Eighty euro graphic mod
Written by Jari Klapwijk on Saturday 30 July 2022 08:00
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The Last Of Us is one of the best games ever made for me. Joel and Ellie’s trek will always be dear to me and I initially applauded a remake. Until I found out what exactly has changed in the game.
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Soon it leaked gameplay out and unfortunately, at first glance the game seems to be exactly the same in terms of game mechanics as in the original from 2013. According to Naughty Dog, the leaked images were an older version of the game. I wanted to believe that too, but it already looked so polished that I didn’t expect much to change. Unfortunately I was right, because also from the extensive deep dive video from Naughty Dog itself, the gameplay seemed almost identical.
That is a missed opportunity, because there are quite a few things to think of that would really make The Last Of Us a better experience and give a remake more right to exist. For example, the endless dragging around of ladders, planks, rafts and containers quickly gets boring. Some of those segments could easily be replaced by more complicated environmental puzzles.
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The battles with the infected enemies are already quite interesting, but there is still something that can be added. For example, now you have to approach a Clicker differently than a Runner. Clickers see nothing and hear a lot, while Runners see everything but hear less well. That already offers some depth, but it doesn’t go very deep. A number of new enemies that have to be approached in a different way would not be a luxury and would improve the experience considerably.
And where are the lessons to be learned from The Last Of Us: Part 2? I secretly expected that some game mechanics would be taken over for the remake of the first game, but that turns out not to be the case. The more expansive level design with more freedom was a welcome addition in the sequel and would not look out of place in Part 1. The roaming dogs also meant that players had to use new tactics. Unfortunately, this remake seems to stay too faithful to the original and levels are apparently built exactly the same.
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Graphically, the remake logically looks a lot better and the DualSense controller also adds some tricks, so that the experience certainly gains in immersion. In my opinion, however, that is not enough to justify the eighty euro price tag. The experience has not progressed in the most important area, the gameplay. The excuse for that is that the levels have to be completely rebuilt to make these kinds of changes. Fine excuse, but why would you remake a game at all if you have no intention of fundamentally changing the experience? Basically, this remake is an expensive graphics mod that has no right to exist.
Especially when you consider that The Last Of Us Remastered can be picked up for a tenner. Then you must be crazy to put down the full blow for this ‘remaster of a remaster’. On the PlayStation 5 and the PlayStation 4 Pro, the remaster runs in an excellent resolution of 1800p at sixty frames per second. You can clearly see that it is not a current gen game, but that does not detract from the experience. The cutscenes still look fantastic, the environments are atmospheric, the reflections look beautiful. Before writing this column, I replayed the first few hours and couldn’t find any reason to choose a remake over this game. The essence of The Last Of Us is the story and that is told excellently in the remaster.
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The AI may not be very smart, but that doesn’t affect the overall experience that much. In any case, not enough to pay eighty euros for a newer version. Ellie sometimes runs frantically against the wall and with some regularity almost walks through enemies during stealth segments. That seems a bit unrealistic, but in the end it has little influence on the gameplay. After all, you just have to make sure you stay out of sight of the enemies. It would only really be a problem if Ellie or one of the other companions could also be spotted, but that is not the case.
So the only important steps are made in the area of graphics and accessibility options. I welcome the latter, because the more barriers that are removed, the better. That goes without saying. Only this could have been a free update for the remaster. You could say that Naughty Dog is just lying in that area: a new experience was promised, but we don’t get it. In any case, it gives me the creeps when pre-orders open without a game actually being shown and it surprises me even more that a lot of people blindly transfer eighty euros to Sony.
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The big advantage of this remake is that a completely new target group can get acquainted with this fantastic story. The game is also coming to PC. There is no release date yet, but Naughty Dog Has told that the PC version will come out not long after the PlayStation 5 version. Again, the remaster would have sufficed.
There is a chance that this remake will ever be on my PlayStation, but only after a hefty discount or when it appears on PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium. I’m also not mad at Sony or people who get excited about the graphical improvements. I only make a decision for myself and find the remake scandalously thin and not worth the full blow. A price tag of forty euros would have been a lot more manageable.
I call on anyone who wants to experience The Last Of Us to play the remaster. It is dirt cheap and still performs excellently. The emotional rollercoaster is still as impressive as it was in 2013 and some new graphic bells and whistles are really not necessary. In this way we give the signal to Sony that they better invest money in a remake of Jak and Daxter, Siphon Filter or Sly Cooper: games that are now much more outdated.
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