I can’t imagine a franchise nowadays that is so hard for me to praise like Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us. Looking at it holistically, Naughty Dog’s seminal action/survival horror series is what I consider the ultimate benchmark of what a quality third person, cinematic action-adventure game should be, with the first game being in my top 5 favorite games of all time. Unfortunately, the toxic conversation that surrounds the franchise in the wake of its divisive 2020 sequel sometimes makes me want to keep any conversation about it, from its accomplishments to its pitfalls, at arm’s length. Yet here I am, getting ready to dive back into the shark infested waters of the discourse with the release of The Last of Us Part II Remastered.
There is a lot that can be said about Naughty Dog’s constant reissuing of their most recent works ad nauseam (in the last two years alone, we got PlayStation 5 reissues of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Lost Legacy, and a remake/second reissue of the original The Last of Us), and that trend continues with the latest remaster of their last full game release, coming relatively soon from when it originally launched and in the heels of the cancellation of their long-in-development online The Last of Us project. I believe there is nuance, and time and place, to be able to talk about the circumstances surrounding this latest re-release while keeping that talk separate from the game itself.
With The Last of Us Part II Remastered, the question is simple: has Naughty Dog provided enough of an incentive to justify the re-release of a game that already looked good enough on the current hardware, and is that incentive worth the $10 asking price ($49.99 if you are buying it first time)?
If I Ever Were To Lose You, I’d Surely Lose Myself
To catch you up on the basics, The Last of Us Part II Remastered includes the same 20-25 hour campaign released 4 years ago back on the PlayStation 4 with added visual bells and whistles. It also includes a director/writer/actors commentary for the entire main game. It also includes three deleted “Lost Levels,” along with commentary on why they were deleted in the end. There’s a tease for the upcoming “Grounded II” documentary (which you can find on YouTube). There are a ton of added skins to unlock for both Ellie and Abby. Finally, it adds what would be the headline feature: a repeatable rogue-like combat/stealth focused mode in “No Return.”
Let’s start with the campaign that rocked and split the gaming world 4 years ago. Set 5 years after Joel’s fateful decision at the Firefly Base in Utah, The Last of Us Part II puts you in the shoes of Ellie as she grapples with the inherent consequences of Joel’s actions. After suffering a massive tragedy back at her home in Jackson, Ellie embarks on a ruthless quest of revenge that threatens to consume her entire being. Through Ellie’s revenge tale, The Last of Us Part II blatantly highlights the nature of revenge, the human cycles of violence, the possibilities of forgiveness and redemption, and a discourse on whether such a journey can all amount to something or simply reap nothing.
There is obviously more to the story than that brief description (and for more spoiler-y thoughts on the story and the game’s dual protagonist nature, you can read the original review we did at Seasoned Gaming by our editor in chief). But, in short, it is a story that definitely ruffled some feathers by taking huge risks as a follow-up to its cleaner, leaner predecessor. As for what side of the story coin I land on, I fall in the camp that definitely loved a lot of what it attempted while taking some issues with the length it took to tell it, and the way it sledgehammered a lot of its themes throughout. While, overall, I still prefer the simpler tale of the first game, I prefer the conversations that arose from this one and how the story spoke to so many people that either loved it or despised it. Emotionally, no game has hit me quite as hard as this one, and, four years on, I still think about the impact of so many individual moments of this story, of which this remaster gleefully and viciously reminded me.
Regarding any additions made to the campaign in its remastered showing on the PlayStation 5, the campaign is still the same as it was on the PlayStation 4, only with the added visual bells and whistles you’d expect with the jump from one console to the next. This is where the value of this reissue will depend mostly on the technology you have available to you. For one, back in 2020, this was already one of the best-looking games ever made, with a level of obsessive detail pouring on every iota of the screen being the likes of which only Naughty Dog is known for and capable of. In 2021, Naughty Dog released a patch that allowed the game to run at 60fps for free, which made an already beautiful game run smoother on the current generation hardware.
