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(Image: SONY)

Days Gone is the latest upcoming game from Bend Studio: a prolific developer known for its work on the Vita's Uncharted: Golden Abyss and the much-loved (but long-absent) Syphon Filter series.

In a recent hands-on with the post-apocalyptic game, we had the chance to interview Bend Studio's John Garvin about the game and Bend's history.

Though Days Gone may initially look worlds apart from Syphon Filter thanks to its open world setting and focus on biker outlaw, Deacon St. John, there is actually quite a lot in common with Bend's legacy titles if you examine the DNA of the title, rather than its more obvious features.

In our interview with Garvin, we mentioned that thanks to the open world and initially pessimistic story, Days Gone was markedly different from anything the studio has worked on before, to which the creative director replied:

"I don"t think Days Gone is that different from Syphon Filter at all!"

He continued: "The key thing we wanted to do from the very beginning with Days Gone was create a narrative-driven experience, and what Bend Studio has always done is deliver third-person, character-driven experiences that has a focus on story."

He's right: the studio's pedigree comes from the Syphon Filter series and Uncharted: Golden Abyss - both series known for their central, character-driven storylines and focus on communicating a key plotline, delivered via mission-to-mission beats.

Days Gone is different, though: it's an open world game that has more of an emphasis on player choice, letting the person behind the pad choose which narrative threads to pull on at any one time.

However, according to Garvin, without the studio's experience on more linear games, Days Gone wouldn't have managed to get that narrative rhythm nailed down.

"The challenge with Days Gone was to create a character and a story in an open world that a player can be invested in over a 30-hour main story path, and tell that story in a way we"re used to.

"Back in Uncharted: Golden Abyss, we created this story that was very linear and pushed you from one story beat to another and what we wanted to do here was do the same thing - use that same ‘push" - but in an open world."

To that end, you've got various missions you can choose to complete at any given time (once you're past the intro) and all of these different narrative strands serve to further the whole story in some way or another.

At the middle of it all sits Deacon St. John - initially an arrogant, heavily dislikable outlaw that you soften to as you understand his struggle to survive in this ruined slice of America you find yourself playing through.

In exploring the open world, you see other characters and factions, each with their own motivations and parts to play in Deacon's life.

Though he's pretty solitary and cold to more or less everyone he meets, there's something about him that is chivalrous and caring beneath the surface, and Bend is banking on you picking up on that empathy and using it to fuel you through the game.

"We feel like the open world in Days Gone adds to the [beat-to-beat] story experience so much - because the freedom you have in approaching the different stories spurs you on in its own way.

"That"s why we put in a feature that lets you track where you are in every specific story you"re following."

The Storyline feature can be found in the game's Pause Menu and shows you specifically how far through any given storyline you are at any one time - a great addition to an open world game that has you chasing multiple narrative threads all at once (and something we're surprised we've not seen done in this way sooner!)

"The inspiration for that feature was the way we consume media, how we stream now - you know, you get a full season of something drop Netflix, but maybe you only get to episode three then you move over to watch something else, and come back."

"we wanted to emulate that in the open world, give you a tool to track how far through each storyline you are, give you a tool to help you stay emotionally invested in everything that"s going on."

It's a pretty cool concept, and something that we think will keep players more emotionally tied to the game - even if they take a week off from playing the title as real life gets in the way.

It's a realistic way of approaching how users will experience the game, and you can see that ideas like this came from the studio's work on more linear, 'traditional' Sony titles.

It's the studio's way of weaving classic game-making tactics into an open world project that excites us most about Days Gone.

We think, despite the delays, that Sony and Bend might finally deliver a refreshing open world experience if its neat ideas like this continue to impress for the game's 30-ish hours of core gameplay.

We look forward to playing more when Days Gone releases next month on April 26, 2019.