Days Gone: Remastered, Byte Size Review
Remasters of top-tier first party PS4 titles like Days Gone, seems to be the flavour of the day for Sony at the moment. Last of Us 2 and Horizon 2 last year, being too stand-out remasters which looked great with a new lick of paint.
On reflection, we haven’t had any massive, brand new, AAA releases from Sony on the PS5 yet. Maybe Stellar Blade and Helldivers could sneak in, in a pinch, but remasters seem to be bolstering the AAA first party release calender for Playstation at the moment.
That said, its not a bad thing, I can’t think of a PS4 game more deserving of a spit-shine, and more importantly a 2nd chance at public recognition than Days Gone. It is a hidden gem.
Days Gone was an excellent game and any reason for more gamers to realise this in 2025, is fine by me! I reviewed it for KC back in 2019, you can watch it below! Suffice is to say though, I thought it was terrific overall, with a standout performance by Sam Witwer as the main chatacter “Deacon” and an open world which was awesome to play in.
So, with the “I like this game” disclosure out of the way. How does this remaster stack up in 2025?
Well, in the well established Sony first party remaster trend…Days Gone stacks up very well. The graphical uplift from the PS4 days is obviously the most notable feature, with three PS5 graphics modes of:
- Performance: 1440p/Target 60FPS
- Quality: 2880p/Target 30FP*
- Balanced: 1800p/Target 40 FPS with VRR
These are well done and bring this PS4 gem into the modern console era. In particular the Balanced mode 1800p 40fps mode with VRR on compatable 120Hz systems. My TV has it and the game sings! As an aside, I’m still baffled why publishers insist on pumping out a “Quality” 30FPS mode!? Who I say, WHO! Plays these games at 30 frames a second!?
Audio has had a retune, with improved 3D systems and I honestly can feel the improvements in audio. When a “freak” is screaming from the undergrowth, it sounded so realistic. How its gutteral wailings reverberated around the forest. Chilling to be honest!
Who‘s up for some Horde-ing!?
Aside from just being pretty and sounding good, the addition of some extra “elite” weapons is a nice touch, as is the Horde Assault game mode. Separate from the campaign, this is an old school Horde Mode like the 360 days, but with some rogue-like twists.
Level up to unlock buffs and de-buffs to make each run more successful. Choose a character and a map……then go for a high score smashing some zombies. We are not massive rogue-like fans a KC, so not really a selling point for us, but its a “nice to have”, for those masochists out there.
One of the absolute standouts for this remaster is the “save file” compatibility. I was over the moon when I loaded up this remaster and be able to continue my PS4 New Game+ “Survival II” run I started years ago. This was excellent news. My progress, XP, weapons, trophies…everything had come over. All with crisp new visuals and silky 60 frames per second.
Days Gone was a massively underrated game on PS4, and now every PS5 owner should consider dipping into it.
There is a slight lull in big PS5 games before Death Stranding comes out in late June, so do yourself a favour and go smash some zombie freaks with a baseball bat!
