Sony kicks off 2024 with a game that will divide audiences. The Last of Us Part II Remastered isn’t tomato soup, so it won’t be to everyone’s taste, but seasoned fans of the popular dish will be delighted. Don’t count on a graphic orgasm, but prepare your senses for new experiences. Read our review of the improved version of one of the best games of the PlayStation 4 era.
Naughty Dog is out of luck with its most popular universe. Ellie and Joel have been dealing with back-to-back leaks for years, and for a long time we couldn’t talk about any big surprises related to story announcements, and even the developers had to deal with a hacker attack before the premiere of The Last of Us Part II, which could have ruined the start of a unique adventure for many players. . In the case of the latest update, it is difficult to count on major changes in the setting, so the developers decided to expand the game and offer fans something new.
More text below the video
However, the big advantage of The Last of Us Part II Remastered is the form of presentation – Sony has not decided on a full remake, so players can use a paid upgrade (PLN 40) from PS4 to PS5. In my opinion this is a great option, because many PlayStation fans definitely have the title in their library, and now those who are interested can see what the absolute best version of the game is.
The graphic standard of a 3 year old remaster
Updated games often delight players with more beautiful locations, more refined characters or a variety of visual effects, which confirms that the developers spent a lot of time perfecting the game and offering it to a wide audience. What about The Last of Us Part II Remastered review? Basically standard.
The Last of Us Part II on release day The Last of Us Part II remastered it didn’t even celebrate its fourth birthday, and at the same time, Naughty Dog had already reached new heights in the previous generation to offer players a fantastic story. In the case of the new version, we can talk about sharper textures, richer environmental details, refined shadows, greater distance of drawing details and improved animations, but… even at a certain point I couldn’t say that the production presented a “new quality” – for such attractions we will probably have to wait for the full remake. But does the game look bad? No, it sounds great, but the PS4 version had already prepared us for such attractions and it worked well thanks to backwards compatibility on PS5.
The Last of Us Part II Remastered review has received two graphics modes since its premiere – Fidelity provides 4K rendering and display resolution with 30 fps, while performance offers 1440p-4K with a target of 60 fps. The player can also choose a third option to unlock frames per second, although obviously we need a TV with VRR. Over the course of the story I had the opportunity to test this last variant and, depending on the action, the game runs at 80-120 fps with local drops to 60-70 fps. However, the situation is worse in No Return mode, because even if in this situation we enter smaller areas, sometimes the number of enemies is so large that the fluidity can drop to 50-60 fps, which is already evident when we play 100 frames. a moment earlier.
Naughty Dog once again allows players to use various filters to update the graphics or sound: by selecting “afterlife” we make the characters look like the living dead, by throwing “8 bit” on the screen, each scene looks like that of a retro console, we will also be able choose a more cartoonish setting, change the colors in a pop-art style, or use a range of different color effects. We can’t talk about innovations here, but there will probably be players who want to try these new features
However, it is difficult to talk about a revolution in framing The Last of Us Part II remastered offers a nice curiosity for music fans of the Naughty Dog universe: now in the menu we can choose a mode in which we play, for example, the role of Ellie, take the guitar and play famous songs. As we progress, we will also be able to unlock content for this variant of the game, such as new tools; the developers also allow us to choose different sound effects, heroes, locations or add various filters to the screen: the studio has taken care of the details even in such small ways.
Story with additions in The Last of Us Part II Remastered
Not much has changed in the story itself, but The Last of Us Part II, even after completing it multiple times, still feels… fantastic. I can’t say that the beginning of the story particularly surprised me, but the memorable scene with a talented young golfer still moves me greatly. I was very happy to immerse myself in the story, which once again offers a lot of emotions: the title is perfect to be completed on PlayStation Portal and probably some players will want to read this story in similar conditions.
However, if you have not played The Last of Us Part II, you can prepare yourself for one of the best stories of the previous generation, which will keep you in suspense and you will remember some scenes for a long time, especially considering that many players will be familiar with the production , who only began their acquaintance with the universe last year thanks to HBO’s “The Last of Us.” More details on the plot and basic gameplay can be found HERE – in our review of the PS4 version.
