Zombie killing is America's favorite past time, but videogames sometimes like to push boundaries, and Days Gone's child-like zombies exist to do just that. The creators insist that no, the short, wrinkled, and demonic shambling monstrosities are "Newts," but it's Tomato Tomahto when you're looking down the barrel of a gun at something half your size.

Image via Stevivor

These "Newts" exist to give players an extra challenge, and they tend to swarm on the building's roofs to ambush players who fancy a more aerial approach to life.

"As I approached the motel, I was encouraged to grab a nearby baseball bat and climb to the roof to kill the newts," a writer at Stevivor said, but soon found himself hesitating and finding the experience "confronting."

The inclusion of smaller, child-like enemies is nothing new in video games. The original Silent Hill featured the Grey Child, a tiny child-like enemy that comes with its own knife.

Via Silent Hill Heaven

It's always discomforting having children rush you in any shape or form, and adding knives to the mix can certainly be the stuff of nightmares. However, until now, games have been somewhat unrealistic due to limited graphical engines.

The Newts, named after tadpoles and other amphibious creatures, were "adolescent when infected" by the game's virus, according to the game's statement back in 2006.  They're smart, too, and will wait until the player is on their last legs before jumping them, like the zombies in Zelda 64. Children piling over you is another unsettling experience, and while a Sony brand executive says that they don't see the creatures as human, they're smart, feral, cannibalistic creatures who will wait on the roofs of buildings to feed on you when you pass by. In the glint of the moonlight, technical definitions will matter a little less.

The Newts are just one of many "freakers" that you'll have to face in Days Gone, and the developers have hid them in various places to surprise the player. Considering the wrinkly abominations keep a close eye on Deacon, the main character's, health so they can strike at his most vulnerable means that those exhausted from combat might find no refuge while looking for a place to heal. And that's fantastic.

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