I would argue that more important than having a movie-like story is the presentation and skippability of the story. I didn't play Days Gone but watched a streamer, and it looks like one of those games with unskippable walking exposition scenes. In fact the butt-appreciation scene itself is one of those. I absolutely hate that. Not only are you forced to listen to the same narrative on every playthrough, but you're forced to do so while participating in a faux interactivity segment that is neither fun nor immersive. (since they limit your walking speed in not-always-realistic ways)
But like I said I didn't play it so might be misremembering. Maybe the streamer could have hit Skip or walked away?
Oh, later on I think there's actually some forced stealth gameplay too. Where you have to sneak around some enemies and if they spot you, it restarts the mission. What is up with that?
A whole bunch of Red Dead Redemption 2's story missions were like that. Restricted to specific pathways, walking slowly, riding with NPCs listening to dialogue, etc. etc. I found it insufferable, yet the internet thinks it's the second coming.
The thing you described is a serious annoyance to me in games, especially the faux-interactivity you mentioned. Even without the globohomo in games like TLOU2, the whole unskippable walking-talking, movie-like presentation where you're barely in control and bored to death is a major turn-off, especially when time is precious and I don't want to be wasting it listening to banal dialogue in a boring walking-simulator sequence.
Stealth's a big element of gameplay in Days Gone, actually. Sure, you can go in guns blazing, but sneaking up to shank zombies in the back for a one-hit kill is weirdly satisfying.
The 'forced stealth' parts are just when you can't kill anyone.
Oh I absolutely LOVE stealth games so most of that wouldn't be a problem for me - but I want to be the one in control and decide how to approach a situation. If I "fail" the sneaking and have to go loud, so be it.
I would argue that more important than having a movie-like story is the presentation and skippability of the story. I didn't play Days Gone but watched a streamer, and it looks like one of those games with unskippable walking exposition scenes. In fact the butt-appreciation scene itself is one of those. I absolutely hate that. Not only are you forced to listen to the same narrative on every playthrough, but you're forced to do so while participating in a faux interactivity segment that is neither fun nor immersive. (since they limit your walking speed in not-always-realistic ways)
But like I said I didn't play it so might be misremembering. Maybe the streamer could have hit Skip or walked away?
Oh, later on I think there's actually some forced stealth gameplay too. Where you have to sneak around some enemies and if they spot you, it restarts the mission. What is up with that?
A whole bunch of Red Dead Redemption 2's story missions were like that. Restricted to specific pathways, walking slowly, riding with NPCs listening to dialogue, etc. etc. I found it insufferable, yet the internet thinks it's the second coming.
The thing you described is a serious annoyance to me in games, especially the faux-interactivity you mentioned. Even without the globohomo in games like TLOU2, the whole unskippable walking-talking, movie-like presentation where you're barely in control and bored to death is a major turn-off, especially when time is precious and I don't want to be wasting it listening to banal dialogue in a boring walking-simulator sequence.
Stealth's a big element of gameplay in Days Gone, actually. Sure, you can go in guns blazing, but sneaking up to shank zombies in the back for a one-hit kill is weirdly satisfying.
The 'forced stealth' parts are just when you can't kill anyone.
Oh I absolutely LOVE stealth games so most of that wouldn't be a problem for me - but I want to be the one in control and decide how to approach a situation. If I "fail" the sneaking and have to go loud, so be it.