Review for Days Gone. Game for PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 26/04/2019
Now everyone knows Sony's willingness not to relegate its titles to just its entertainment systems, but to export them to another platform, namely the PC. A rather understandable move given the ever increasing production costs, in order to embrace a huge user base in order to have greater revenues. Sure the titles come out months or years later than the launch on PlayStation 4, but it is still a thing well appreciated by many PC gamers. Sony's strategy began with Death Stranding, making it stand out in the Steam ranking among the best-selling titles for several weeks, then moving on to Horizon Zero Dawn and, the subject of this review, Days Gone, post apocalyptic title by Bend Studio.
Let's start immediately by telling you that the title will be available starting May 18 and you can buy it both on Steam and on the Epic Game Store, at a price of around € 49,99. The requirements, both minimum and recommended, bode well for the porting work done by Bend Studio:
Minimum requirements:
- OS: Windows 10 64-Bits
- CPU: Intel Core [email protected] or AMD FX [email protected]
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- GPU: nvidia GeForce GTX 780 (3 GB) or AMD Radeon R9 290 (4 GB)
- DirectX: Version 11
- Space: 70 GB available space
Recommended Requirements:
- OS: Windows 10 64-Bits
- CPU: Intel Core [email protected] or Ryzen 5 [email protected]
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB) or AMD Radeon RX 580 (8 GB)
- DirectX: Version 11
- Space: 70 GB available space
Days Gone has now been out for two years and in this review we will not be bothering you with plot and gameplay, which being a port have remained almost identical, but we will focus on all the improvements introduced in this new version.
Let's start immediately by telling you what the version for the Master Race will have full support for monitors with an aspect ratio of 21: 9, so you can have more immersion while fighting the hordes of Zombies. The frame rate has also been unlocked, so you can enjoy the title at very high FPS and not be tied to the 30 expected on the PS4 version or the 60 on PS5. Obviously it will all depend on the hardware you have and the graphics settings you use.
We know, you may be wondering what the Days Gone experience on PC will be like, given the bad porting of Horizon Zero Dawn which, initially, gave many problems to PC users, but which fortunately has now been fixed properly. To talk to you about the performances first we have to mention the hardware we use, because it would be quite empty to talk to you about numbers and experience without telling you the machine on which we tested the title. The CPU is an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X accompanied by 32 GB of Ram 3600 Mhz and a rare example of MSI RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio. Now all of you are saying: “With an RTX 3090 it is normal for the game to run smoothly”. Those who have been playing on PC for years know that sometimes this is not the case, especially with the 2160p resolution where, in some cases, even the top-of-the-range GPU is not enough.
In this specific case, Day's Gone is a title that manages to maintain a very high frame rate and without suffering sudden drops. During our hours and hours of testing, we kept one constant average of about 115 FPS, with lows of about 88 in the most agitated phases of action, to then reach peaks of about 140. Very respectable performance, considering that it is a port, where you often see works of dubious quality. Unfortunately, the much-loved options such as Nvidia DLSS are missing to increase performance further, and RTX effects to make lighting even more immersive and realistic..
Fear not, you don't need an Nvidia RTX 3090 to play Days Gone decently though. The title of Bend Studio has in fact a lot of settings, all completely customizable, in order to make the post apocalyptic adventure suitable for any machine, even those a little more dated. In addition to choosing different pre-settings already set, so as not to have to go crazy with the various settings, we can change the quality of the lighting, of the geometries to our liking, go to intervene on the viewing distance of the foliage, on the quality of the shadows. , clouds, fog and even textures. In short, you can manage Days Gone as you please and like it, in order to better adapt it to your machine. It will also be possible to change the FOV, so as to have the camera more or less distant from our character. There is certainly no shortage of options for HDR and a decent one photographic mode, able to capture our favorite scenes to save in increased resolution. Unfortunately there is no freecam and we will be bound in the proximity of our character.
In terms of gameplay, the title of Bend Studio has remained almost unchanged but, thanks to the CPUs much more powerful than those of PS4 and PS4 Pro, the hordes have increased in number, bringing them to 500 infected. The key mapping on the mouse and keyboard configuration on Days Gone has been thought out really well, making us soon forget that this is a native title for PlayStation. A note, however, here we have to do it: the sensitivity of the mouse is set to very low levels, making the gaming experience very slow even at very high DPI. Don't worry, you can change it from the game menu. If, on the other hand, you want to play the title with the Pad, you can use any controller on the market. Days Gone supports both the Playstation, Nintendo Switch Pro, Xbox One pad and the defunct Steam Controller. From the menu you can choose your pad and the correct key configuration will appear on the screen and not just the classic Xbox one that we are used to seeing on PC: fantastic isn't it?
Graphically, the title of Bend Studio turns out to be a pretty sight. The textures are of excellent workmanship as well as the cleaning and general sharpness of the image. The game world is also full of on-screen elements, all without annoying pop-ups. During our test we did not encounter various glitches and / or bugs that are annoying or capable of compromising the gaming experience. The frame rate, despite being very high, suffers from some uncertainty, but nothing worrying or able to make us perceive the difference between one frame and another.
The PC version of Days Gone proved to be the best version of the title on the market, thanks to the support for Ultra Wide Screen monitors and the locked frame rate. The title has remained virtually unchanged, except for the hordes. The cleanliness of the image is truly remarkable and the frame rate, in the face of some uncertainty, turns out to be very high. Thanks also to the many options available, you can adapt the Bend Studio title to any machine.
If you have not yet played Days Gone, the PC version is the best on the market and if you want to try it, we remind you that you can buy it both on Steam and on the Epic Game Store at a price of € 49,99.
► Days Gone is an Adventure-Survival game developed by Bend Studio and published by Sony for PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 26/04/2019
