Back in 2019, Days Gone arrived with the roar of a Harley and the cautious steps of a game that didn’t quite know how it wanted to be seen. It was scrappy, ambitious, flawed, and far too easy for people to write off as just “Sony’s other zombie game.” But time has a funny way of reshaping perception.
Now, with the PS5 remaster, Days Gone returns with a vengeance: refined and shaved down to its leanest form, running on pure horsepower, and finally able to keep pace with its own ambitions.
Performance and Visuals
On PS5, the Oregon wasteland finally breathes, and it’s breathtaking. The remaster brings native 4K resolution and a silky-smooth 60fps that completely transforms the experience. Load screens, once frequent and clunky, are nearly nonexistent. Texture work is sharper, lighting is more dynamic, and the fog-drenched wilderness of Farewell feels both more beautiful and more dangerous than ever before.
It’s not a full-on remake, and it doesn’t need to be. This is Days Gone unchained from the technical shackles that once held it back. The performance boost is particularly noticeable during horde encounters, where hundreds of Freakers can swarm you in real time without a single stutter. In 2019, these moments strained the PS4 to its limit. On PS5, they’re smooth and thrilling.
Gameplay
The core gameplay loop of Days Gone remains intact. Ride out, scavenge, survive. Repeat. And that loop, now freed of bugs and framerate drops, becomes oddly meditative.
It’s still very much survival horror lite, a game where you manage resources, patch your wounds, and count bullets before you ever pull the trigger. But the addition of PS5 haptics adds a tactile layer that sells the experience. The rumble of your engine and the kickback of your shotgun feels weightier.
Combat is brutal and effective, if not as polished as some of its contemporaries. Gunplay can be stiff, and AI can wobble, but the tension remains strong. Especially when it’s just you, a crumbling barn, and a horde pouring in from every side.
Horde battles are still Days Gone’s greatest strength. They’re terrifying puzzles wrapped in real-time chaos. You’ll learn to think fast, plan escape routes, set traps, and pray you have enough molotovs. Now that they run smoothly, they truly shine.
Story
The narrative heart of Days Gone lies in its lead, Deacon St. John: a biker, a veteran, and a man broken by the world but still stupidly stubborn enough to fight it. Sam Witwer gives a fantastic performance, rough around the edges but emotionally grounded. Deacon is neither hero nor antihero, he’s a survivor. And in Days Gone, that means something.
The story takes its time. Sometimes too much. Its early hours lean heavily into repetitive fetch quests and biker bravado, but it slowly peels back layers of grief, loyalty, and loss. The bond between Deacon and Boozer is especially well-written, with equal parts brotherhood and heartbreak.
And then there’s Sarah, Deacon’s lost wife, whose presence haunts the entire narrative. When the game pivots toward finding her, it trades rage for hope, and while not every plot thread lands, there’s enough here to care about — especially in the remaster, where cutscenes load faster and pacing feels tighter.
World Design
Open-world fatigue is real. In 2019, Days Gone felt like it arrived too late to the party. But in 2025, the game’s slower, more grounded approach feels like a breath of fresh air.
Farewell, Oregon isn’t a world packed with icons or loot drops, it’s a world that wants you to listen to the wind, keep an eye on your gas tank, and wonder if the next roadhouse has a medkit. Camps have personalities, the wilderness hides secrets, and Freakers lurk in places that feel plausibly lived-in.
Side content can still feel repetitive, as clearing out nests, bounty hunting, and ambush camps all blur together, but the remaster makes traversal so seamless and satisfying that the grind rarely gets in the way.
Days Gone remains polarizing. It still carries some of its 2019 awkwardness: mission design that leans hard on “ride here, shoot them,” stealth that’s basic at best, and a script that occasionally dips into melodrama. But what it lacks in elegance, it makes up for in soul.
There’s a grit to this game. It doesn’t reinvent the genre, but it sticks to its guns, and by the time the credits roll, you’ll have been through hell with Deacon St. John.
Conclusion
Days Gone: Remastered doesn’t beg for a second chance, it earns one. To me, this is not a masterpiece, but it is a game with vision, voice, and genuine emotional weight. What was once a scrappy underdog is now one of the most fully-realized survival horror-adjacent experiences on PlayStation. If you missed it the first time, don’t make the same mistake twice.
Days Gone: Remastered is now available for PlayStation 5.
(9 / 10)
Amazing
(9 / 10)Rely on Horror Review Score Guide
A review code for PS5 was provided by the developer.
