Bend Studio’s game.

Sam Witwer was the actor behind Deacon St. John, the protagonist of Days Gone, which is now also available on PC. He has held a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), and he got a question about game reviews. Here’s what Witwer had to say about them:

„I read a review today from a website/publication that will remain nameless. In it, the horde mechanic, the show-stopping centrepiece of the game, it wasn’t mentioned once. Not once. There were other tells, but it was pretty clear that this reviewer played the game for several hours and then wrote his review. He did not complete it.

Days Gone was always meant to be a slow burn game and story. For better or for worse, it was designed for you to take your time. The best story beats and the best gameplay happen much later in the game, and it’s clear that the nature of game reviews and this slow-burn philosophy of game development are not compatible.

These journalists, the ones that rush in, do NOT take their time, they do NOT play the game on the terms the game presents, because it is their job to put out an article on a deadline. I think that’s not only too bad, but misleading to actual audience members who would like to read an actual review of what we did,” Witwer wrote.

Aside from rushed articles (which could happen purely due to the publisher/distributor taking its time, or not even sending out a review copy, the latter has happened in the past!), the slow-burn approach of Days Gone could be the reason why Sony never ended up tasking SIE Bend Studio with a sequel. After all, we wrote about how the Metacritic score matters a lot to them…

Source: PSL