Review of The Last of Us Part II Remastered – a valuable addition

An overview of the game itself, including rating, can be found here.

The second installment of The Last of Us game series was released in 2020, but in many ways remains unrivaled and continues to be one of the best experiences in video games. After all, even competitors have admitted this, with the Xbox team, for example, saying in their internal analysis that the game is far superior to anything in their library on consoles and PC, and that they can hopefully match it on the next generation. hardware. Besides the masterful story, the source of this rating is primarily the technical side of things, where the character animation in particular sets a whole new bar for how realistic the body movements and facial expressions of digital characters can look in film and film sequences. during battles during the gameplay itself. The updated version will allow you to enjoy it with higher resolution and smoothness, as well as interesting bonuses, both content and gaming.

• Platform: PS5
• Publication date: 01.19.2024
• Manufacturer: Naughty Dog (USA)
• Genre: Action-adventure/survival horror
• Czech localization: subtitles
• Multiplayer: No
• Download data: 76 GB
• Game time: 40+ hours (20 hour story)
• Price: 1189 CZK (PS Store), update to the PS4 version of the game for 229 CZK.

New content

Perhaps the most exciting new content ahead of its release was a brand new roguelike game mode called No Return. In this mode, you have “one life” to complete a series of randomly selected maps with randomized enemies, missions, additional challenges and modifiers, and you can set the difficulty of your playthrough in advance. Individual maps take several minutes to complete and their tasks usually involve eliminating several waves of enemies, which can be done quietly and quietly or, conversely, quickly and loudly. Between maps, you return to the “safe haven” where you upgrade your equipment and abilities with the resources you acquire. After about a dozen rounds, one of several bosses awaits you. The main selling point of this mode is the emphasis on pure combat, which is where it really shines through how great the combat system is in this game. On the other hand, I see the almost complete lack of story context as a negative, since other similar games and mods have proven that these things can be combined (for example, the Ascension add-on for Returnal or the Valhalla add-on for God of War Ragnarok).

The second highlight of the remastered version were the so-called “Lost Levels”, or sections of the game that the developers decided to scrap during development, despite having reached a relatively advanced stage of completion. In almost all cases, it was due to better pacing and flow of the game, or interest in using a good idea in a better place. Don’t expect too much from this bonus, as there are only three levels, each lasting a few minutes. They’re all different, though, and the accompanying commentary from the creators gives you a good idea of ​​their vision and creative process. One cut level gives you a taste of mini-games and Jackson’s civilian life, another sees the original version of “that” flashback in the sewers, and the third cut level takes you on a hunt for a wild boar, which would also more or less duplicate the role of “that” memories.

My greatest experience with the new content came from the creator’s engaging and expertly executed commentary during my playthrough of the game’s original campaign.

However, to my own surprise, the best part of the new content in the remastered version of the game has none of the above. In the end, my greatest experience with the new content came from the very interesting and absolutely masterful commentary from the creators while playing through the game’s original campaign. TLOU2 is a story-driven game, and its plot is complex, with heavy themes, complex character psychology, time jumps, and so on. After all, fans and detractors alike have spent years analyzing many of the scenes with guesses like “why did character X do such-and-such” and so on. Now you can play through the entire twenty-hour story campaign, accompanied by real-time commentary from the writers and actors who will talk to you (with Czech subtitles, of course) during each scene of the film. In addition to explaining the key points and motivations from the most professionals, you will receive a large portion of additional information about how the creation of this work took place. Although I have a platinum trophy in the original version of the game and have played through it about twenty times, replaying the campaign in this way, with insider commentary, was an absolutely amazing experience, and for me it was the best of all.” package” of the updated version and its bonuses.

Improved Content

An important part of the updated version of the game, of course, is purely technical improvements. A more powerful console (the original game was released for PS4, this remaster is intended for PS5) of course allows you to play in higher resolution (up to native 4K in quality mode) or with greater smoothness (1440p is converted to 4K with a target of 60 frames per second ). ), additionally supports the ability to unlock the frame rate on TVs that support VRR. But not only performance is improved, but also the graphic content itself – higher texture resolution, increased detail drawing distance, improved shadows, and so on. Considering how good the original game already looked, the difference may be harder to notice in some scenes, but there’s no doubt that this is by far the best-looking and best-performing version of the game. Some moments are frankly photorealistic, for example, the “establishing shots” of the environment are often completely disarming in this regard.

Other improvements include support for speedrunning the game in the form of a time counter, a separate room for playing the guitar, where you can change both the player character and the instruments and their sound – I have no doubt that the community will support this. Create some amazing pieces of music again in this minor mode. Of course, loading is faster thanks to the SSD and the DualSense controller’s haptic feedback support. Also important is the presence of improvements and content from the game’s past patches, especially the Grounded or Permadeath mode and especially the series of game “cheat mods” that will be unlocked after completing the campaign for the first time (you can import a saved position from the PS4 version for this purpose). If you haven’t experienced it yet, be sure to check out the time-slow modifier when aiming, which turns the game into a Max Payne variant where shooting effectively slows down both enemy animations and special effects. , and the sound is warped accordingly, resulting in a scene from The Matrix.