The Last Of Us Remastered

The latest craze of sprucing up games of the past and bringing them to this generation will never get old, seeing the best of the best fully enhanced and more complete is well worth another playthrough and the price tag that goes with them.
The Last Of Us RemasteredThe Last Of Us Remastered
The Last Of Us Remastered

The latest in the craze is an enhanced version of a game that is arguably the best game created on last generation platforms, Naughty Dog’s acclaimed masterpiece The Last Of Us. It lived up to its hype and brought the best graphics as well as one of the best narratives ever seen in a video game and Naughty Dog and Sony’s idea to bring it to the PlayStation 4, with all of its horsepower, made perfect sense.

You play as Joel, a guy who is seemingly detached and finds it hard to connect to people ever since an outbreak of a virus which turned most of the population into mindless creatures. He soon meets Ellie, a hard knock young girl who can certainly hold her own, together they must find a way to salvation, tackling all kinds of problems which includes more than the mindless creatures that roam. How the story is told and played out is nothing short of masterful. Second to none acting, beautifully written dialogue, and superb motion capture mixed in with the phenomenally good visuals means that The Last Of Us could easily floor most blockbusters at the cinema. These characteristics mean it’s easy to connect with Joel from the start and you really do care whether he and Ellie survive or not. You will experience all kinds of emotions playing this as it explores heartbreak, relief, desperation and more, The Last Of Us is the most engrossed I’ve ever been in a video game and you will too.

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Not only is the story telling excellent, the gameplay is too. It’s essentially a third person game which mixes stealth, shooting and exploration to brilliant effect. Environments are open and there is plenty of materials to collect which caters for the games simple and effective, on-the-fly crafting system, so simple and effective, it’s extremely easy to craft up a medi kit in the heat of battle. The combat is tight and exciting, enemies are smart and with take up any opportunity to flank and ambush you however they can be easily tricked to sneak up on them so you can grab them from behind and either choke them out or stick a homemade shiv in their throats. It’s extremely satisfying and never becomes a chore, even when a second wave enters the fray. The mindless infected are another kettle of fish. Runners are recently infected people who when they see you, they rush you leaving little time to think however they can be snuck up on like human enemies.... and then there’s the Clickers. Clickers are unpredictable and tough but they have one single disadvantage, they can’t see. Using this disadvantage to your advantage is great fun. Stealth is best for survival as ammo can be scarce. Joel has a listening ability which enables you to track enemies’ movements via the sounds they make.

The Last Of Us RemasteredThe Last Of Us Remastered
The Last Of Us Remastered

The Last Of Us Remastered ramps up the visual quality than that seen on the PlayStation 3 version. Characters are more detailed, mud, blood and sweat is seen better dripping down but the biggest improvement is the stunning environments. Shrubbery, the sights of the great outdoors, the cities, even the dark and dank corridors all look beautiful with enhanced shadows, better antialiasing and 60 frames per second frame rate makes The Last Of Us Remastered the best looking game on the PS4 to date.

The Remastered version not only boasts better graphics, it also comes complete with the Left Behind single player DLC which focuses around Ellie as you delve more into her past. It’s a fantastic addition to the main story as you play as Ellie herself. The awesome narrative and amazing visuals even carry over to the Left Behind DLC too which is impressive indeed. The Last Of Us also has solid online multiplayer modes. Traditional death match modes and a brilliant interrogation mode which requires you to interrogate players to learn their lock box location is exciting and very tense. Load outs can be made up and outfit items can be unlocked as well as emblems to boast your level.

Summary

The Last Of Us Remastered is a masterpiece of a game that I will be playing over and over. The epic storytelling, brilliant pacing and beautiful enhanced graphics mixes brilliantly with the tense high octane action and wide open environments begging to be explored. If you didn’t play this game the first time around, firstly shame on you and secondly, you owe it to yourself to play through this fantastic tale. A definite must own!

Story - 5/5

Graphics - 5/5

Gameplay - 5/5

Overall - 5/5

Version reviewed - PlayStation 4