Is Days Gone a misunderstood masterpiece?
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Another remaster
On the highway once more
Revisiting Deacon
That’s a query that some avid gamers have been asking since April 26, 2019 — the very day that Sony’s open-world zombie recreation first launched. A wave of lukewarm crucial critiques, together with a dreaded “6.5” from IGN, kicked off a minor tradition warfare as the sport’s greatest defenders went to bat for it earlier than it was even put in on most PS4s. Whether its real love or console tribalism fueling it, Days Gone’s legacy has lengthy been held up by a vocal group of devoted followers who’re decided to present it a redemption arc.
They’ve lastly gotten their greatest likelihood at that due to Days Gone Remastered, Sony’s newest PS4 double dip. The re-creation freshens up the visuals, provides some new modes, and brings in some welcome accessibility options. Is that each one it must be acknowledged as a misunderstood basic? Absolutely not, but it surely does go away me questioning how Days Gone would have fared had it launched in a wholly totally different context. Returning to it now, it by some means feels each outdated and years forward of its time.
Another remaster
The least attention-grabbing factor about Days Gone Remastered is the precise remastering. Like The Last of Us Part 2 or Horizon Zero Dawn’s latest overhauls, the whole concept of this double dip appears like a unnecessary use of developer Sony Bend’s time and expertise. Days Gone launched on the tail finish of the PS4 lifecycle, which means that it was already one of many console’s extra technically succesful video games (don’t overlook that PS5 video games like God of War Ragnarok have been nonetheless cross-launching on PS4 up till a couple of years in the past). The visible glow-up right here is, frankly, imperceptible. There are moments the place I’m wondering if the one factor that’s modified is the colour temperature of photos, which really feel a little bit cooler now, making a placebo impact. Sony’s use of the phrase “Remastered” in its latest PS4 updates continues to stretch the which means of the phrase; I can’t assist however really feel prefer it’s extra about advertising and marketing than something.
The extra impactful change is to efficiency, because the remaster can now run at 60 frames per second. That’s nice when you’re the type of one who actually can’t get pleasure from a recreation at 30fps, but it surely hardly appears like trigger for a paid rerelease. My playthrough was nonetheless full of lengthy load occasions and ugly bugs that make it really feel like a really modest replace. The extra impactful modifications are all within the new accessibility menu, giving extra gamers a possibility to expertise the journey by adjusting recreation velocity or letting them auto-complete fast time occasions. I additionally recognize the DualSense updates right here, because the adaptive triggers give Deacon’s bike a little bit extra grit.
The higher method to consider Days Gone Remastered is as a DLC bundled in with a high quality of life replace. The bundle provides a number of new modes, which really feel well worth the $10 it prices to improve your PS4 copy. Horde Mode is a pleasant additional that finds a brand new method to let gamers tackle large waves of zombies, which stays considered one of Days Gone’s greatest tips. The smartest addition is a Permadeath mode, which can drive gamers to start out the whole recreation over upon demise. That’s a genius pairing for a survival-based recreation like Days Gone that solely makes it extra intense. On the flipside, there’s a Speedrun mode for individuals who have performed the unique to demise and wish to zip by means of it as quick as potential.
This is similar technique that Sony employed final 12 months with The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, giving Naughty Dog’s recreation a collection of latest modes. I used to be very crucial of that method on the time, noting that options like a Speedrun mode felt totally at odds with the story’s musings on cyclical violence. Days Gone completely avoids that downside for a easy purpose: It is a really dumb online game. And that simply is perhaps its highest quality in 2025.
On the highway once more
For those that skipped Days Gone in 2019, the open-world recreation follows a motorbike fanatic named Deacon who resides out within the woods of Oregon amid a zombie apocalypse. The story apes The Last of Us to the purpose of comedy, as if Sony engineered it in hopes it may make lightning strike twice. Deacon is a gruff man with a lifeless spouse who employs a little bit an excessive amount of gleeful violence to kill each rival people and “Freakers,” the world’s extremely ludicrous identify for zombies. Sometimes it’s laughably self severe. Other occasions, Deacon has to struggle a bear. For anybody hoping that the remaster will change the narrative round Days Gone and reveal a hidden masterpiece, preserve dreaming.
But that’s to not say that Days Gone isn’t pleasing. On the opposite, I type of like it in 2025.
Sony
Don’t get too excited: I feel critics have been proper on the cash in 2019, if not a little bit too sort to it. Days Gone is a slog of an open-world recreation that was constructed virtually totally of overused cliches of the PS4 period. It has crafting pulled from The Last of Us and a radial menu taken from Horizon Zero Dawn. There are collectible audio logs scattered all through the world. I can’t rely the variety of occasions Deacon has to reboot a generator to get right into a locked constructing. It’s all so by the books which you could guess what every button does and can instinctively know which you could sneak up behind an enemy to stealth kill them with out ever being taught to. It’s a recreation that highlights the restrictions of system at each flip.
There are vivid spots, although, and that’s the place I begin to surprise if Days Gone may have been just a bit forward of its time. Its greatest characteristic is its bike administration, which takes some getting used to. Deacon’s bike doesn’t operate like a magical horse that gallops to him each time he whistles; it’s a machine that must be cared for. I must cease driving throughout lengthy journeys to seek out gasoline cans and preserve my bike fueled up. If I don’t, I’ll must abandon it and return later with some gasoline in hand. The similar goes for repairs, as it might get broken over time by reckless driving or Freaker assaults. I would like to interrupt deserted automobiles open and search for mechanical components that can be utilized to tune my bike up when it begins smoking. It’s a superb little bit of friction that I’ve solely seen replicated as properly in Pacific Drive, a recreation that launched final 12 months.
