Days Gone: Remastered – Technical Review
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Bend studios have been around since PlayStation’s origins, moving Bubsy from 2D to the 3D realms, bringing Gabe Logan to PlayStation players for multiple generations. They even go Nathan Drake mobile in the excellent PS Vita Uncharted: Golden Abyss. But it was Deacon St. John, Sarah, Boozer and that Motorcycle road trip that became their most impressive, gritty and successful game in 2019s Days Gone. Selling close to 10 million copies, they earned the Classic Label, and then some, which in modern gaming can only mean one thing, remaster. The remaster comes in two forms, a £/$10 upgrade for PS4 owners of the original, or a full PS5 £/$45 digital pack. PC owners can access the new game modes and other extras in the £/$5 broken road DLC but all PC owners get the same visual boosts, including the new, excellent, Dual sense support offered in the PS5 remaster for free.
The PS5 offers two modes, Performance 1440p/60fps or Quality 4K/30fps. PS5 Pro players get the same two modes just at 1800p/60 or 5120×2880/5K/30fps respectively, in addition to an exclusive third mode entitled Enhanced mode. This uses Sony’s own Machine learning upscaler, PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) which runs at a base resolution of 2816x1584p and then reconstructs this back to 3840x2160p/4K. I must commend the team on stating what each mode and console runs at, no DRS noted or found in my counts. The challenge here for Sony, is the old PS4 base game (PS4Pro code) was upgraded to 60fps at PS5s launch (and remains a free option). It already ran close to the, then, maximum PC settings bar Screen Space GI, improved LoD, shadows and used a Checkerboard reconstruction technique 4K resolution. Aside frame rate doubling, this was/is just PS4Pro code running in back combatibility mode. And it ran well, as my deep PS5 review coverage reflected, aside the horde mode which can see it dip using that same PS4 code and latest patches applied. Dense geometry views, 100s of frantic zombies, foliage, explosion and physics cause brief dropped frames. Be it when spawning an explosion, calculating the force, physics, scoring, etc but it is mostly GPU bound on the PS5 in BC mode, with the PC proving this also using my RX6800 and Zen 5600X 6c/12t CPU, even above 60fps we have CPU headroom to spare. And this CPU often performs worse than the PS5 equivalent console CPU.
Visual & Technical Updates
Right off the, bat the remaster performs better than the already excellent BC version, with both visual upgrades and reductions. Using the PlayStation 5 BC 60fps version [no modes], vs Remastered Performance 60fps mode, we do see a softer image than the 4K CB mode. The Checkerboard image is sharper, crisper and presents more detail and clarity of textures over the new 1440p 60fps performance mode. Highlighting what I have always said, the PS4 Pro Checkerboard hardware accelerated function, was an excellent solution. Often close enough to a 4K resolve to convince in many titles for much less cost and memory footprint. Like many games, LoD is related to resolution so we can have slightly more grass, trees and bushes in that PS4Pro mode over the new 1440p PS5 performance. Although, almost invisible in play but the remaster does come with other gains on Image Quality(IQ) and visuals. It is more stable than the Checkerboard image, which struggle more with flicker on foliage and edge shifting (Watch the video below to see these examples), the performance mode is softer but more stable. The Quality mode is sharper, cleaner and more stable than both and does exceed the LoD levels of foliage over both these modes now, identical to the ‘new’ Highest 4K PC settings.
Moving up the console power stack to the PS5 Pro, those same two modes (Performance/Quality) are better than both the BC CB mode and the PS5 Remastered performance mode. Resolving more detail, higher LoD, better shadows and more stable with the 5K Quality mode being slightly better than the 4K PC mode. The Enhanced PSSR mode has image quality closer to the 4K quality mode but slightly lower LoD due to the base resolution (reasons noted), but LoD is closer to max on the PS5 Pro’s performance mode over both the Enhanced mode and PS5’s Performance mode.
In terms of technical updates, the Blog post from Bend themselves notes what they added, and the PSN Blog on the new game modes and features added with support from Climax Studios. All modes in this Remaster increase object LoD, meaning the geometry level of objects such as cars, boulders, tankers etc. This results in the engine’s draw calls using higher LoD levels at all distances (actually lower based on how engines scale LoDs from 0 being the best and 5> being the lowest). In side by sides looking at objects or in cutscenes with close up objects. You can see higher geometric detail and often rounder objects, resulting with the new modes having less Pop In and Geometry swaps than the old code. Although minor like the resolution change and can be hard to spot in play, it is all welcome. In cutscenes you can see better detail, foliage, textures and shadows than the PS4 code, but the lighting and tone mapping changes are the most obvious.
The old game had more earthy greens, browns and light blues. The remaster is darker by default but also bathed with a colder, blue hue in most scenes that can be stark in some comparisons (see video), fog volumes and foliage look similar, but the remaster looks much colder and blue, like cool settings on your TV. The team also stated the improved lighting of sun and moon, Global Illumination of the screen space variety added in, and double Shadow map resolution alongside improved ambient occlusion and atmospheric scattering. Rounding out the noted upgrades, Screen Space Reflections(SSR) are better and puddles have a noise map now, making them look more realistic to replicate surface micro-facets. In play though, even in side by sides, the biggest updates are more fog, the change in tone mapping and subtle increased grass and shrubs. Finally, we now get an Field Of View(FoV) slider with the PS4 code being closest to 77 degrees but the remaster defaults at 70. All my tests are with it matched at 77 to ensure as close to like for like as possible.
Loading is a minor boost, but again highlights the minimal amount of changes made to the course code here, around 5 seconds faster than the BC mode at almost 30 seconds. We see a small increase that is not able to leap up without major data handling changes within that codebase, beyond the scope of this remaster. Which is still good but not on the same level as The Last Of Us Part 1 Remaster from a few years ago.
Dead Good Value
On the face of it, a Remaster is simply a better quality, refined, polished and sometimes, extended version of the original. And Days Gone does exactly what it states on the tin, across PS5, PS5 Pro and compared to PC in my RX6800/5600X machine, this new version offers more modes of play, improved control and Dual Sense support, higher resolution, better performance and enhanced visuals(watch the video above for the performance testing including PC comparisons). It does not improve all areas, or even make huge strides forward with those visual updates. But for £10 it is great value to re-ride the broken road, or just finish off where you left off using the PS4 save transfer. For new comers, the £45 asking price does feel a little steep, and based on content a £25-£30 level would be more appropriate (in my opinion). However, the savvy ones among you may just grab a cheap 2nd hand Disc and then upgrade for a similar price. The game delivered a memorable, and technical impressive experience on PS4 and if this PS5 remaster increases that market more, that is not a bad thing, And may, just maybe, we can get the sequel we and Bend deserve to make.