Remasterful: The Last of Us Remastered (Review)
The Last of Us Remastered is an enhanced version of one of the greatest games ever made
Take, for example, Ellie, who has only known this horrible world, marveling at the ruined skyscrapers and towering billboards, monuments to a time she never experienced. In one instance she spots a lingerie model on a faded poster. She asks Joel, “She’s so skinny. I thought you said you had plenty of food in your time?” He replies, “We did, but some people chose not to eat it for their looks.” She can’t believe how ridiculous that is – and as she condemns it, neither could I. A world where society has broken down and survival is extremely difficult somehow made our reality seem ridiculous. These moments elevate TLoU, as Ellie and the player are both experiencing this new, destroyed world together. That Joel, who knew society as we know it now, seems so accustomed to this horrible world makes it all the more frightening a place to be.
Of course, that isn’t aided by TLoU’s gameplay, which deliberately puts the player at a disadvantage. That’s not to say that the game plays badly, far from it. It features a deep crafting system, which lets Joel use items the player finds in the world to craft and upgrade weapons, making them more powerful or more accurate, as well as craft items such as health kits and use pills to upgrade his own abilities, such as increasing maximum health or improving the time it takes to craft things. TLoU also presents several potential challenges to players, from simple puzzles – dragging a trash bin over to a rusted fire escape to climb up, for instance – to massive gunfights with Hunters, those humans who have banded together to kill and steal from other survivors in an effort to survive. Gun play will be familiar to anyone who’s played Naughty Dog’s Uncharted franchise, offering a simple cover system and range of weapons to choose from. Ammo, naturally, is scarce, so the player will have to make sure that every shot counts when aiming – something that becomes even more apparent when facing the game’s real danger, the infected.
Though TLoU offers many staggeringly beautiful set pieces to roam, it can also offer moments of pure dread and terror. Swimming and climbing through a flooded, ruined, pitch-black hotel basement, for instance, with crowds of infected and thick clouds of spores hanging in the air. Not the most fun. When dealing with infected, there are two options available: stand and fight, or sneak your way past, using stealth kills where necessary. TLoU favors the latter option, with Joel making use of focused hearing to detect where enemies are, letting the player plan a route to avoid encounters. Grabbing an unwitting enemy from behind and stabbing or strangling them makes for silent, deadly progress. Choose to fight with guns blazing, and you’d better make sure you have enough ammo and a steady hand, as you’ll be faced with a wave of screaming, clicking, exploding infected who will quickly convene on your location. Working through the game’s locations isn’t easy, but it shouldn’t be. Joel and Ellie are in constant danger, from survivors and infected alike, and it only increases the sense of satisfaction when you successfully guide Joel and Ellie to the end of an area, pausing to catch your breath and calm your nerves as another of TLoU’s masterfully-directed and wonderfully-acted cutscenes starts to play.
It helps that the PS4 version has been upgraded over its PS3 sibling. TLoU pushed the PS3’s nearly decade-old hardware as hard as possible, and was arguably the best-looking game of the last generation. It’s no surprise, then, that the game looks outstanding on PS4, polished to run with higher-resolution textures, an improved lighting engine and better particle effects, all at 1080p and a silky smooth 60fps. It’s staggeringly pretty, and it’s aided by a new Photo mode, which lets gamers pause the game at any moment and take control of a camera to capture in-game screenshots of wherever they currently are. It’s not necessary, by any stretch, but it’s a nice way to really soak in the beauty of the game’s environments. Decaying buildings, rusting cars, trees and plants breaking through the pavement, rotting signs and billboards, graffiti from panicked survivors and long-since dead residents, skeletal remains, decomposing infected and a general sense of decay and disrepair – The Last of Us offers a lot to see and absorb. It’s a fascinating imagining of what our great urban and rural regions would look life if we allowed nature to reclaim them in the midst of an apocalypse
It’s bolstered by some wonderful audio. Oscar-winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla has crafted a beautiful soundtrack, with a haunting score played mostly on acoustic guitar. Music is used sparingly, mainly to emphasize key moments or highlight when Joel and Ellie are in danger, and it heightens the atmosphere of every scene. When there’s no music, TLoU is eerily quiet. There’s no hustle and bustle of normal life – it’s all gone. Instead, it’s Joel and Ellie’s conversations, the footsteps and discussions of human enemies, the loud bangs of gunfire, the terrifying screams and clicks of infected enemies, the dripping and rushing of water through decayed buildings, the sounds of wildlife that have found a new lease of life in ruined houses and office buildings. Voice acting is nothing short of sublime – aided by impressive motion-capture and realistic facial animations. Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson put in great work as Joel and Ellie, and every supporting character is equally well-acted.
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