Platform: PS5
Sony’s other zombie game gets an upgrade, bringing the PS4 original up to modern standards on PS5 – but the only fungi you’ll be finding here are the mushrooms you’ll be foraging as part of the more survivalist elements of Days Gone.
Such comparisons to The Last Of Us were always a bit unfair for Bend Studio’s post-apocalyptic outing, but were unavoidable back in 2019, and still feel so now. Call it perpetually bad timing – the original Days Gone landed just a year before The Last Of Us Part II, when anticipation for Naughty Dog’s sequel was reaching fever pitch, and Remaster now lands in the middle of the second season of that game’s TV adaptation. When Days Gone’s own movie fell apart in the planning stages, it’s hard not to see it as an also-ran.
For the uninitiated, players can expect a Sons Of Anarchy-meets-The Walking Dead mashup…
They’re very different games though, with their own focuses, and ultimately serve up distinct experiences. Where The Last Of Us is a tightly structured, story-first game, Days Gone is more freeform, leaning into its open world and survival mechanics, allowing players to piece together narrative threads as they explore a gorgeously rendered Oregon wilderness.
For the uninitiated, players can expect a Sons Of Anarchy-meets-The Walking Dead mashup, playing as biker Deacon St John (Sam Witwer), searching for his long-presumed-dead wife Sarah years after civilisation has fallen. However, while the plotlines that emerge as you explore the world – from the brotherly relationship between Deacon and his best friend “Boozer”, to the tense interactions with other bands of survivors, and the deeper mystery of how the zombie-like “Freakers” emerged – are never dull, the game’s biggest problem, now as then, is that what should be its most affecting moments never feel earned. In terms of content, Days Gone Remastered doesn’t stray from its original release, for better and worse, and its tendency to try to land emotional gut-punches without any wind-up means that the blows still often fail to land.
Instead, this overhaul leans more into visual and mechanical improvements. On the former, while Days Gone was never a graphical slouch, it now looks absolutely superb. Improved lighting, shadows, and draw distance make the Oregon wilds even more astounding, while boosted draw distance makes the scale feel almost daunting. On the latter, controls tailored to the DualSense controller make fantastic use of resistive triggers and haptics, particularly when riding around on your motorcycle – which you’ll be doing a lot of.
Given this is a pure remaster rather than a remake (PS4 save data is even transferable, allowing you to pick up where you left off years ago), new content is largely limited to difficulty modifiers – at the absolute toughest, a new Permadeath setting challenges players to make a flawless run through the game, with an irrevocable “game over” should you fall to the infected – and a Horde Assault mode. This sees Deacon having to survive against increasingly overwhelming odds, testing your combat skills to their utmost.
It’s also nice to see improved accessibility options, including high contrast mode to assist visually impaired players, customisable game speed, menu narration, and even a radar-like audio cue that pings to indicate collectibles in the vicinity. These all help to make the game far more approachable.
Not a revamp by any means, then, but it all adds up to the definitive edition of Days Gone. If it didn’t win you over in 2019, it’s still unlikely to now, but for those who enjoyed it at the time – or who are willing to approach it without those The Last Of Us expectations – it’s an undeniably tempting proposition, especially thanks to a nominal upgrade fee for anyone who owns the PS4 original.