For the PlayStation 5 re-release, playing it at 60fps to the naked eye looks pretty much similar to that patched PS4 version running on backwards compatibility, and, barring some tiny details that have been cleaned up or added that are only noticeable by those who are obsessive with comparisons, I wouldn’t say the game’s performance mode is the reason alone to upgrade. There is a fidelity mode that runs the game at full 4K resolution, which certainly improves the game’s sharpness and runs smoothly at 30fps, but the real value of the mode emerges if you have a 120Hz TV with VRR to enable an unlocked framerate at the sharper resolution. From that perspective the visual jump and faster frame rate will be more appreciated by those with the equipment to take advantage of it, and it only highlights that, four years since release, few games have captured the photorealistic visual detail on display like The Last of Us Part II. It certainly still looks as good (if not better) than most games released this day and age.
The truth is, the real value of playing this PlayStation 5 re-release comes from the additions that are not in the graphics side, and, depending on how much you enjoy things like behind-the-scenes commentary for the main game or the other additions, your mileage may vary if you already own the PlayStation 4 version.
You Took That From Me
Now let’s look at one of the headline features, “The Lost Levels.” It’s obvious if you have an inkling of insight into game development that usually not everything that is planned for a game makes it to the final cut. However, it has become rare to see a developer be a little more open about their decisions on why some things made it to the game while others didn’t. While I wouldn’t say the inclusion of these three levels (where only one definitely feels like something that was finished and could have been in the game no problem) is something that justifies the re-release by itself, I did appreciate some of the insights from some of the dev team on why they were ultimately axed.
Slight spoilers to follow
The first of the deleted levels, “Jackson Party,” was originally set to play right after the second fateful encounter at the theatre that serves as the thematic climax of the game. If you recently played Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and remember the section at the carnival in Coney Island, this was The Last of Us Part II‘s version of that. While being the most “unfinished” of these three levels as it lacks dialogue and has a lot of placeholder elements, it was interesting hearing the commentary on the mechanics that they wanted to toy around with in this tiny section that, ultimately, would have been entirely unnecessary considering it was set right before one of the game’s most known cutscenes and added nothing of note or consequence.
The second of these levels, “Seattle Sewers,” is set right at the moment in Seattle Day 2 for Ellie when she is knocked to a river by a Stalker and provides an extended platforming section that also requires utilization of the game’s water physics to navigate. It is set in the extended section of the game where Ellie is solo and on her way to hunt Nora at the Seattle hospital, and they axed this to cut time to get to that hospital. Other than a brief appearance of the character that drives this game’s revenge tale appearing in a way that I would have loved to have seen applied more to the rest of the game, I understand the reasoning of trying to tighten up a section that was already a little too long and indulgent in the first place.
Finally, we have “The Hunt,” a section set during the “wind down” part of the story after all the Seattle action is done. Initially established as a small parallel to the Winter chapter of the first game where Ellie hunts a deer (in this case, she hunts a boar), this was ultimately axed since the main point was already touched upon at the beginning of this entire sequence while repeating other elements as well. Since one of the big criticisms of The Last of Us Part II was how it could have tightened things up as it indulged a lot in excess of what it repeatedly told you, it is funny thinking that they did try to edit a bunch of things out for precisely that reason, and it still wasn’t enough for some.
Overall, playing through these Lost Levels was a fun diversion that satiated some of my behind-the-scenes curiosity, but it lasted me no more than 30-40 minutes. For more behind-the-scenes content included in the package, you get four episodes of the official The Last of Us podcast that was put in podcast services around the game’s original launch, where they talk more about the thought process behind the themes they picked for the game and the different character arcs. This addition is superfluous as you can already listen to these same four episodes in the podcast service of your choice for free. Unlike “The Last of Us Remastered” from 2014 that included the Grounded documentary at launch with the package, Grounded II only gets the same trailer for the documentary that was announced on YouTube prior to the launch of this remaster that’ll be released at an undetermined time soon (and will be patched to this package at a later date. No word on its availability outside on YouTube afterwards).
