Usually when thinking of Remastered video game releases, your mind would immediately be drawn to games from previous generations of consoles which are hard to come by on the market and deserve to be in the hands of newer generations of gamers. Some great examples from Sony Computer Entertainment alone including the Jak and Daxter trilogy, Ratchet & Clank 1-3 and ICO. With the recent launch of next-gen consoles and continuing a trend that Crystal Dynamics followed with their “definitive edition” release of Tomb Raider, some developers are seemingly deciding to forgo the wait time and have been remastering/re-releasing their hit last generation titles sometimes less than a year post-launch.
There is no denying that Naughty Dog’s latest release The Last of Us was brilliant in many ways – bringing an emotional and intense storyline to the table while complementing it with fantastic visuals, powerful music backing and satisfying action-adventure/stealth gameplay which built upon their experience with the Uncharted franchise. All of these memorable features are retained, if not improved, in this enhanced port. For those who don’t generally dish out extra money for DLC content in particular, the storyline even gains a small boost by the inclusion of DLC chapter Left Behind, which looks at the relationship between Ellie and her friend Riley who is mentioned throughout the main plot.
Considering that The Last of Us was only released a year ago on the PlayStation 3 and could easily be considered one of the best looking games on the console, I have my personal concerns about whether this was the right time to release a remastered version or if they should have waited a few years. We are still in the early stages of the PlayStation 4’s lifecycle, and if it is anything like the PS3-era then we can expect to see developers push the console to its limits as its life cycle continues. It would have been interesting see what Naughty Dog could have done with the visuals another year or so from now.
But that being said, there are some distinct improvements that make The Last of Us Remastered of a much higher standard than its predecessor in terms of visuals. The most notable improvement is the change from 30 frames-per-second and 720p resolution to an enhanced 60 frames-per-second and a resolution of 1080p. These aren’t major changes that would directly impact the game experience, but makes everything from the animation and aesthetics to general combat look, feel and run a little bit better than the high standard set by the original release. Unfortunately for myself at least, these would hardly be considered improvements that would justify buying the game a second time for, however given a choice as a first time buyer, the PS4 edition would be an obvious choice.
Asides from a few small changes and improvements to take advantage of the Dualshock 4 controller, the gameplay in The Last of Us Remastered remains mostly untouched, retaining its emphasis on stealth and the occasional gun battle. The only new addition in this regard is a brand new “Photo Mode” which compliments the PlayStation 4’s built in share features. Generally with the Share Button, you have to press the button and then hope that the photo you took came out right. Photo Mode grants a player the ability to move the camera and use a small number of other tools and filters to capture the perfect photo. With the graphical improvements in The Last of Us Remastered, this was a wise decision on behalf of the developers. With sharing photographs from games becoming more common, this should really be considered as a standard feature for any future games developed on the PS4 or Xbox One.
While up for debate if it is worth buying The Last of Us a second time around as a “Remastered” edition, given most of the improvements are aesthetic and not storyline or gameplay based, there is no denying that The Last of Us Remastered is an improvement over what was already a PS3-era masterpiece. Like Uncharted before it, this is a series I personally hope to see more from in the future.
