The post-apocalyptic zombie gameDays Gonehas several gameplay elements that help it stand out among the many other zombie games. One of these elements is its cast of characters who inhabit the setting alongsideDays Gone’shordes of zombies.
AmongDays Gone’scast of characters, players should be most familiar with the protagonist Deacon St. John, a character who tends to talk to himself at times throughout the game. Recently the actor who performed the character, Sam Witwer, revealed the process behind how he found the right tone for Deacon St. John.
RELATED:Days Gone’s PC Port Won’t Add Certain High-End PC Features
Witwer is a voice actor also known for his roles asStarkiller fromStar Wars: The Force Unleashed, and the Sith Lord Darth Maul in theStar Wars: The Clone Warscartoon series. On the Subreddit forDays Gone, Witwer responded to a user asking about his performance as Deacon St. John inDays Gone.
Reddit user 2th asked Witwer about the idea behindDeacon St. Johntalking to himself, and why the game deviated from traditional semi-silent protagonists in such games. Witwer mentioned that since he’s a gamer, he’s familiar with most game protagonists usually talking to themselves. This is particularly the case when they speak out loud after completing actions, like when a character finds a coin, questions where a tunnel might lead, or wonders if they need to be careful of a man holding a chainsaw.
Writer John Garvin was writing a lot of dialogue for Deacon, so Witwer ran with the idea that the character regularly talks to himself. He added that sinceDays Gone’ssettingendured a terrible apocalypse, it made sense that someone like Deacon St. John would talk to himself. He pointed out that in a world where most people are dead or dying, people talking to themselves would fit right in.
The main idea was that the game would just play it straight that Deacon is actually talking to himself and the player is hearing what he says. Witwer said his line of thinking was, “Let’s play these lines like this guy is actually saying this stuff. The player just happens to overhear.”
Plenty of the commenters on the Subreddit responded positively to Sam Witwer’s answer. Some people said they liked this direction for Deacon St. John, because it feels believable in a post-apocalyptic setting. Others felt having the character regularly talk to himself was a nice change of pace for post-apocalyptic game protagonists.
Days Goneis available now on PC and PS4.