The real meat of this package from a behind-the-scenes perspective (that certainly speaks to me more as a fan of old-school DVD features) is the developer commentary you can enable for the cutscenes, where you can hear from director Neil Druckmann; head writer Haley Gross; and actors Ashley Johnson, Troy Baker, Laura Bailey, and Shannon Woodward. I’ve heard before with some of the interviews they made post-launch about some of their thought processes behind the game, but this commentary at least provides them a more extended time to discuss more in a laid back, jovial manner instead of the “smelling our own farts” it easily could have been. The only thing I’m disappointed with regarding the commentary is how the in-game markers from the Lost Levels that you could press to hear commentary on the why’s of game development didn’t make it to the main game, which relegates all commentary just to cutscenes (which you can watch all back-to-back with the cutscene player without having to play the game). But overall, getting to at least hear a bit on how the sausage was made from the commentary in the cutscenes was personally interesting for me. I definitely await Grounded II for a more raw look at the grueling development this game went through (I’m eager to see how much they talk about crunch, the damaging leaks, and the pandemic hitting the final stretch of development).
So with all of this, we come back to the question: “Are these additions worth the $10 upgrade?”
While definitely nice additions for the kind of nerd like me that loves this kind of behind-the-scenes look, with things like Grounded II currently missing and how quickly you can go through the Lost Levels, this is certainly not what I would say is worth the $10 upgrade alone. The real meat of it, and the one thing I’d say is worth the upgrade, is No Return.
A Second Chance
It’s interesting how, in the span of a month, we have received two of Sony’s most recent triple-A first party releases providing a post-launch rogue-like mode as a way to extend the perceived value of their respective games. First, we got God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla this past December, and now we have the release of No Return for The Last of Us Part II. While separate releases in their own right, they are interesting case studies on how they support and enhance their respective games and distill their experiences to an essential core. Before diving into the interesting comparisons of both these modes launching on top of each other, let’s look at No Return.
One of the most fascinating things I always find about the discourse surrounding The Last of Us Part II is how the merits of its entire story almost overshadow the quality of the rest of the game. While I understand feeling strongly about the story being something that could make or break this particular game, I also feel it’s worth stressing the other ways The Last of Us Part II excels as a game.
On top of the visual quality on display that I mentioned earlier, which still holds up today, I also feel this game is Naughty Dog’s best feeling, best playing game. There is a certain raw, nimble quality to the tactile nature of its melee and gunplay that mixes so well with their industry-best animation, and it certainly makes so many of the combat encounters so satisfying to pull off, whether tackling them from a stealthy encounter (a much improved feature from the first game) or an all guns blazing approach (where you can basically go all John Wick). With that said, this improved combat also does feel weirdly at odds with the kind of story the game tries to tell, which sometimes tends to undercut the overlying message. That tension is somewhat removed with No Return, even though its inclusion as part of the same package telling that same story can feel a little weird, like how the well-developed stories of the recent Mortal Kombat games feel at odds tonally when playing the rest of that game’s modes.
Unlike its Sony Santa Monica sibling, No Return absolutely doesn’t bother with even attempting to tell a story, instead presenting you with all the combat scenarios built for the main game and distilling it all to the game’s core combat mechanics. From that perspective, it absolutely spotlights a feature of the game that usually gets no talk, and the game more than lives up to the spotlight. No Return showcases Naughty Dog’s combat/design prowess, and the mode comes alive when you constantly engage in the tension of its combat scenarios as you mix both the quiet and loud approaches with some hilarious modifiers thrown in for good measure. These modifiers can be innocuous, like healing on melee kill, to slight gameplay changers, like boosting speed after vaulting over an obstacle or setting an enemy on fire after melee-ing them. Then, there are wilder modifiers, such as molotovs raining over you or enemies becoming invisible, that notch up the tension in ways not even felt in the main game.
