Sony on killing newts, Days Gone's childlike zombies

Steve Wright, Stevivor -- "Part way though my preview time with Days Gone, I ran into a cluster of small zombies -- sorry, small freakers -- called newts. The experience was confronting, to say the least."

[SuperSonic91]

Ah! Stevivor. ...the resident PS4 hater and Nintendo shill. No clicks for you. We know your agenda.

[Traecy]

LOL!! Call em out!!

[-Foxtrot]

Finally a developer that has the balls to use children as enemy types in a zombie game

You get an enemy variant and you make it feel like the virus has really gotten to everyone adding to the dread.

Completely unrealistic when you only see adult enemy types in games.

[darthv72]

did you ever play dante's inferno? There were killer babies in that game. With blades for arms.

[execution17]

Dying Light had zombie kids iirc

[FullmetalRoyale]

Yep all of the unbaptized babies. God that game was freaking dark. Loved it.

[zombiewombie]

Deadspace had babies

[NecrumOddBoy]

ZombieWombie, Dead Space 2 babies were terrifying lol

[P_Bomb]

The Dead Space nursery! Oh man I forgot about the Cthulhu babies in that game lol! So good. Miss you Dead Space.

[jagermaster619]

No, they are not [children],” Roth began, assuring me

Read more https://stevivor.com/featur...

[RememberThe357]

No

[ShadowWolf712]

They're not dead tho.

[Dark_Knightmare2]

No the author is a pure and kind white knight that if this were a real scenario and he came across newts he would just stand there and let them kill him because he’s just that kind of pure person

[TGGJustin]

Screw this outlet and their issue with this. If a real zombie outbreak were possible you would have zombie kids and you would have to kill them or die yourself. I applaud Bend studio for including this type of enemy. We need more of this.

[isarai]

To be fair he just says he found the experience "confronting" as in, it affected him on a deeper level than he expected. He never really says if he views this is as good or bad.

[robtion]

Yep the Zach Snyder Dawn of the Dead remake starts out with a very creepy zombie kid scene and also includes a zombie baby. It's nothing new.

When 'Journalists' bring these things up it sounds like they are trying hard to be offended.

[zombiewombie]

The original Dawn of the dead has one of the main characters fighting off two children and then emptying his fucking gun into them. Lol

[rdgneoz3]

Everyone is offended these days...

[gangsta_red]

They don't have an issue with this though.

[ShadowWolf712]

They're not zombies tho. They're mutated living creatures.

[robtion]

A rose by any other name smells just as sweet ;)

[Relientk77]

In a zombie/freaker apocalypse it's kill or be killed. I have no problem killing newts for days.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Game looks great. Continuing streaks since 09

[Rangerman1208]

Oh no, it's one of those articles.

[isarai]

If you read it it really isn't though, he just points out that it is something that he found "confronting" not as in bad but just as in it was something he wasn't expecting and doesn't know how to feel about. Never states one way or the other if he thinks it's a good or bad thing.

[isarai]

I know the writer doesn't really seem to have an opinion with this one or the other as he literally just says it's "Confronting" which can be seen as a good thing in story telling, but i know people are going to have issue with this and i just don't get why so many people these days can't get when an artist makes something you're not supposed to like. Not in the sense that it's bad execution, but that this was the intent, you're not supposed to enjoy killing turned children. The fact that it affected you so means they pulled off something great in terms of storytelling/immersion. Not all creative results are supposed to make you feel good, some are sad, somber, gut wrenching, terrifying, anger inducing, and this just seems to fall into those categories.

Instead running with your knee jerk reaction like a damn child how about you analyze your feelings and look at what caused it. As an adult who critiques artistic/creative mediums for a living, you should be impressed that it made you feel anything. It's like looking at an Otto Dix painting and saying it's a bad piece of art cause it makes you feel uncomfortable.

[Atticus_finch]

Sound very interesting. I'm guessing that was the thinking from the devs.

[MatrixxGT]

True but from the title one would mostly presume the direction the article is going without even reading it. It’s popular right now to be offended by everything so it’s only a matter of time before someone cashes in on it.
I’m all for having a game hit you in the feels and take a grim, post apocalyptic theme and hit a home run with it. It’s not a fun environment it’s kill or be killed until your killed.
Kids, dogs, mothers, fathers, pets, won’t just disappear in a real end of the world scenario so why would they in a game about the end of the world!

