The recently released The Last of Us Part I is a remake of the original game, but it feels more like a remaster.
Naughty Dog 's survival horror hit had its ups and downs when it was released for PlayStation 3 in 2013 and again when it was remastered for PlayStation 4 the following year. Now, the studio is releasing a full remake from the ground up for PlayStation 5 .
Called The Last of Us Part I, this remake aims to bring the 2013 original up to the high graphical benchmark set by the 2020 sequel, The Last of Us Part II. Visually, yes, The Last of Us Part I does just that. But that's about all it does. The game is functionally the same game you played in 2013 and 2014 and, if you had a PS5 and a PS Plus subscription, in 2020 as well, while the first remaster was released to players at no additional cost as part of the PS Plus collection.
In a year, we'll be closer to when The Last of Us than we were to when it first launched. Set in 2033, the game imagines a version of America overrun by a mushroom virus that turns everyone into flesh-eating monsters. (Horrifyingly, the disease is based on a very real fungus.) You play as a gruff, bearded guy named Joel , and you're accompanied by a 14-year-old girl named Ellie, who may hold the secret to unlocking the cure for the virus. The story, told over four chapters, is about the development of their relationship. It's a beautiful adventure and a story of redemption, all wrapped up under the guise of a world-saving mission.
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The Last of Us Part I has received praise from across the gaming world. It currently holds a score of 89 on review aggregator Metacritic, making it not only one of the highest-rated games of the year but also one of the highest-rated games in the PS5. You don't have to look far to find reviewers saying it's the "best" way to play The Last of Us . On the other hand, though, you'll find people wondering why a game that already looked so good needed the remake treatment.
Both sides have their points. The Last of Us Part I is a technologically impressive but ultimately unnecessary remake. It's not easy to see how expanding the wrinkles on Joel's face significantly improves on what made the original such a classic.
There's a truly impressive array of accessibility options that weren't present in the original release, many of which make the game easy to play despite being mechanically-charged. Naughty Dog has also used the PS5 controller 's advanced haptics for neat features, like the option to have the controller vibrate in time with the rhythm of character dialogue. The graphical improvements are evident, as demonstrated by Digital Foundry's in-depth review .
Indeed, so much of the remaster is the exact same game, from the clunky shooting to the bricks you throw at enemies. Naughty Dog even seems to have kept the exact same solutions to all the optional puzzles. Starting with The Last of Us Part II, which is mechanically deeper in every way than Part I, these limitations become apparent.
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Playing Part I made us seriously reconsider the art of re-release: Which games deserve a total redux? What is the benchmark for a remake versus a sleekly produced remaster? A remake is essentially a new game built from scratch or close to the original, while a remaster is more or less an improved version of an existing game.
The Last of Us Part I feels like a remake, but it certainly doesn't feel like one. Think: Demon's Souls, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Halo 2 Anniversary. The first two were built from scratch and re-engineered their original material, to varying degrees. The third was the same car with a glossier paint job. The Last of Us Part I is much closer to the third, except for the handy button that lets you toggle between the original graphics and the modernized respray.
The game's stunning graphics are undoubtedly gorgeous, and you can stare at the photorealism for hours. Naughty Dog has long been betting on hyper-realistic graphics. The Last of Us, in its many incarnations, is included in the list of games with perfect graphics.
But the game has always been about storytelling: the search for hope in a world that has none, coming to terms with the fact that the world has been destroyed and you are the sole survivor. It's hard to deal with and interesting in a way that few games were at the time. In 2013, The Last of Us was already visually striking enough and human enough to pull players into the lives of its complex characters, to stir up a wave of emotion with a subtle expression on Ellie's face.
The entire logic behind Part I is wrapped up in its price tag. It's among many current-gen games that set the new price point at $70. That's no small feat for people who are already involved in a relatively expensive hobby. If you're a new player, then you'd probably prefer to play the new game over the original. From the perspective of someone who's played the game before, paying $70 for the remake of the game seems like a waste of money.
Source: kotaku.com
