Days Gone director John Garvin has expressed what is very definitely an opinion about why his zombie sandbox didn't review particularly well when it was first released. According to Galvin, the reason is, at least in part, "woke reviewers". Hoo boy.
When we reviewed Days Gone, we pointed to its bad writing, annoying mechanics, and repetition as reasons to skip it, as well as an abundance of glitches and some heinous load times. However, according to John Garvin, the creative director and writer for the game, those weren't the only problems Days Gone had.
In response to a Twitter user wondering why Days Gone didn't review well, Garvin sets out three main reasons he believes are behind the mediocre reviews. First, he points to the game's tech issues: "bugs, streaming, and frame rate", according to Garvin. His second point is that reviewers "couldn't be bothered to actually play the game". Well, we did, John, and it wasn't very good. Sorry.
Garvin's third point, which is also the hardest to swallow, blames "woke reviewers who couldn't handle a gruff white biker looking at his date's ass". That quote almost doesn't need any extra analysis; it's best to just leave it there so that Garvin's words can speak for themselves.
Twitter user Whisper Photo Mode called Garvin out on using the word "woke", to which Garvin responded by saying "if a reviewer objects to a character because of identity politics, I call that woke...how am I wrong?". How indeed, John? How indeed?
It's worth noting that a quick flick through Days Gone's OpenCritic page sees critics make regular mention of the game's repetitive nature, dull story, and uninteresting open world. These seem to be the issues that largely informed the less-than-positive response to Days Gone (although the game wasn't exactly hated, either; it's currently sitting at a 71 score on PS4 and a 76 on PC on Metacritic).
Despite Garvin's grumbles, Days Gone remains in the popular consciousness. Earlier this year, reports began to surface that a Days Gone movie is in the works, and although no official announcement has been made yet, it wouldn't be much of a surprise.
Either way, Galvin himself has gone in a different direction following the footsteps of some other big-name developers lately. That's right: he's currently working on a blockchain game. I assume that when that game inevitably flops, he'll blame "woke reviewers" for that as well, and not the fact that blockchain technology seems even less popular in the gaming world than Days Gone is. Stay tuned for more info on Galvin's future endeavors.
