In the modern entertainment world, we often support and further the creation of bad pieces of media, like going to see films in theaters for the purpose of mocking them.

When something is outright awful, some semblance of enjoyment can be extracted from it, but when something is mediocre, it can be far more disappointing.

Days Gone is an open-world third-person-shooter zombie game, that blends gaming’s biggest trends: an open-word format with zombies.

In a world with excellent zombie games, Days Gone just can’t hit the same level of quality as other games like it. It even fails as a PS4 first-party exclusive. If anything, Days Gone serves as an unfortunate reminder that tried-and-true formulas don’t always work.

Once I got my hands on it and started playing, I was somewhat disappointed. For starters, player choice, which was featured in an official gameplay showcase for Days Gone, has been almost completely removed from the final product. For some unknown reason, players no longer have any agency in the game’s story.

The ability to choose getting removed was absolutely detrimental to the game, as given how uninteresting and messy the story is, the player engagement in it could’ve helped people be more invested in the character growth.

Days Gone has a messy, often confusing story. In fact, it doesn’t actually even have a central plot line until several hours into the game.

The characters can’t even redeem this game, as everyone is stereotypically post-apocalyptic or just a jerk.

The only character with any shred of personality is the player character himself, Deacon St. John, but even then he still lacks any real depth. He could be swapped with any other zombie game protagonist and nothing would change.

Mechanically, strange design choices and difficult gameplay mechanics frequently get in the way of mine actually enjoying the game.

Deacon’s bike requires constant upkeep and refueling. This makes sense, as this would be the case in real life, but unfortunately, these mechanics are seriously broken. Gas cans that can be found in the world are seemingly endless, and that may just be a good thing given how quickly the bike runs out of fuel.

One of the few good things is the world. Bend Studio did an excellent job constructing an eerie, yet beautifully overgrown post-apocalyptic vision of Oregon.

Despite what I’ve said, the game isn’t really bad, necessarily, it’s just a boring, mediocre experience.

So is Days Gone redeemable? The short answer is no. Mechanics are broken, the game is stupidly buggy, the story isn’t very interesting and is excruciatingly slow, the characters are generic and the game overall is just a boring, mediocre experience, worth maybe 40 dollars at most.

I would recommend saving your money for a better game, but if you still want to check out Days Gone, get it when it’s on a deep sale, because this game is not worth the full price.

Days Gone is available now for PlayStation 4, for $60, and is rated M for mature.