Days Gone – Iron Mike’s an Idiot – Opinion

I’ve been replaying Bend Studios title Days Gone. It is one of my favorite games. The story is awesome with great pacing, the gameplay is good though it does have its moments, and in general the leveling and unlock systems are good even if it does take almost getting the game at 100% across the board.

One thing always stuck with me though. Iron Mike. This guy who went through a lot of stuff and was one of two survivors of a massacre in a nearby town right after all that freaker shit started to go down. I get his guilt over what happened, but, he has the wrong idea on things. He can choose what he does and he can try to force those same ideals on the others in his camp, but, he can’t force those on the greater world. He has such a focus on stopping people from killing each other that he can’t see the forest for the trees.

The Rippers weren’t going to stop because their very ideology made it so that had to kill or convert people. This is on top of what he learns about how Carlos wants Deacon and Boozer. The leader of the group wants people he is trying to protect? That is never going to bring peace with a group like the Rippers.

He allowed division in his own camp by not actually doing something about Skizzo’s plotting to take over. This affects moral and the ability for everyone to trust each other. Then after he learns what Skizzo was willing to do in selling out Deacon and Boozer as well as sacrificing the others in camp so that Carlos could get what he wanted even after the treaty was blown by him convincing Deacon to go over the border and using that as an excuse? I’m sorry. I would have let Deacon and Boozer have him. One, because he has shown that he can not be trusted with the lives of the camp members and Two, he was the god damned security chief! He knows the ins and outs of the camp! Weaknesses, Strengths, and who is unhappy there with the things the way they are! He just lets him go!

This was a HUGELY Idiotic move. I know that later in the story this comes back to bite him in the ass hard, but, come on. Anyone that survived all that he has should know better. Deacon doesn’t set out to kill people just because he can. Those that he does are for the safety of all and are people that can not be changed or forced to repent. He uses the training that he learned in the military to protect everyone. Yes, it also helps him most of the time, but, he wouldn’t have become as famous or trusted as a worker for all the camps even before you start the game if he didn’t know how to be a decent man.

With the way Iron Mike acts I can’t help to have the opinion that he is a blind idiot that was just plain lucky to have had his camp survive as it had and as it does later after he is killed.