However, if you have played The Last of Us Part II and are a fan of the IP, Naughty Dog has prepared a real surprise for you: Neil Druckmann, together with the actors involved in the production, recorded audio material that we can listen to during the cutscenes . For example, the creators talk about the original version of the “golf club story” or confirm how difficult it was for them to record the beginning of the story to adequately present the relationship between Ellie and Joel. Other times we learn why the developers presented one of the characters in this way, and then hear wonderful anecdotes about working on the title. The comments expand our knowledge of the world in a fantastic way and also allow us to better understand some events: in this case, the creator of the universe does a brilliant job, revealing many curiosities behind the scenes. At some point I found myself wanting to skip ahead to the next scenes to hear the crew and enjoy the extras, because The Last of Us Part II Remastered review allows you to enter this wonderful world in a unique way.
I don’t recommend activating this option if you haven’t had a chance to familiarize yourself with the plot yet, because Naughty Dog’s stars literally drown out the scenes, but you can easily feel the excellent relationship between actors and developers. All materials have subtitles in Polish, but in this case you cannot count on dubbing. However, if you have already completed the entire adventure once, you can easily access an additional tab in the options to read all the prepared material… for me this add-on is one of the two best elements The Last of Us Part II remastered.
The creators did not prepare a new story or expand known scenes, but added “removed levels” to the game: these are three fragments of the story that the developers developed before the premiere of The Last of Us Part II, but in the end they decided not to finish them and implement them in the production of the final version. Players in this situation can play the role of Ellie, who visits a party in Jackson, hunts a wild boar or goes into vast sewers – especially in this first fragment we can see that much of the animation has not been perfected, some systems have they do not work properly, there are missing sounds, words spoken by the inhabitants or we simply look at incomplete textures… at the same time, in each fragment we can approach designated points to receive additional comments from the developers. The creators explain why they gave up these ideas, talk about different ideas or, for example, in the case of channels, explain the very concept of locating Ellie in this place – one of the developers even presents the impressions of testers who faced a certain threat . At the same time, before each of the deleted levels, we can also listen to the introduction recorded by Neil Druckmann: the father of the universe sits on the sofa and mentions each scene, also confirming the point of the plot where we should have been. play the selected fragment.
The developers did not finish these scenes for a simple reason: the development of additional content would have taken several months, and in the end, at least two fragments would not have been fully adequate for the pace of the action. Neil Druckmann mentioned during one of his statements that it was very important for Naughty Dog to maintain the right experience and that some additional content could simply have a negative impact on the final experience. The activities during the event in Jackson are an interesting addition (even if many elements were not perfected), but to be honest, what impressed me the most was the hunt, especially with the interesting ending. The creators had an interesting idea, but in the end they decided to abandon it… and in this case I regret it a little. However, don’t expect these attractions to be particularly extensive: all three additional scenes with detailed information will take no more than two hours.
During the making of the review of The Last of Us Part II Remastered, Naughty Dog also smiled broadly at the speedrunners, because the new edition of the game has a special mode in which we can run throughout the entire production or in designated fragments. The creators also allow you to practice in selected fights or levels so that you can strive for the best possible result – your results are saved and placed in a special leaderboard. This is basically an easy way to ensure that the PlayStation title enjoys great interest for a long time, because we can be sure that loyal “racing” fans will continue to improve their results and will look for shortcuts to improve their results many months after the release end. debut.
The Last of Us Part II Remastered also includes game modifiers, thanks to which we can choose a series of features: for example, we slow down the pace, activate the bullet-time mode, use infinite ammunition, kill enemies with one shot or enjoy the infinite range in the listening mode. However, if you don’t have enough attractions, you can check the gameplay in a mirror image.
There is no escape from No Return. This is a fantastic mode in The Last of Us Part II Remastered
By far the most important novelty of the review of The Last of Us Part II Remastered is the mode entitled “No Return”. The creators have used brutal and impressive basic combat to catapult it into the roguelike genre: in this case, at the beginning we choose a character with which we must face designated scenarios and complete the assigned missions.
