Welcome to our review of The Last of Us Part II Remastered, the big hit returns on PlayStation 5 and tells the further tales of Ellie and Joel.
Experience Ellie and Abby’s emotional journeys, remastered for PS5
Play the winner of over 300 Game of the Year awards, remastered for the PlayStation5 console. Relive or play for the first time Ellie and Abby’s story, now with graphical enhancements, new gameplay modes like the roguelike survival experience No Return, full DualSense wireless controller integration, and more.
Experience an array of technical enhancements that make The Last of Us Part II Remastered the definitive way to play Ellie and Abby’s critically acclaimed story. Built for the PS5, The Last of Us Part II Remastered enhances the original PS4 game in ways not possible before. Visual performance now includes native 4K1 output in Fidelity Mode, 1440p upscaled to 4K in Performance Mode, and an Unlocked Framerate option for TVs that support VRR. The Last of Us Part II Remastered also includes improved load times to let you jump right back into the action. Descriptive Audio and Speech to Vibrations have also been added to The Last of Us Part II Remastered’s suite of accessibility features. Experience deep combat via an entirely new mode! Survive as long as you can in each run as you choose your path through a series of randomized encounters featuring different foes and memorable locations from throughout The Last of Us Part II, all culminating in tense boss battles.
Unique gameplay modifiers can offer new and unexpected challenges as you fight to succeed – and survive – in a host of different encounter types. Play as a variety of characters including never-before-playable characters like Dina, Jesse, Lev, Tommy and more,2 each with unique traits to offer different playstyles, and unlock skins for them as you progress to use in the mode. Find out more about No Return. Delve deeper into this beloved adventure and learn how the original game was created. Lost Levels let you explore early-development versions of three new levels not seen in the original The Last of Us Part II: Sewers, Jackson Party and Boar Hunt. Enjoy hours of new developer commentary about The Last of Us Part II’s development as you experience the game.
Live up to your musical potential with Guitar Free Play, which includes new instruments2, or take on the new Speedrun Mode2 and post your best times. Take incredible Photo Mode shots with additions like dynamic lighting, Frame Forward, and Gaze Direction, as well as new frame and logo options. The Last of Us Part II Remastered also features brand new unlockable character and weapon skins for players to use for both Ellie and Abby. The beautiful yet dangerous world of The Last of Us Part II Remastered is brought to new life on the PS5. This version features increased texture resolution, increased Level-of-Detail distances, improved shadow quality, animation sampling rate, and more. The Last of Us Part II Remastered also makes full use of the DualSense wireless controller’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers to allow every weapon to feel distinct and convey an increased sense of presence in your surroundings as you explore the snowy mountains of Jackson and the rain-drenched city streets of Seattle.
Now let us talk about the actual process of me playing this game a little. I never played the game when it came out originally as I was very much deep into Nintendo collecting only and barely ever looked at my Xbox or PlayStation at the time. I know, not a great thing to say as a gaming journalist, but it did come with the unexpected bonus that it allowed me to properly experience this game from start to finish for the very first time and quite honestly, I disagree with the very high Metacritic score as I would maybe score the actual game a 7 or 7.5. The reason is that the entire game has a messed up sense of time.
Flashbacks the entire time and while it is easy to understand why they did it, first tell the Ellie storyline and then go all about Abby. But the flashbacks inside flashbacks? Who comes up with that stuff? At times it really ruined the rhythm of an otherwise entertaining story. I like how there is more human interaction instead of the infected. That is a definite bonus in my book.
I do feel that the game improved some of the mechanics compared to the first game and aside from some weird graphical decisions, the song “Damn, that’s an ugly baby” by Stephen Lynch comes to mind. Also had the occasional sparkle on my cheeks, but not sure if those were reflections of light or just weird bugs. But all in all, I am quite happy with the game in its current shape. Even the additional modes are a big bonus compared to the original. The elephant here is whether or not the game is worth the upgrade and I can just say yes. I would have upgraded if I owned the original PS4 version.
BUT! There is one thing I have to say, why can’t we really finish things in the storyline, I think that would have been more deep instead of the current ending. I don’t want to spoil by giving details, but after you played it to the end, this should make sense.
Now, let us not forget the new Roguelike mode, a game mechanic that I just love to hate passionately. But it is done quite right, you go through some levels and then a boss fight. Most of the time, you are basically out there camping from the best vantage point and hoping to kick some enemy ass. It is not really that hard if you play it after completing the game and really got all the controls mastered.
What I would like to say, is the modifiers in these short levels, like additional health when doing melee, that adds another layer of spice if you do not want to just sneak up to everyone and go for massive kills. While I found it easy, I am sure it will be challenging for some. A nice addition to the game for sure.
In conclusion, The Last of Us Part II Remastered is a decent remaster of a good game, not the 9+ game on Metacritic, but 7.5ish in my book.
