It may simply be down to the fact that many of the exclusive titles that defined the PS4 era are now at that time when anniversary editions get rolled out, but it’s clear that Sony is leaning on the success of its exclusives and nostalgia to keep its players enticed.
Case in point, Days Gone Remastered, with its original iteration released on the PS4 in 2019 as that console was nearing its end of life.
Now that the PS5 is truly entrenched as PlayStation’s current-gen offering, we pondered whether a remaster was truly necessary given the original is only six years old. It is the same question we had with The Last of Us Part II, which also recently received a remaster.
Those questions aside for a moment, having poured some time into the Remastered version on PS5, here are our thoughts on what Bend Studio has been able to crank out, and whether you should shell out the ~R949 that PlayStation is asking for it.
What makes a good man?
We won’t delve into the story too much, as this is already well-trodden given the original game came out six years ago. What we will say is that the main protagonist, Deacon St. John, is one of the more interesting we have encountered in a narrative-driven open-world RPG.
He’s meant to be a biker, but seemingly does not look or sound the part. We’d say this was intentional as Deacon does not come across as unpolished or scruffy, and is rather quite capable, intensely focused, and appears to have little care for his own wellbeing while caring deeply for his family, brotherly or otherwise.
He clearly has a unique past that informs his decision-making and desire to survive in a post-apocalyptic world that is actively trying to kill him and others, and while the getting of the game kicks off rather abruptly, the storytelling that follows is quite cinematic. Needless to say, it’s easy to see why it was once set to go into development as a movie.
Paired with the storytelling is an equally beautiful environment rendered in exceptional detail. Every so often you can get lost in the lushness and wilderness that this version of Oregon brings to the console.
We will touch on those elements shortly, but we do need to address a frustrating aspect of the game – load screens. It was an issue when the 2019 iteration came out, with it being marred by bugs almost as bad as the early days of Cyberpunk 2077.
While we did not encounter any session-ending bugs or glitches in our time playing Days Gone Remastered, the sheer volume and length of load screens became a serious issue as we neared the end of the single-player campaign. Given that this is meant to be a remaster that has been optimised to the nth degree, we had hoped that issues from the previous-gen would not be present on the current-gen.
Given how poorly some console remasters and PC ports have gone for PlayStation of late, we may in fact be lucky that this is the worst of our experience, but if you want your gaming experience to truly flow, the constant load screens really pull you out of it. This is significant too, especially given how many cut scenes and narrative elements there are to the single-player.
As beautiful as ever
Now for the gameplay of Days Gone Remastered and things are much the same as they were in 2019. Controls are sharp and intuitive, with cycling through weapons and melee combat feeling slick while you tussle with hordes of freakers (zombie-like infected).
There is also a decent amount of strategising when taking on unsuspecting hordes, as players can find ways of usual the environment around them to their advantage, sneaking around stealthily to take out enemies one-by-one, or simply opting to run-and-gun your way to objectives.
The latter method is not all that elegant, but can be equally as satisfying.
If we were to point to one environmental issue, interacting with objects, such as car bonnets to look for any saveable bits and bobs, can be a little frustrating at times, with the button prompt to do so sometimes not appearing as one would think.
Again, this is a nitpicking issue, but if we’re optimising things for Days Gone Remastered, that should be one of them.
Along with the well structured single-player campaign, and a free-roaming end-game, Bend Studio has added three more survival-esque modes to the mix – Horde Assault, Permadeath, and Speedrun.
The new modes are fairly self-explanatory, with Horde Assualt being for gluttons for punishment as waves of freakers attack you. It has an arcade-style feel to it, and certainly a mode that players can use to brag to one another about.
Sticking with shareability, the speedrun will see players try to get through the main campaign as quickly as they can by avoiding as much conflict as possible. As for the Permadeath, it seeks to see if you can get through the campaign without Deacon dying, which may be true to life, but is clearly for masochists.
These additions are nice, but are ultimately intended for the after-game, and unless you are uniquely drawn to the world and mechanics of Days Gone Remastered, don’t feel essential in our books.
There is an improved Photo Mode too, which is nice to play with and explore, but it isn’t a key selling point for us.
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