The world of Days Gone is serious stuff. Zombies Freakers are everywhere, killing anyone who dares get close to them. Society has collapsed. Water and food are scarce. Bandits torture, kidnap and murder innocent people. But I can’t really take any of this stuff to seriously because the game’s main protagonist won’t shut up.
Days Gone stars Deacon St. John, who is less a character and more a few emotions and grunts wrapped up in a leather vest. Deek, as his friends call him, is a very serious and gruff dude. To let us know how serious and gruff Deek is, Days Gone constantly has him talk in a Batman-like whisper-yell. I mean constantly.
I first noticed it when I encountered some enemies during the first few hours of the game. As I sneakily made my way around the camp, picking off enemies quietly, Deacon would just go wild about nearly every kill.
“How do you like that, you ripper fucks?” and other similar voice lines play all the time. Kill a freaker, Deacon lets you know about it. Kill some rival bandits, oh boy you better believe Deacon lets you know about it.
Sometimes these can go on. One time I killed a person and as I quickly rolled towards my next enemy, Deacon kept talking. It wasn’t until I started the next kill that I cut him off and then moments later he was spouting off again.
He will also sometimes just say stuff that makes no sense. I killed an enemy with a sneaking knife stab and afterward, Deacon yelled about getting killed by someone who “shoots back.” I didn’t shoot him Deek. Are you ok? Pay attention dude. Please.
Sometimes Deacon can hear radio broadcasts from a local conspiracy nut. After hearing these broadcasts, Deacon will often yell out some angry response. If this broadcast starts while you are on your bike and you get off your bike before it ends, you will sometimes end up with Deacon yelling for no reason about how angry he is.
I get it Deek, the dude on the radio is a real arsehole and annoying, but you have to understand something: He can’t hear you, even if you yell REALLY loud. That’s just not how the radio works, buddy.
The most annoying moments of Deacon not shutting up happen when you find audio logs. These audio logs are often left behind by police, military or scientists from before or during the early weeks of the apocalypse. They are really well made, with solid writing and acting, but good luck hearing them.
Deacon will nearly always talk about the recording, what he thinks he will hear on it and his thoughts on the people who recorded it as it plays.
You can, later on, listen to them in the menu, but I just love how Deacon reacts to audio logs of the past. He just yells at them as he turns them on. And once they are finished, he gruffly yells about what was said.
Deek will also sometimes talk over himself. In what I assume is a bug, I had a moment in Days Gone where Deacon was talking to someone and then began yelling about something else, while still talking to the person.
I dug around the settings to see if I could find a button that would shut him up or at least tone down how often he speaks. The always chatty Deacon is becoming even more annoying as I spend more time in the game. He is starting to repeat himself. A lot.
I don’t usually mind characters in games repeating a line. I understand that games only have so many audio lines. Eventually, you hear it all. But when you have someone who talks as much and as often as Deacon St. John, the repeated lines grating more quickly.
All this talking is really distracting and silly too. My girlfriend was watching me play and started snickering at how angry and annoying Deacon is as he kills people. I’m sure I’m not supposed to be giggling while I brutally slit a dude’s throat, but Deacon is making me laugh as I murder.
Deacon, you don’t need to talk all the time. Listen more. Please.
And who knows, maybe another patch will change this in a few days?
Comments
6 responses to “Shut The Hell Up, Deacon”
Blargh
Is it as bad as Shadows of the Tomb Raider?
I had to stop playing yesterday because Lara kept repeating he same thing over and over again every few seconds.
“I need to tether the ladder….I need to tether the ladder….I need to tether the ladder…I need to tether the ladder”
I had to stop playing because she was shitting me up the wall.
I don’t think it was personally, it just comes across as a shitty B grade action horror with unbelievably hopeless dialogue. If you can get through any of those ‘award winners’ you’ll be able to handle this lol.
The real question is…
Did you end up tethering the ladder?
I’m playing Days Gone and I think it’s better than Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
My partner was watching me play this game and as the author has said in the article, Deacon St. John seems to sputter or shout absolute nonsense every time he kills someone, especially in scenarios like marauder/ripper camps. My partner said to me “He’s… really unhinged, isn’t he?”
Lol, I did.
Yeah I saw your community review and that’s def the impression I’ve gotten for the game.
I wanna play it, I just don’t really want to pay full price for it.
This was supposed to be a reply to you @weresmurf