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The Last of Us Part 2 is undoubtedly one of the most acclaimed titles, being one of Sony’s last exclusive games before the transition to the PlayStation 5 era, and not many games out there could match the gripping and emotional story that the sequel manages to tell.
Four years after the release of the original sequel, Naughty Dog invites players to relive or experience for the first time in Ellie and Abby’s story with the Remastered version, that comes packaged with graphical enhancements, a new roguelike gameplay mode in No Return, and much more.
Looking Back
Before getting into the meat of things in the Remastered version, it’s nice to take a step back to reflect. Taking place in a similar setting from the first game with all of the main characters returning to fill their roles, the story in The Last of Us Part 2 takes a much different direction from the perspective of the game’s duo-playable character: Ellie and Abby.
It was through this title that Naughty Dog managed to showcase their incredible talent in crafting a single-player experience that is backed with equally impressive production values. While the original sequel was released for the PlayStation 4, it still shows top-notch quality worthy of being labelled as the standard for games in the current generation.
From its stunning presentation, emotional storytelling with highly animated character acting, to the intense and dynamic gameplay, these are some of the main strengths that make The Last of Us, especially its sequel, so solid in our eyes.
It’s just that because it’s a direct sequel with a very drastic story transition, newcomers of the franchise aren’t advised to jump straight into Ellie and Abby’s grand adventure. Fortunately enough, much like the remake of The Last of Us Part 1, the remake of this sequel comes with a major quality overhaul, especially in the gameplay and graphics department.
No Return
With The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, our attention was immediately drawn to the aforementioned No Return, an additional mode with roguelike survival elements. Through this mode, players will be faced with a selection of randomised levels with a variety of different enemies to defeat as well, and each death is permanent, making each progress even more rewarding and intense.
Unlike our initial impressions, this mode is packed with a fairly in-depth system where players are given the freedom to strengthen their characters and determine how much of a challenge to face.
Aside from the Standard Run, there’s also a Custom Run option that gives players plenty of options to customise the gameplay to their liking, and a Daily Run that uniquely only gives you one chance each day to complete the challenges.
For those looking to scratch that competitive itch, this mode includes a Leaderboard to see how far you can go to beat your record. Not to mention, players can also get access to several playable characters that in the original game only played the role of companions such as Dina, Jesse, Lev, and Tommy.
New Content
Players hoping for more new content can access it through the Extras and Making of menus. One addition that we were particularly most excited about is the Lost Levels, which is a selection of specific levels that were cut from the game during the development process. Right from the start of playing the game, players can immediately access this new content which features three different levels ranging from Jackson Party, Seattle Sewers, and The Hunt.
Each level is presented in pre-alpha status without any dialogue, but throughout the gameplay, players can activate commentary by the developers which provides interesting explanations about the background of each cut-content. This ends up providing a very unique experience in our opinion, because most developers would usually keep cut-content from their games a secret, let alone releasing it to the public in the form of an interesting documentation that can be played like this.
The rest of the content is still there, but some of it players can only access after completing the game. Some players who’ve spent a lot of time experimenting with guitar-playing mini-games can now access them more easily, as the game brings a Guitar Free Play mode that also brings a variety of cool customisations.
Improved Performances and Features
The Remastered version now allows players to experience The Last of Us Part 2 with maximum graphics quality and performances at 4K resolution. Just like with The Last of Us Part 1, the game still offers high-resolution graphics even when played in Performance mode thanks to the 1440p render quality that gets upscaled to 4K, making the game look clearer and sharper, which is an incredible feat considering how the base game already looked gorgeous.
The excellent features of the DualSense controller such as the Haptic Feedback and Adaptive Trigger makes the gaming experience feel more realistic, as it allows every weapon to feel distinct and convey an increased sense of presence in the surroundings as players explore some of the in-game settings like the snowy mountains of Jackson or maybe the rain-drenched city streets of Seattle.
Another part that we particularly appreciated was the much faster game load times thanks to the PlayStation 5’s SSD performance. This actually makes a huge difference considering how the original sequel had relatively long loading times on the PlayStation 4.
In terms of accessibility features, the original game had already provided a complete set of options, but this time the developers added in some new options such as Descriptive Audio and Speech to Vibrations, which makes the game be enjoyed by more people.
Verdict
Despite its status as one of the most controversial game sequels, at its core, The Last of Us Part 2 is a work full of ambition and courage in realising memorable gaming experience. Thanks to the innate quality of the original release that even felt like a next-gen game, The Last of Us Part 2 is now playable again with a variety of improvements that make it even more polished. This is further maximised through the selection of new content such as the No Return mode and the Lost Levels portion which we think is creativity presented.
Fortunately, players who already own the original game are given the option to upgrade to the remastered version by paying $10 USD (MYR 40/ ~SGD14) , which is a huge bang for your buck considering you won’t have to buy the game again.
Meanwhile, for players who haven’t had the chance to play The Last of Us Part 2, then this remastered version can be an interesting recommendation to look at, especially for those who are curious to see the continuation of the story of the first game.
But of course, even though it’s an upgraded version that brings an overall better experience on the new platform, it’s not exactly the bandage that could fix some of the shortcomings that the original game still carries, especially since it’s related to the actual main content itself.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered Version is reviewed on the PlayStation 5.
The Review
PROS
- No Return mode is surprisingly fun and thoughtful
- Some really nice extra content, especially Lost Levels
- Huge technical improvements on the PlayStation 5
- An affordable upgrade for all the content that it provides
- Overall still the same solid single-player action adventure experience, but better
CONS
- Story that tries to subvert expectations, but not in a good way for some
- Some part of the campaign still feels a bit dragged out
