Summary
An early comparison between the graphical fidelity ofDays Gone Remasteredand the 2019 original has some fans wondering whether the game needed a remaster in the first place. Unlike the comprehensive visual upgrade seen in the recent remaster ofHorizon Zero Dawn,Days Gone Remasteredlooks to be bringing forth much milder, if not indistinguishable, changes compared to the PC version of the base game.
Developed by PlayStation first-party team Bend Studio,Days Gonelaunched in 2019 to mixed reviews due to bugs, glitches, and a general lack of technical polish. The issues were cleaned up in subsequent months andDays Goneeventually went on to sell over seven million copies (as of 2022). However, the prospect of a sequel looked shaky as Bend Studio reportedly went through some internal turmoil that led to both ofDays Gone’s directors exiting the team. Since then, the studio has repeatedly had to quashhopes regardingDays Gone 2, which has become one of the most-requested sequels for a PlayStation game in recent years.
Bend Studio had been working on an unannounced open-world live-service game, which was unfortunately canceled by PlayStation leadership last month. After this news, many fans didn’t expect Bend Studio to have anything ready for the rest of the PS5’s lifecycle, but the team surprisingly showed up to PlayStation’s February 2025 State of Play withDays Gone Remasteredfor PS5 and PC. However, while theannouncement forDays Gone Remasteredboasted improvementsover the original in graphical fidelity, foliage draw distance, shadows, and lighting, an early unofficial comparison doesn’t really seem to prove the claims.
Days Gone Fans Puzzled About the Remaster’s Seemingly Imperceptible Graphical Upgrades
YouTuber Cycu1 recently put together a videocomparing the State of Play footage ofDays Gone Remasteredto the original game’s PC version running on an RTX 4080 at 4K Ultra settings. At a cursory glance, thedifference betweenDays Gone Remasteredand the original game seems next to nothing. Some tight zoom-ins reveal that granular details resolve slightly better in the remaster, but the graphical jump over the original game is nowhere close to the oneobserved in last year’sHorizon Zero Dawn Remastered. It’s worth noting, though, that Cycu1’s comparison only used cutscene footage, which may not be the best showcase ofDays Gone Remastered’s claimed visual enhancements. Actual gameplay ofDays Gone Remasteredcould be a better way to judge the same.
There’s also a case to be made forDays Gone’s still-impressive graphical fidelity possibly making the remaster’s improvements a bit harder to discern. It remains to be seen how thoroughlyDays Gone Remasteredpushes the visual envelopeover the original, but it does offer a lot more in addition to shinier graphics, such as an expanded suite of accessibility options, improved photo mode features, DualSense support, and new game modes like Horde Assault and Permadeath, all for a $10 upgrade fee for existing owners.
