The Last Of Us On PS5 Feels More Like Another Remaster Than A Remake

The Mad Titan

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kotaku.com

The Last Of Us On PS5 Feels More Like Another Remaster Than A Remake

At this point, it's hard to see how Naughty Dog's tale of Joel and Ellie can be improved upon
kotaku.com kotaku.com
Really, so much of this is the same exact game, from the clunky shooting to the ridiculously overpowered brick item to the enemies who can stare you in the face but fail to register your presence because you’re technically behind a wall. Ellie can stroll directly into the sightline of an infected and fail to set off its otherwise trip-wired senses, so long as you’ve kept Joel hidden. Naughty Dog even appears to have retained the exact same solutions to all of the optional puzzles—an exceedingly minor nitpick that only serves to reinforce the notion that this is all well-trod ground. (If you’re stumped on finding a code to a hidden safe, you can rest assured that the solution exists on Google somewhere, having been published by a studious guides writer nine years ago.) Coming off the The Last of Us Part II, which is mechanically more in depth than its predecessor in every way, these limitations are put into stark relief.

Playing Part I has made me seriously reconsider the art of the re-release: What games deserve a total redux? What’s the benchmark for a remake versus just a slickly produced remaster? I know in my head that, definitionally, a remake is essentially a new game built from scratch or close to it, whereas a remaster is more or less a spruced-up version of an existing game (to put both of those phrases in the broadest possible terms). But does dictionary dot com matter when the only thing you actually have in your hands is the end result?

To me, The Last of Us Part I looks like a remake, but it sure as hell does not feel like one. Think: Less Demon’s Souls or Final Fantasy VII Remake, more Halo 2 Anniversary. The first two were built from scratch, and reimagined their source material, to varying degrees. The third was the same vehicle with a shinier coat of paint; prettier, sure, but you could still feel its decade-old bones underneath. The Last of Us Part I is far closer to the latter, except without a handy button that allows you to swap between original visuals and the modernized respray.

It is undoubtedly lovely to gawk at the photorealism on display here—to catch the bright light of a high noon sun glinting off the surface of a waterlogged Beacon Street, or to see the world-weary resignation of a partner who knows their time has come. Naughty Dog has long staked its pedigree on hyper-realistic visuals; The Last of Us, in its many incarnations, is included in that oeuvre.
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:wow:
The whole calculus behind Part I is wrapped in the gooey paper of its price sticker. We don’t typically discuss such matters at Kotaku, but I do think Part I merits an exception: It’s among a slew of current-gen games setting the new baseline at $70, up from the previous standard of $60. That’s no small ask for folks who already partake in a relatively expensive hobby. Were I in a similar position as Polygon’s Nicole Carpenter, who had not played the game prior to this year, yes, The Last of Us Part I is unequivocally the manner in which I’d prefer to play it. Coming from the perspective of someone who’s run through this game more than a dozen times, had I paid $70 here, I’ll be honest, I’d probably feel a little burned, like I’d bought a pair of shoes I already owned. (Sony provided Kotaku with a PS5 code for The Last of Us Part I ahead of tomorrow’s release.)

Anyway, let’s do this all again in ten years, when Naughty Dog releases The Last of Us Part I Remake Remastered Reloaded—y’know, if the IRL clickers haven’t devoured us all by then.
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:sadcam:
 
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The Mad Titan said:
To play a remake of a remaster with less content for 70 bucks.

:russ:

I don't think so.
Sounds like Sony stans are the desperate ones trying to catch that exclusive feelings :mjlol:
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People that want to play it will buy it. The people who wont like me wont. I'll get it maybe closer to TLOU3 and I'll play this then TLOU2 a month or two before 3 comes out.
Yall jealous that Sony and Naughty Dog can have the gall to release this, while yall shytbox couldn't even compare. They don't even have a game as better as the PS3 version :russ:
 
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