Days Gone Remastered Brings New Life to Deacon’s Quest with Stunning Visuals, Seamless Gameplay, and New Challenges.
When Days Gone was launched in 2019, it raised curiosity, expectation, and some uncertainty among Horror Survival Genre fans. Bend Studio, with such a rich legacy in the Syphon Filter series, wanted to make a mark with this survival horror action game set in an open world.
While the game introduced a new spin on the genre, it received mediocre grades. Others criticized its unimaginative world design, character-based plot, and lack of excitement in killing lots of zombie-like enemies; the repetitive gameplay and other concerns kept it from being much different.
With Days Gone Remastered on the PS5, Bend Studio has effectively addressed the original game’s technical shortcomings and added some thrilling enhancements. The game has never looked so resplendently good-looking! It plays irresistibly silky and has a level of polish that glitters resplendently more than was conceivable on the PS4.
The fundamental story of Days Gone Remastered remains the same, but the improved performance and visuals make it hit that much harder, particularly in its most emotional moments. In a grimly lovely post-apocalyptic Oregon, it’s the story of Deacon St. John—a rough-around-the-edges, leather-jacketed ex-biker who exists these days as a drifter and mercenary.
The world has been destroyed by a fatal viral epidemic that has transformed people into violent, zombie-like entities known as Freakers. In all this destruction, Deacon tries to find his believed-dead wife, Sarah, hoping she might still be alive.
Days Gone Remastered begins two years after the first outbreak. Through a series of flashbacks, it gradually reveals the tragedy, betrayal, and loss that led Deacon to this point. Along the way, there will be a variety of characters ranging from idealistic scientists and battle-hardened soldiers to religious fanatics and sadistic marauders. These settlements are divided into several factions, each with its own agendas, morals, and politics. Some are trustworthy companions, others are dangerous, and most fall somewhere in between.
Whereas the narrative of the game remains unchanged in content, the new visual treatment does work to draw the players further into the world. Textures are crisper, cutscenes smoother, and loading times are much faster due to the SSD on the PlayStation 5. It all works to immerse the players more deeply in the experience, and the emotionally charged moments of the story are given greater impact. Deacon’s desperation, isolation, and a brief glimmer of hope, which characterize his struggle now, strike harder on an emotional level.
Gameplay-wise, Days Gone Remastered plays the same as its original but feels significantly improved. Technical improvements enhance all aspects of it—combat, driving, menu navigation, and crafting. The PS5 hardware contributes to faster load times, crisper, higher-resolution textures, and the holy grail of 60 frames per second for Performance Mode. Quality Mode is available to those who care more about presentation than performance.
DualSense features blend into the experience unobtrusively. Adaptive triggers react in a way specific to the gun you’re using, and haptic feedback recreates everything from raindrops hitting your character to a shotgun’s report to Deacon’s motorcycle engine growl. It’s an imperceptible but worthwhile improvement that enhances immersion and makes the world feel touchable.
Meanwhile, gameplay tenets remain unaltered—scavenging, crafting, sneaking, and open-world discovery—and each now does more with finesse. Switching between weapons is faster, driving is more rapid, and fighting enemies is more ferocious thanks to finer AI and smoother animation. Nothing is revolutionary, but everything is improved.
Fight in Days Gone has never been about anything but variety, offering you the choice of stealth, shootouts, or wild melee combat. The Remastered version doesn’t alter the mechanics too much, but the technical upgrades make it a whole lot improved. The guns feel heavier, the movement animations are smoother, and the enemy reactions are more stable. Fighting humans and Freakers, both are more responsive and quicker.
You still have four weapon slots to deal with—sidearm, primary gun, special weapon, and melee. Guns go from handguns and SMGs to heavy sniper rifles and shotguns. Melee weapons like baseball bats, axes, and machetes can be modded with spikes or saw blades for greater damage. Molotovs, proximity mines, and pipe bombs are explosives that have strategic applications in horde battles.
Enemy AI sees significant enhancements in Days Gone Remastered. Freakers behave more erratically and are more likely to fall victim to mob behavior, which can make them seem more intimidating in groups. The mythic hordes—hundreds of Freakers moving as a unified force—are back again, and they’re scarier than ever. With improved draw distances and more interactive worlds, surviving these encounters requires finesse, patience, and strategy.
New, more challenging variants, such as the Reacher and Bleacher, appear early in the game, bringing diversity and complexity to mid-game discovery. Infected wolves, bears, and other animals are hidden dangers in the wild as well. The unforgiving environment compels you to switch between your playstyles. Stealth is still an option when using suppressors or the Faithful Crossbow, which can silence shots.
