IIt’s hard to believe that The Last of Us Part II was first released almost four years ago, right in the middle of the coronavirus lockdown period. There was a haunting irony in the idea of ​​people stuck at home due to a global pandemic playing an apocalyptic video game about a global pandemic. Well, the coronavirus never went away, and neither did The Last of Us. In 2021, a free upgrade will allow new PS5 owners to play a tweaked version of the PS4 original, followed by the arrival of the critically acclaimed TV drama series and new You’ve got an audience. A desperate story of Ellie and Joel.

The Last of Us Part II Remastered is now available, an overhauled version of this great game. This adds a new fidelity mode that offers his 4K resolution at 30 frames per second, and a performance mode at 1440p, 60 fps. You’ll need a decent display to notice the difference from older PS5 upgrades, but the difference is there. Movement is smoother, the lighting is brighter, and the details of the scenery, especially the foliage, are brought to life, further increasing the immersion in this muddy, desolate world. What struck me most were the game’s epic battle scenes, which now feel completely fluid and intense, and the emotional cinematic moments that the game already achieved so well.

More importantly, the controls change with the complete implementation of the Dual Sense controller. Detailed haptic feedback and adaptive triggers make the differences in the feel of various weapons obvious, increasing the sheer physicality of combat. The addition of a guitar mode, where you can use the touchpad to strum Joel’s old acoustic, is a peripheral but very fun feature.

What really makes the game exciting is the abundance of bonus content. The new mode, named No Return, is a roguelike survival game where you aim to survive as long as possible through waves of multiple enemy attacks. You can choose a path through a series of procedurally generated stages. Each stage is based on an area from the main game. If you die, it’s game over. Once you reach the end, a huge boss battle awaits you.

This kind of “horde mode” isn’t new, but Naughty Dog has done a great job of transferring the main game’s narrative tension into these enclosed gunfights. Instead of just standing in the shadows and blowing up anything that moves, you’ll have to sneak through abandoned stores and backyards, listening for signs of enemies. Also, there are stages where you are dealing with infected people, and there are stages where human soldiers appear, and the tactics change accordingly. You get a fascinating mix of stealth and all-out action, and you can upgrade your weapons and items at the end of each stage. It’s also fun to play as different characters for the first time, such as Dina or Tommy, as each trait affects gameplay differently. Unfortunately, there’s no multiplayer co-op here. It would have been fun to share the experience with friends, The Last of Us’ problems online are well knownThat’s not surprising.

However, my favorite addition is the Lost Levels, which are a selection of three playable stages cut from the game. There’s additional build-up to the Jackson party where Dina and Ellie kiss, an extended section of the Seattle sewers, and finally a final scene where Ellie hunts a boar. These short sequences are unfinished and understandably rough at times, but they offer a truly fascinating glimpse into the development process. This kind of content is rarely shared with players (or journalists, for that matter).

Every scene also has audio commentary from the lead designer, who explains how much detail goes into every little section of the game, from how the designer establishes the emotional context of a scene to determining the exact length of a fire escape ladder. Gain insight into how much thought and planning goes into it. , thereby emphasizing the player’s sense of security and escape.What I remember from Lost Level great story At the GameCity festival a few years ago, Uncharted lead designer Richard Lemarchand talked about the development of Uncharted 3. Game design students should jump at this learning opportunity.

The Last of Us Part II Remastered feels like the video game equivalent of a Criterion Collection Blu-ray, hand-picked to celebrate a groundbreaking release. Reliving this brutal adventure in a visually and haptically enhanced format was just as exhausting, moving, and exhilarating as my first playthrough. It’s nice to see a video game treated this way, but it’s also a reminder of how few studios and releases see this kind of respectful repackaging.i love that kind of thing Limited run game That will be the case with the physical release, but imagine if all the remasters and reboots show deleted scenes and developer insights. There’s so much nonsense about the game development process on forums and social media, and so many assumptions that are completely wrong. Improved access to the process will benefit everyone.

For those who have never played the game or experienced it on PS5, this is a must-have experience. This is the cutting edge of mainstream narrative gaming, lovingly reincarnated.