What does it look like? For example, we play as Lev, who specializes in stealth and has a bow and gun from the start. At the beginning we can’t go crazy in the shop or buy various skills, but we go to the board, choose a task and after a while the fun begins: in No Return we have to, for example, kill a certain number of the enemies, repel the constant attacks of the opponents, defend an ally, or protect a designated treasure. After completing the task, we return to the base, where we spend parts to improve weapons, supplements to learn skills and currency to buy weapons or accessories – during the mission we will also be able to collect various raw materials to, for example, create first aid kits or bow arrows. However, the competition is extremely compelling because The Last of Us Part II’s combat system is excellent and here we can take advantage of all its advantages. When we choose the next mission, we sometimes decide what we really want, and eventually the attempt ends with a boss fight – these can be challenging, so it’s worth preparing properly for the fight. Death in No Return ends the game: as a result, we feel the pressure from the first fight, because only with good results during the competition do we unlock new content. I have particularly fond memories of trying the game with different characters, because the developers provided a large set of heroes who, in addition, offer various play styles and differences in character control, skills and the basic set of weapons they are very big.
No Return also offers great flexibility: upon entering the mode we will be able to choose six difficulty levels and even create our own, modifying the challenges to adapt them to our preferences. The creators even allow you to create custom trials, where you select modes, enemies or modifiers, and even Naughty Dog has developed daily trials: in this case, players from all over the world compete according to designated rules, which are changed after 24 hours. There are many options, but the most important thing in this case is experience.
I didn’t think that on paper a simple variant of the game would bring me so much fun: here the progression works great because we can constantly update the competitions, new challenges appear that encourage us, for example, to kill enemies in a designated style and at the same time at the same time we have the opportunity to unlock more heroes, modes or skins. The content is limited in its own way, but even if we get all the basic elements, we can still do our best to improve our results and just… have a lot of fun. Naughty Dog doesn’t really reinvent the wheel as it throws us into combat, but the gameplay is satisfying enough to For me, No Return was the highlight of The Last of Us Part II Remastered review.
The Last of Us Part II Remastered takes advantage of the PS5’s biggest advantage
Naughty Dog not only developed a completely new mode that is difficult to break away from, but also remembered the appropriate use of the DualSense controller: throughout the story we feel tactile vibrations, which are well used and respond perfectly to the situation on the screen. The creators also recalled the adaptive possibilities of the triggers, which allow us to feel different weapons in our own way: these are, of course, just additions, but the new features improve the experience and have a very positive impact on the experience.
The game also includes tons of skins for the main characters – with the points we earn we will be able to unlock, for example, a costume for Ellie, a Destiny or Mortal Kombat t-shirt, and also refresh the appearance of the weapon. And Abby’s case is identical, but again I have the impression that such attractions are especially interesting when we do not learn about the adventure for the first time and can approach the events freely – Abby in a pink Hotline Miami T-shirt looks like .. . strange.
With the points we earn during the game, we will also be able to unlock various character models to see the heroes in different clothes, as well as take a look at the conceptual graphics: in this case, fans of the universe will be able to find a lot of really fantastic materials that they show how iconic scenes were originally supposed to look and allow us to look at the developers’ early work. The set includes behind-the-scenes material, for example four podcasts in which the developers present individual elements of the game… unfortunately in this case there are no Polish subtitles and the transcript is only available on the studio’s website and in English. The studio also announced the development of “Grounded II: Making The Last of Us Part II” and video material will be added that will present behind the scenes of the production. The Last of Us Part II remastered zand for free thanks to an update: the film will also be available on YouTube.
Is The Last of Us Part II Remastered worth playing?
The Last of Us Part II Remastered is not for everyone, because not everyone will be interested in the content offered. Some players have already experienced Ellie’s second adventure and do not intend to return: there is no doubt that Naughty Dog and Sony are not targeting this target group.
The production is aimed at delighting players who are not yet familiar with The Last of Us Part II and, at the same time, loyal fans of the universe: both groups will receive a lot of content and will be able to experience a fantastic story, learn additional flavors and even participate in blood pressure duels. The best option to get The Last of Us Part II Remastered reviewed is to upgrade from PS4 to PS5, but I’m sure that if you haven’t had the chance to try the base game yet, you can undoubtedly grab the full version ready for PlayStation 5.
The Last of Us Part II Remastered is definitely the best production release that shocked PlayStation fans and is undoubtedly one of the best games on PlayStation 4. Now everything looks better (albeit without frills), works faster and we also get a lot of additional content. Many players will purchase this title for the expansions and fans of this world will be delighted.