[stevivor]

Or, you know, you could try reading it?

[rainslacker]

I think that despite some things being troubling, it's actually not a bad thing to have them in games. One should feel uneasy about things which are distasteful. Killing in games is known to be fiction, just as being attacked and killing "child" zombies is also fiction. But, given our own social conditioning, we are uneasy about it, and that is a perfectly normal response, and doesn't mean that playing the game would make someone condone such behavior, or have some sort of subconcious wish to kill children, zombie or otherwise, in real life. Same can be said for any number of other things that get negative attention in games....like sexual innuendo or scantily clad women. Same exact thing.

I'd imagine if I were living in a zombie apocolype, assuming I wasn't the first to be eaten because I'm slow, and imagine a pretty tasty morsel, I'd probably hesitate if I saw a child zombie as well. At least at first, because eventually I'd probably revert to my instinctual desire for survival.

[PlayStationBrah]

THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!!

[wenaldy]

Imagine children ganados in RE4. Too bad they died during parasite incubation.

[brianunfried]

Finally I get to kill some brats. I'm tired of these open world games that are set in some strange universe only populated by adults.

[Vanfernal]

Silent Hill has children. Dying Light has zombie children. What's the issue? What new sensibilities are the fragile little journalists going to be offended by today?

[GameBoyColor]

Don't you mean childlike *freakers? Ftfy

[AK91]

Good more devs should push boundaries, there’s honestly nothing more disturbing to me than mutated/corrupted kids as enemy types in games.

[senorfartcushion]

N4G on the Days Gone train, now. I.e. the next exclusive for the majority of its users.

[AspiringProGenji]

And the PS4 fans worldwide

[senorfartcushion]

You get it

[Gamist2dot0]

The walking dead, first episode.Then the end of season 3...or was it 2?

[Traecy]

Awesome!!!

[DrumBeat]

Why not have zombie kids, and why can't we kill them? Is it still the societal consensus that kids are off limits? Snivelry.

[Christopher]

I think people confuse the glorification or implied enjoyment behind killing children with every inclusion of such acts.

[Fluttershy77]

Seems to me shocking, daring I'd say (if it's good or bad... Well It depends on how tasteful it is) In any case, has the potential to create quite the controversy, Maybe even get to mainstream news

[Fluttershy77]

The funny part is that now, Bend will not only feel the need to clarify that "These are not Zombies!"
But also that: "These are not Children"

[fonduktoe]

"The experience was confronting, to say the least." Confronting? Did you mean disconcerting maybe? Does anyone edit these crap articles? I wish people who fancy themselves "journalists" would get a grasp on the English language or at least have someone who does proof read their articles.

[ShadowWolf712]

One of the definitions of "confronted/confronting&a mp;q uot;:
appear or be placed in front of (someone) so as to unsettle or threaten.
"we were confronted with pictures of moving skeletons""

While an uncommon and somewhat clumsy usage, it's appropriate in context.

[fonduktoe]

Would you say "the pictures of moving skeletons were confronting" in that context? I'll admit it loosely fits but I think the author just screwed up.

[Tross]

Well...if a zombie apocalypse happened an unfortunate implication is that some people who became zombies would be children. So...ok, points for realism.

[Platformgamer]

Visceral games (r.i.p.): first time?
but seriously, it's more realistic having kids, dogs, infants and other taboo living being as enemies in a post-apocalyptic world setting, so kudos to bend studio, a studio that doesn't "bend" to SJW creeps.

[Ratchet75]

Stevivor, have you played any other games than Mario, Zelda... etc, these last 15 years?
Cause if you did you would have known DG is not the first or only game that has children portrayed that way.
Call yourself a gaming journalist??
😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂.

[goldwyncq]

Most interesting thing about the game so far. Not a lot of games would have the guts to use undead kids as enemies.

[BioDead]

I always wondered why there arent any pregnent woman, babies in strollers or little kids outside when I mass murder people in GTA games? So, basically people think that in real life those things cannot happen so they also cannot be portrayed in life-like video game? Weird.

[ILostMyMind]

Let those children hug you.