It’s only been 6 years since Bend Studio’s open world action-adventure title Days Gone dropped on PlayStation 4 to a somewhat divided response, but its already received the remaster treatment – developed in partnership with the folks over at Climax Studios. Aside from the obvious changes to visual elements and quality-of-life additions, Days Gone Remastered comes bundled with various shiny new modes to try out and settings to tweak to suit your preferred gameplay experience. Stir it all together, add some lightly seasoned Freaker limbs, and you’ve got the most complete way for newcomers to play through protagonist Deacon’s story to date. Returning faces, however, might greet this release with a more lukewarm reception.



As already referenced, Days Gone follows bounty hunter Deacon St. John, and takes place two years after a disastrous pandemic that resulted in significant chunks of humankind turning into beings resembling zombies (known as “Freakers”). Setting out on a journey to find his wife, who he assumed had already died, Deacon will have to fend for his life, collect supplies for crafting materials, deal with the politics of remaining survivors, and, most importantly, take damn good care of his bike with regular repair and fuel runs.



The most noticeable improvement right off the bat when firing up a new game is the lighting – appearing more realistic and atmospheric, with upgrades to shadow quality, in addition to new sky simulation and a significantly darker nighttime, ensuring that nocturnal exploration is now a decidedly more unnerving endeavour.

If you’re going into Days Gone Remastered expecting a thoroughly comprehensive visual overhaul, you would, unfortunately, be setting yourself up for disappointment.

Quality of character models, textures, and materials have also been bumped up, although nowhere near to what I’d call a jaw-dropping degree. Oregon’s scenery and environmental assets have also been given the same treatment, once again not exactly on an earth-shattering level. If you’re going into Days Gone Remastered expecting a thoroughly comprehensive visual overhaul, you would, unfortunately, be setting yourself up for disappointment – with the aforementioned changes to lighting standing out far more here than any texture or model updates.



The Freaker-filled Oregon wilderness might have received a moderately-sized booster shot in the looks department, but this isn’t the only selling point of the Days Gone Remastered package. Various new modes and gameplay adjustment options have been implemented, catering to both broad and niche sectors of the playerbase. An on-screen timer, for example, can be enabled for speedrunners intent on flying through the story as quickly as humanly possible (complete with pauses during cutscenes). Meanwhile, the total masochists among us might opt instead to toggle on Permadeath mode, which pretty much functions as you’d expect it to – ensuring every Freaker horde encounter feels truly intense.

The most noteworthy new piece of gameplay on offer, however, is the Horde Assault mode. Spread out across multiple unlockable areas, players must last as long as possible against increasingly deadly and numerous Freaker crowds – with the maximum number of infected on-screen apparently cranked up to a horrifying 800, which can be quite the sight to behold. After picking your avatar (from a selection comprised of around 18 characters, variants included, as seen throughout the main campaign) and loading into the chosen area, you have one primary goal: survive.



Completing any side objectives that pop up nets you bonus experience, in addition to other contributing criteria like the number of kills earned or amount of time elapsed. Handy resources, like weaponry, can also be looted from supply boxes scattered around the map. Equippable Injector augments, once unlocked through levelling up (also applies to character unlocks), serve as a way to either make the survival experience easier in exchange for a penalty to your final score, or to make things more challenging while boosting your total score count. A positive Injector might trade an increase in bike durability for a -5% score cut, for example, while a negative Injector could totally disable crafting in exchange for a 20% score bonus.

Various new modes and gameplay adjustment options have been implemented, catering to both broad and niche sectors of the playerbase.

All in all, Horde Assault is an equally entertaining and stressful affair, and it’ll keep you hooked for a decent amount of time, for sure – preying on that addictive loop of regular progress and unlocks. I can’t help but feel, though, that the complete absence of any included online multiplayer or local co-op/splitscreen system is a massive missed opportunity here.



Alongside this neat little lineup of new modes, several much-welcomed quality-of-life improvements have been made – taking on the form of tweakable settings. Options like bringing the speed of gameplay all the way down to as low as 25% for those who don’t feel like sweating their way through dicey situations, automatically passing quick-time-event prompts, and toggling audio cues for any nearby collectible goodies are all fantastic additions. Overall, Days Gone Remastered’s range of accessibility options do a good job at ensuring that almost anybody can pick up a controller and have a good time.

For added immersion, PS5 DualSense controller users can expect full haptic feedback and adaptive trigger functionality – and you’re able to actually go in and tailor the strength of these in surprisingly precise fashion. I ended up disabling both elements fairly quickly (as I do with most games), but effects like the gentle vibrations given off during rain, or the chunky trigger resistance while riding a bike do definitely add to the immersion.



On the technical performance side, the game runs consistently well across its different render modes. You’ve got your standard dual performance/quality modes which targets 60fps at 1440p and 30fps at Native 4K, respectively, alongside a future 40fps mode being added at a later date. PS5 Pro players will instead have three choices to pick from – Performance (60fps at 1800p), Quality (30fps at 2880p), and Enhanced (60fps at 1584p utilising PSSR). The 40fps patch will, naturally, also apply for PS5 Pro players.

For added immersion, PS5 DualSense controller users can expect full haptic feedback and adaptive trigger functionality – and you’re able to actually go in and tailor the strength of these in surprisingly precise fashion.

Thankfully, those who’ve already purchased the original PS4 title (digitally or physically) will be able to upgrade their copy for the equivalent of $10 to take advantage of everything that comes with the remastered package. If you’re playing over on PC, though, the only features you’ll need to pay for (through the Broken Road DLC, currently R200 on Steam) are the newly included gameplay modes, as all visual improvements have been added free of charge via an in-game update.



Days Gone Remastered might not be the most essential or ambitious remaster project I’ve seen (particularly when compared to the Oblivion remaster released three days prior), and the new game modes/features may be the real meat and potatoes of the package (as opposed to the whole “remaster” bit), but it’s hard to deny its existence as a great way for new players to hop in and experience Deacon’s journey for the first time. Returning players, on the other hand, will have to gauge for themselves whether the entrance fee is worth the additions.

*PS5 Review code provided by PlayStation