For a game that originally prided itself on being grounded and realistic, No Return presents you with the unpretentious other side of the coin, and it’s hilarious to see it included in a game that, at its core, is so tonally different due to how this mode plays out.
If anything, No Return presents all the assets, characters, and scenarios of the main game as a potential sandbox where you can create your own scenarios that can play out however you want them to without having to worry about the “sanctity” of the experience or story. It allows you to play with certain characters that aren’t active in the main tale (which come with their own individual perks that make playing as them unique), and it allows you to set up the specific parameters you want these characters to go through for an experience that can be very difficult and quite replayable. While I will say the nature of the world and the enemies you encounter in this game does limit a bit of the creativity a “rogue-like” mode should have, making me wonder about the longevity of what you can get out of this mode, at least what is presented here adds a considerable element of replay value. On the eve of the cancellation of The Last of Us Online, in a way this provides the kind of gameplay extension that the first game’s Factions provided, even as the mode feels like it exists in its own alternate universe.
So how does it compare to something like God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla? It is very hard to talk about No Return without addressing the elephant in the room that surprise-launched a few days after this mode was initially announced last December. While the fact that Valhalla launched as a free update gives it a leg up on No Return, which is offered as a $10 update, it’s also worth acknowledging how they are presented as two separate sides of a coin.
Valhalla is an extension of the God of War: Ragnarok story and manages to merge and continue what came before into something vital. No Return, in comparison, presents you the game detached from any narrative obligation, providing a fun sandbox tool to play around with. When you play Valhalla, it’s extremely tied to its narrative until that well dries up many, MANY hours later. The No Return setup allows it to be more “pick up and play.” And both modes distill the gameplay of their respective games without the bloat that bridges many of their sections.
While the thoughtful work Sony Santa Monica put towards their Valhalla mode from a story perspective, fitting the mode into the world they set up, makes it objectively the “better” one out of the two, it doesn’t take too much out of how fun No Return can be. If anything, given the way they are setup, if I need to do something quick on a whim in this kind of mode, that’s where No Return has a slight advantage for me, especially once you unlock its Daily Run.
And if we talk about value proposition, considering the free Valhalla could have been something I’d easily pay $20 dollars for given what was on offer, No Return is fun and good enough as a total package that the $10 asking price feels right.
If Somehow the Lord Gave Me a Second Chance at that Moment, I Would Do It All Over Again
Ultimately, as good as the No Return mode can be on its own, whether or not it is enough to make you return to Naughty Dog’s latest opus depends a lot on your attachment not only to The Last of Us but to this sequel altogether. When looking at the alternative we saw two years ago, with a full priced remake of the first The Last of Us that came in with its multiplayer mode removed all for a $70 asking price, it was a little bit of a tough ask unless you were a die hard fan of that legendary first game that wanted it to look absolutely better than it originally did (art style preferences aside).
If The Last of Us Part II Remastered was in a similar situation with that same price, the proposition would be tough even with the added mode, behind the scenes extras, Lost Levels, and its free play Guitar mode. If this remaster was just the visual uplift, which is very small unless you have the TV to take advantage of its higher end features and nothing else, I would have said you are good if you already had the PlayStation 4 version. When combining its excellent new mode with everything added at just $10 if you are a previous owner, compared to the last time they resold their previous game, I’d say the value proposition is much higher. And if you are someone that never experienced the second game until this time, at $50 I would say this is certainly the best way to experience what I consider one of the most fascinating releases of the modern era.
It is a work of art that is equally appreciated and loathed by many. Regardless of where anyone lands on that spectrum, even with some obvious flaws, The Last of Us Part II remains a fascinating sequel to one of gaming’s most celebrated franchises, and its No Return addition makes it more replayable than it was four years ago. Even as I wish for Naughty Dog to show us they can catch lightning again with something new like when they previously created this franchise, it doesn’t diminish the craft and quality on display of their latest offering where, four years later, it can still stand toe-to-toe against so many games released today.
