Well, it’s here.  Sony’s effort to remaster games that are only a generation old has definitely had its share of detractors, including myself, but rather then just complain I thought it’d be better to give one of these remasters a shot and see what’s what. 

Days Gone Remaster has been available for a bit now, and I have some thoughts. Now, I want to make a few things clear before we get started. I haven’t been a fan of these sort of things from Sony. Remasters used to be a way of bringing a game forward to new platforms and what Sony has done recently with Horizon Zero Dawn, the Last Of Us series, and now this game seems minimal. At least in the case of the Last Of Us, we were getting ports to PC, but we still get things like The Last Of Us Collection for PlayStation 5. Which seems un-needed since both games are already available for the system so even when there’s a W to give Sony, they get an L along with it.

Also, to be clear, this is not a full review of the game and its story. It’s simply a look at the remaster for PC and how it fairs compared to the original version of the game. The purpose of this is to basically give you the info needed to decide if this upgraded version is worth your hard earned money.

Given that this that I played on PC, keep in mind my setup includes a Radoen AMD 7800xt GPU, an Intel i9900k CPU(9th), and 16gbs a DDR4 Ram. As far as settings go, I ran everything at 1440p high so I could shoot for around 120 fps and eventually set everything at ‘very high’ when I was sure the frame rate would sit at about 100fps. With all of that out of the way, let’s look at the good, the bad, and the in-between of this remaster.

New Lighting

To start with one of the biggest(maybe even biggest)changes to the game, they appear to have made is the lighting. If I may direct your attention to the pictures below

The picture above is from the original PC port  back in 2021. The photo below is from the remaster that was just recently released. While it may look like I just snapped the shot in the right spot in the photo below, the lights on top of the fire engine in the original just never glowed quite as intensely. This kind of stuff is probably the biggest change in the look of the remaster.

Unfortunately, as we move on a bit later, where lighting isn’t quite as intense, we can see the difference becomes a bit more subtle as we can see in the examples I have for you next.

Once again, the top is the original, and the bottom is the remaster. Now again, I run all my games at 1440p. While it’s possible, the difference might be greater at 4k, I doubt it. The remaster definitely looks a bit darker lit than the original. This is kind of an on-going thing, with the original having more of a grey hue and the remaster having more of a blue hue(these photos arent great examples of this). However, as we move on we shall fine that might not always be the greatest thing.

There’s debate amongst gamers about whether or not making a game more realistic is good or not. While that typical arguement is common when it comes to art style and how well it ages I came across a somewhat unique issue in this game. The darker lighting does give the game more of a realistic look, particularly the night sky(as someone from Oregon, I can say they captured that beautifully). I’ve had some issues with the darker lighting in the game, mostly limited to the tunnels that tend to be near Nero outposts and caves that can house breakers, hordes, bears and whatever else the world’s map can put there. Given the active enemies that tend to be in these areas, it can get a bit annoying to see what’s going on.  I’m not sure if they were thinking it might give it a creepy horror type feel like Resident Evil 7 or Silent Hill, but Days Gone is first and foremost an action game. So the darkness just sort of bugs me in the end.

Odd Performance Issue

Something I noticed early on is how the frame rate isn’t quite as stable as it once was. Now, to be clear, it’s mostly pretty much the same. Most of the time, in the original, the frame rate would bounce between 120 and 110 fps in this early scene in the game. As you can see, the gap in frame rate widens a bit to pretty close to 100fps. However, this isn’t the worst thing in the world. Typically, at this high of a frame rate, it takes a pretty shape drop around 20 fps all at once to get any sort of jaring effect. However, since it’s sorta bouncing all around, we never see that effect

Ps5 Controller Features

Unfortunately, there isn’t a ton to compare here. The original port of Days Gone didn’t have support for the extra features for the Playstation DualSense. With the remaster, it supports all features for the Duelsense, except as usual, you have to plug in the controller to use it at all. This is pretty common with this controller on PC. Honestly, my experience with the Dualsense and its features are pretty mixed. There’s a game or two where I believe the features are great and some that they don’t work in.  Days Gone falls somewhere in the middle. The resistance on the triggers while riding and shooting is cool. The vibrations while the rain drops or in combat is just OK, nothing great.

New Horde Assault Mode

This is likely one of the big reasons most would be considering buying this version of the game. Horde mode is more or less the Days Gone version of The Mercenaries from the Resident Evil series. You pick from a cast of character from the game such as Abby, Sarah, Boozer, and many, many others.

As for the gameplay, you are dropped into one of four maps(3 of which you must earn by beating the target score in other maps). Once you pick your map and character and ride out, get ready to get slammed. In between each horde wave, you will have the chance you explore. While doing so, your goal is to find chests that have the option of giving you either a new gun, an explosive, or ammo. Rider beware, while exploring, you may run into wolves and wondering survivors who are hostle.

Eventually, the Hordes will kill you. After you die, you’ll get your time. It will tell you if you hit the score needed to get the next map and you’ll be awarded XP. There are locked characters you will be awared depending on what level you need to be at to unlock them . Again, it’s basically just a Days Gone version of Mercenaries for Resident Evil. Nothing super unique, but over all its extremely fun.

So Should You Buy It?

If you’ve never played the game and don’t own the original, that version has been delisted. This remaster is all you have access to now, and it’s $ 50 USD. I think the game is well worth the $50 price tag. PC players have been known to look for a deal (or you’re cheap, however you want to word it) and whether you pay full price or wait for a sale, I personally suggest everyone play it. Of all the Playstation ports we’ve gotten on PC so far, this game is in my top 2.

If you already own the original, the question of whether you should upgrade for the $10 is a bit more complicated. If you have no interest in the Horde mode, I would caution you to consider holding onto your money. With the expectation of an upgrade in lighting, you’re not getting anything in the way of graphical upgrades or overhaul in gameplay. It’s literally the same exact game. The features in the controller, if you have a dualsense, are kind of cool, but I’ve never considered them earth shattering, and accessing them isn’t worth any price. If you’re interested in the Horde mode, then I would would say consider picking up the upgrade. It’s nothing super unique, but it’s definitely a cool way to keep playing an already great game that I highly recommend.

Those have been my thoughts about the Day Gone Remaster, and if you have any thoughts yourself, feel free to leave them in the comments below