It strikes me that Days Gone initially launched throughout a time the place builders have been determined to clean their video games out as a lot as potential. Ubisoft-style “map games” have been nonetheless the dominant type of open-world design, giving gamers an icon-filled guidelines to finish. Days Gone follows that design, but it surely isn’t so simple as quick touring from level A to level B. If you don’t put together to make it by means of a journey, you’ll find yourself stranded. That’s genuinely harmful too, as a result of Deacon usually comes up towards waves of enemies that he merely can’t outgun. The Broken Road can and can punish gamers who don’t take its survival methods critically.
I’m unsure if mainstream gamers have been hungry for an expertise like that in 2019, however they definitely are actually. Games like Elden Ring have confirmed that gamers wish to be challenged generally. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 reveals us that gamers are open to systems-heavy video games which might be constructed on friction. Even The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered’s breakout success is an efficient signal that gamers can deal with an old style open-world recreation that takes the guardrails down. If nothing else, Days Gone Remastered lets us see what the unique was going for in a contemporary context. It feels a little bit too caught between competing design philosophies for its personal good, however its survival aspect feels far more tailor-made to fashionable tastes.
Revisiting Deacon
That’s not the one a part of Days Gone that feels forward of its time. The authentic recreation dropped at precisely the improper cultural second. It was a zombie recreation that was attempting to capitalize on The Walking Dead a number of years too late. The horror trope was properly oversaturated at that time and Days Gone had nothing so as to add to the dialog, dealing totally in style cliche. It additionally had the misfortune of launching in a heated political local weather that threatened its popularity. Amid the chaos of President Donald Trump’s first time period, the place neo-Nazis proudly marched by means of the streets, many gamers didn’t really feel all that excited to play a recreation about gruff bikers and crockpot radio hosts who rant in regards to the feds all day. It was absolutely the improper recreation for the second and, regrettably, nonetheless is.
But it’s a mistake to characterize Days Gone as a “conservative game.” That provides it method an excessive amount of credit score. Assigning a political philosophy to it implies that Days Gone has any constant beliefs that it needs to speak. Heck, it implies that there’s a single thought rattling round on this recreation’s cranium in any respect. That just isn’t the case: It is an awfully silly recreation. And frankly, that’s why I’m having fun with my time with it a lot.
When I first met Deacon, my intuition was to roll my eyes at his powerful, tortured man demeanor. He’s a online game character pulled out of a submitting cupboard, reminding us that gaming’s latest push to higher diversify its heroes got here from a spot of necessity. But the extra time I spent with Deacon, the extra I used to be drawn to him. He is so incomprehensible that he’s magnetic. Part of that comes from weird recreation route. Deacon continuously talks out loud to nobody all through the whole recreation, saying each single thought that crosses his head out loud. Sometimes he’ll do this quietly in order that freakers can’t hear him. Other occasions, he straight up screams on the prime of his lungs. The man has no quantity management or constant survival intuition.
Sony
He additionally has no understandable political views. Deacon is designed to be a one problem voter, and that problem is “Who will leave my motorcycle alone?” That’s made clear each time a radio broadcast performs and Deacon listens to a proper wing host spout conspiracy theories. He shouts out a rebuttal each single time, and so they solely change into extra head scratching as the sport goes on. In one radio broadcast, a number criticizes consumerism and voices his need to see manufacturing jobs introduced again to arduous working Americans quite than being outsourced abroad (a well-recognized line that’s having a severe affect on our financial system right now). Deacon’s retort? Actually consumerism is sweet if it means having the ability to purchase one other bike. It is an alien response that by some means feels totally practical. Deacon is each American who just isn’t tuned in to bigger political conversations and as a substitute bases their opinions totally on vibes. Somewhere alongside the journey, I grew to like Deacon for moments like this. He’s simply so unserious that he comes again round to being a captivating eccentric.
I’m wondering if that response would have been extra widespread had Days Gone first launched right now. We’re at the moment feeling the rumblings of a return to “dudes rock” irony. TV reveals like Reacher have earned sudden followers who see its titular character’s machismo as a form of over-the-top novelty. I really feel that in Deacon each time he stumbles right into a bandit camp and begins mumbling how he’s going to kill each final considered one of these sorry murderers. He’s the antithesis to The Last of Us’ Joel, a personality constructed to deconstruct and critique characters like Deacon. The self-reflection goes out the window in Days Gone in favor of a dude who got here right here to trip his bike and kill Freakers — and he’s by no means out of gasoline, bullets, or bubblegum.
Days Gone Remastered is unbelievably pointless as a “product” and does little to present a middling open-world recreation the redemption arc that some followers so desperately need. It is, nevertheless, a form of fascinating historic doc. It’s a reminder that artwork is inseparable from cultural context and that each floor can shine relying on what angle the sunshine hits it at. In 2025, I can recognize Days Gone as a considerably forward of its time survival recreation starring probably the most lovable dummy conceivable.
Maybe the recipe for a sequel isn’t shying away from the elements of Days Gone that have been criticized at launch. Maybe the crew at Bend can pull it off by cranking the testosterone dial so far as it would go till it breaks and swings again round to unintended self-parody. The solely catch is that it might’t be self-aware. Days Gone works as a responsible pleasure as a result of it takes numerous very dumb issues very critically. If you’ll be able to drop all pretenses and meet it on the storage, all coated in gasoline and grease, it’s one heck of a joyride.
Days Gone Remastered is out now on PS5 and PC.