I’d almost forgotten what it was like to barrel through a post-apocalyptic Oregon wilderness at breakneck speed with hundreds of ravenous Freakers gnashing at my rear wheel. Mostly because Days Gone was a solid-yet-derivative sandbox ride with underutilised mob tech and a fairly unmemorable love story lashed to its panniers.
I by no means disliked it. But it was a noticeable dip in quality during what was, in 2019, an incredible run of first-party PS4 bangers.
Via some curiously launch day review code, I happily powerslid through Days Gone Remastered on PS5 Pro. From the opening kickstart, it seemed sharper than a broken bottle and felt smoother than freshly tarmacked asphalt. It also surprisingly and effortlessly, sucked me back into an old experience that I perhaps judged too harshly the first time around. Mind you, that is the power of time, distance, and better bug stomping / quality control.
that is the power of time, distance, and better bug stomping / quality control.
I remember booting up the PS4 original back in 2019, fingers crossed that this would be Bend Studio’s triumphant step up into bona fide AAA status. Some bits were rough, sure, as the controls felt a tad clunky, and the story meandered like a lost Drifter on a foggy night. But there was still something endearing about its scrappy charm. The best Days Gone reached was cult hit heights, and, sadly, Bend hasn’t produced another major title since.
Now, with a fresh coat of (still on Unreal Engine 4) paint and the might of the PS5 Pro under its hood, this ‘rust bucket’ of a game revs up surprisingly well. The fact that it has extra content in the form of a ‘Broken Road’ helps a little. And, like I said before, the fact that the cracks in the existing asphalt have been patched (as opposed to being ignored and simply paved over) helps a lot.
A side mirror glance back
Best pitched as a “Sons of Anarchy meets The Walking Dead” mash-up on two wheels, Days Gone defied mixed reviews to sell like hotcakes on PS4 (and then on PC in 2021). Its setup is about as vanilla as you can get, though: two years of a global pandemic turns most of humanity into flesh-munching Freakers.
You are Deacon St. John, a former biker outlaw-turned-homesteader who’s haunted by memories of your lost love, Sarah. When your survivor camp’s fragile peace gets shattered, you mount your trusty Drifter bike and embark on a perilous road trip through the Pacific Northwest, chasing clues, speed bumping over sociopaths, and picking fights with hundreds-deep Freaker packs that flow like a bloody great tsunami of teeth.
hundreds-deep Freaker packs that flow like a bloody great tsunami of teeth.
The remastered edition doesn’t tweak the core narrative, unfortunately. Deacon’s dogged missions and flashbacks to Sarah to figure out what went sideways still drives the story. But it does sprinkle in other fresh incentives: expanded photo mode with time-of-day settings and three-point lighting options, the usual slew of accessibility bolt-ins, and a handful of Early Unlocks if you pre-order (think Monkey Wrench skill, Nitrous Upgrade I, and more). These extras won’t rewrite Deacon’s tragic and rather paint-by-numbers arc, but they do add a little flair for returning road warriors.
Mechanics, bikes, and bike mechanicing
Remember that initial thrill of weaving through a swarm of Freakers on your bike, shotgun ready, and heart in throat? Well, the Remaster keeps that adrenaline rush in place, but now it’s turbocharged by three new game modes courtesy of the Broken Road DLC.
The most notable improvement in my mind is Horde Assault, a standalone mode that lets you instantly serve up those underused nests of Freakers that were secreted about the map of the original game. It’s a survival-arcade affair that drops you into Cascade with only a sidearm, tasking you to rack up the highest score against ever-escalating hordes. That’s spiced up with risk-increasing “Injectors” which bring unlockable rewards. And yes, the freaker family reunion is bigger than ever, with Breakers, Reachers, Rager bears, and even explosive Freakers on the roster.
Also, as a masochist who loves a hard difficulty, I’m all about the inclusion of Permadeath. It’s already cleaned my clock a few times and isn’t for the faint of heart. Zig when you should have zagged in front of a horde, and you’re back to square one, or to the start of Act II, depending on your chosen setting.
Zig when you should have zagged in front of a horde, and you’re back to square one.
It’s in the same vein as the new Speedrun mode; just a fun and novel way to elevate this par for the post-apoc open-worlder into something exhilarating. Extra pro tip: enhance your survivability in the above modes by seeking out a Growler mini-gun that’s lying out in the sandbox. That’s a surprising new change to the original game (which kept that beast of a thing locked in a specific mission).
Controls remain largely the same here. It’s the old blend of over-the-shoulder shooting, stamina-based melee, and stealthy takedowns until you screw up and need to go loud. The bike’s handling still teeters between “delightful power slide” and “why-am-I-a-magnet-for-debris”—and I have to say it makes great use of the adaptive triggers. Sprinkle in side jobs, scavenging loops, and crafting tweaks to hold your interest, even if the structure can feel a bit repetitive and the UI sub-optimal around the edges.
Polishing up the gas tank
Let’s talk visuals. On PS5 Pro, you can choose between the three distinct graphical modes of Performance (1800p targeting 60 FPS), Quality (2880p targeting 30 FPS, supersampled down from above 4K), and Enhanced (1584p targeting 60 FPS with PSSR). To my eye, it seems all modes output at crisp 4K, delivering incremental fidelity gains over the checkerboard rendering technique of PS4.
The devs have also overhauled the world’s atmosphere and sky using ozone and spectral light simulation, resulting in richer colour tones, more accurate sunlight, and nights so dark you’ll feel like you’re trudging through a blackout. Shadows seem twice as detailed, screen-space indirect lighting and ambient occlusion are dialled up, and ambient foliage draw distance has been stretched so you can spot that next campfire from ks away.
all modes output at crisp 4K, delivering incremental fidelity gains.
Oh, something I only noticed during my side-by-side comparisons: everything seems to be a lot more…blue for some reason. Which, I dunno, beats the hell out of the original’s obsession with browns. And a lack of RT global illumination means we’re still subsisting with pre-baked textures (which, admittedly, are noticeably crisper).
On the audio front, Tempest 3D Audio and VRR support make every Freaker shriek and thunderclap ring true, while the DualSense controller’s haptic feedback will trick your senses into thinking you’re getting soaked in rain (among other cool expressions). It’s not quite the tactile masterpiece of something like Astro Bot, but it certainly deepens the immersion to best-version levels.
At the end of the day(s gone), this remastering isn’t especially revelatory, but it’s well worth throwing your leg over. The PS5 Pro’s horsepower turns Bend Studio’s gritty world into a visual feast, and the new game modes—especially the addictive Horde Assault—inject fresh appeal into a title that stalled in a few areas.
While Deacon’s story still drags its feet in parts, and some mechanics haven’t aged like fine Oregon moonshine, the overall package is undeniably the definitive way to ride the Broken Road. This still isn’t as essential as some Internet folk insist, but it copped a worse rap than it should have back in the day and is now worth a budget-price buy / low cost upgrade.