Deacon’s bike is more than a vehicle; it’s a lifeline. That’s never been clearer than with the Remastered game. The bike hasn’t been altered mechanically, but the haptic feedback and enhanced audio clarity bring it to life. Riding over rough terrain feels visceral, and the vibrations react to the bumps and ruts on the road. Wet, muddy trails and smooth pavement both have distinct feels under the tires.
You’ll still need to manage fuel, repair damage, and invest in upgrades to keep your bike reliable. Upgrades include larger fuel tanks, engine parts for better speed and handling, silencers to avoid alerting Freakers, and nitrous boosts for quick escapes. It’s not just about speed—it’s about survivability.
Pre-ordering Days Gone Remastered gives you a head start with the Nitrous 1 upgrade, Gas Tank 1, and Monkey Wrench skill, which enhance your resource efficiency, allowing you to repair the bike with fewer resources. They’re not one-off exclusives and can be achieved through normal progression, but with them as a pre-order incentive, the early days of in-game time are easier to survive.
Leveling up still works pretty much the same way: you receive XP for fulfilling missions, killing infestations, killing enemies, and exploring new areas. XP rewards you with skill points that are divided into three categories: melee, ranged, and survival.
They include major perks such as faster reloading, improved shooting, and enhanced healing skills. But Days Gone Remastered adds completely new game modes to aid in progression and provide experienced players with new ways of engaging with the game.
Horde Assault Mode is a high-speed, wave-based challenge in which you battle progressively more challenging hordes in arena map environments. Longevity and survival are enhanced with injectables that improve stamina, health, and focus. Cosmetic patches and secondary character skin are added as unlockables for this mode.
Speedrun Mode is a new feature that allows players to rush through the main story and race against the clock. It’s like Days Gone reacting to remastered time challenges in The Last of Us Part I. Players will receive time rewards and rankings, encouraging efficiency and expertise for each mission.
Permadeath Mode, brought back from the original game, is the ultimate survival test. One life. One playthrough. No do-overs. Combined with Hard Two or Survival Two difficulty levels, this mode is where the best players prove themselves.
Challenge Modes, weekly reset horde mode fights, ambush camps, and New Game Plus include all of the launch-day-only content. The addition of these items naturally makes the Remastered package feel almost authoritative—this is the one the developers always had in mind.
Visually, Days Gone Remastered is a clear improvement over its PS4 version. Oregon’s vast forests, misty lakes, sun-drenched meadows, and run-down towns appear more realistic than ever before. The update includes higher-resolution textures, improved ambient lighting, and greater shadows, giving the whole experience a cinematic gloss.
Photo Mode has also been upgraded. It now includes a three-point lighting system that lets you set up scene framing at a nearly pro level. You can even set the time of day, use dynamic logos, and adjust saturation and contrast to get the look you want in your melodramas.
With all these features at your disposal, any bicycle sunrise or confused mob melee is an imaging event. This isn’t just a fun addition—it’s one way Days Gone Remastered readjusts its world to be something to stop and look at, even amid all the chaos.
Days Gone Remastered also uses the PS5’s 3D Audio to its maximum capability. It is not only louder but also more immersive. You can hear enemies approaching them from all directions, bullets flying over their heads, and experience a swarm passing them by close-up. The enhanced experience keeps you on your toes and enables faster reflexes, which is crucial when speeding through thick forests or on nighttime missions.
Your motorcycle’s engine rumble varies with terrain and speed, while ambient noises like wind, water, and animals are more pronounced. The majority of the original voice acting has been left unchanged, which is sufficient to convey emotion and suspense.
With the DualSense controller, everything feels more real. Gunshots feel more like weighty recoil. Raindrops against the controller are subtly rhythmic. Sliding down soiled hills feels unlike sliding down gravel hills. It won’t revolutionize the game, but it certainly makes playing it better.
Days Gone Remastered is not a rethinking—it’s an improvement. It refines everything that worked in the original game to perfection. It doesn’t eliminate all the pacing problems or storytelling stumbles that drew unwanted attention in 2019. Still, the improved visuals, performance enhancements, and new game modes make it a lot easier to recommend now.
Bend Studio has not just transplanted a higher resolution onto an existing game. They’ve rebuilt Days Gone on new hardware and stuck to what made it good to begin with: its atmospheric setting, its emotionally resonant narrative, and its white-knuckle horde combat.
For all the returnees to the game, this is the wait you’ve been eagerly anticipating! And for all the noobs, this is indeed the best way to enter an underappreciated gem. Amid the gaming universe, overwhelmed with zombie survival games, Days Gone Remastered wonderfully shows that there is still plenty of space for emotional storytelling.
