I was thinking about the two different takes on masculinity portrayed in God of War 4 and Days Gone. Both games feature a man grieving for a woman who is always essentially off-stage. However Kratos’s rumbling “boy” emphasises that he is a man and that that man is defined by both fatherhood and bereavement.

Deacon on the other hand is essentially boy-like in his grief and his relation to Sarah. While he, like Kratos, is a violent man, his violence alone does not promote him to adulthood. He is essentially in a state of arrested adolescence.

When he meets Lisa he fails to find the words to reassure or comfort her; in many ways they are actually similar. Both stuck in their routines waiting for a woman to return. This affinity reveals Deacon’s essentialy child-like nature. He recognises a kindred spirit but fails to articulate anything about or to act decisively to ensure her safety in the camp.