Days Gone tech review — Loaded with zombies, but it’s a live one

RECOMMENDED:

• • Processor: Intel Core [email protected] or Ryzen 5 [email protected]
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB) or AMD Radeon RX 580 (8 GB)

REVIEWER:

• • Processor: Ryzen 3 [email protected]
  • Memory: 16 GB RAM
  • Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (8 GB)

Days Gone was developed for the PlayStation 4, so it obviously doesn’t need a beast of a machine. On my rig, 60 FPS at 1440p can be maintained with little issue. The game simply runs very well. I had a single crash, but it resulted from me fiddling with the settings a fair amount while taking the below comparison shots.

The game is also absolutely gorgeous. I do get occasional frame drops, but nothing that’s overly detrimental to the experience. By most metrics, this is a high-quality port that I think people will be very pleased by.

That being said, there are some input issues I’ve noticed. Notably, I can’t use R2 on my DualShock 4 to consume or repair items from the crafting menu. R2 works fine during gameplay, but it simply doesn’t respond while crafting. Additionally, absolutely nothing works on the mechanic menu when in camps. I can’t refuel or repair my bike, nor can I purchase or equip upgrades. These are both rather serious issues that need to be fixed, although I’m not sure how widespread they are. Next up, let’s take a look at the game’s settings options.

Into the woods

Screen options obviously include borderless. As per usual, HDR can’t be turned on with anything other than fullscreen. You can set your display resolution, as well as framerate. You can set this rather high, but you’ll need a hell of a card to do it. Furthermore, take note that HDR requires the HDR apps feature to be turned on via the Windows display page. Then there’s the graphics menu.

Days Gone is another third-person game that mercifully includes an FOV option. The default is 70, which is a bit too close for my liking. You can also set your render scale, as well as turn off the usual unnecessary options like chromatic aberration and motion blur. The same goes for the other usual suspects. Shadows, foliage, geometry, lighting, it’s all here, as well as both texture filtering quality and texture streaming.

Days Gone doesn’t have the widest selection of options, but it gets the job done. Most options range from low to very high, so there’s plenty you can do to get some extra frames if need be. Let’s take a look at some comparisons.

Geometry Quality Low.

Geometry Very High.

Geometry Quality Low.

Geometry Quality Very High.

Lighting Low.

Lighting Very High.

Shadows Low.

Shadows High.

Texture Filtering Low.

Texture Filtering High.

Foliage Draw Distance Low.

Foliage Draw Distance Very High.

Cold hands

Keyboard controls are completely rebindable, yada yada yada. Using a DualShock 4 unsurprisingly has the correct prompts. You can change mouse sensitivity, aim sensitivity, and bike camera sensitivity as well. Plus, there’s mouse smoothing if you want that on for whatever reason. The only thing of note is that you can’t rebind the gamepad buttons, so you’ll have to make do with the standard controls.

There you have it. Days Gone received a great PC port other than the issues I outlined above. It’s definitely a huge step up compared to the last major PlayStation port, but these are two separate developers, so that’s not weird at all.