The Last of Us: Remastered – Better on PS4?
The Last of Us: Remastered is, quite possibly, the best PlayStation 4 game on the market right now. Answering the question of whether someone who has not yet played the game and who has a PS4 would do well to get the game is therefore quite simple: do it. Now. Question two is more complicated. Those who have already gone through the story, which is drenched in emotion and drama, will experience this version of The Last of Us as a good film that you had already seen, but wanted to watch again, especially if that can be done in a higher resolution than that you originally saw the movie. Whether that makes the purchase worthwhile, however, is doubtful, the game has not changed.
Pros
- Audiovisual on PS4 just a little better
- Gameplay offers room for inventive solutions
- Exudes care, attention to detail
- Story
- A strong bond with characters
Cons
- Combat gets a bit repetitive towards the end
This review focuses entirely on the graphical differences between the two versions of The Last of Us. Since the further content of the Remastered edition does not differ from the original, you can read last year ‘s review again for a discussion of the other parts.
Strange, but true: we started The Last of Us: Remastered with some reluctance. Not that we didn’t like the original, on the contrary. The PlayStation 3 version of the game made such a deep impression on us last summer that when we saw and played the opening of the game, we felt our heartbeats racing again. Perhaps knowing exactly where drama lurked only made that feeling worse. Some characters suddenly find themselves saying goodbye before you’re even supposed to know that goodbye is indeed coming, and the bond you had with Joel and Ellie comes back in as if it never left. In no time you’ll be back at home in the game world where a mysterious virus has turned people into monstrous ‘Infected’ and where survival is the main challenge.
That feeling of recognition evokes wonderful memories, but at the same time it is of course a huge Achilles heel. The strength of The Last of Us was precise that you built a bond with the characters. And that in turn meant that every violent plot twist affected the player enormously. That feeling is gone now. Compare it to a very good movie that you watch for the second time. The quality is still dripping from it, but you are no longer open-mouthed. Let alone that you still want to pause to catch your breath for a few minutes.
The Last of Us: Remastered is The Last of Us with more beautiful graphics and with all the extras that have appeared in the last twelve months. Development studio Naughty Dog has boosted the resolution to 1080p and the game runs entirely in 60fps. In addition, the option is still built in to fix the game at 30fps, but according to the developers, that is only to satisfy ‘purists’ who want to play the game as it ran on the PlayStation 3. The quality of the graphics does not change, according to the makers themselves. Other media pointed to a perceptible difference in the quality of shadows, but we could hardly observe that difference. Furthermore, the textures and shadows have generally been improved and there is no texture streaming.
Nice words, but what does it actually mean? What’s in it? Is The Last of Us: Remastered indeed that much more beautiful? The answer is quite simple: yes, it is more beautiful. But whether we fully agree with Sony’s own comparison of ‘it’s like going from DVD to Blu-Ray with movies’, we don’t know just yet. In gameplay, even if you’ve played the PS3 version extensively, the PS4 version isn’t obviously much nicer. In fact, there is more of a feeling of confirmation: The Last of Us was a beautiful game, wasn’t it? Yes, even on the PlayStation 3!
That image hardly changes if you put both versions side by side. It is noticeable that the PlayStation 4 version does indeed run a lot smoother, has better views and shows the differences between the light effects in bright light and in shadow areas a lot better. In addition, you can still marvel at the ‘Photo mode’ which allows you to freeze the game and view a certain scene from all angles, in your hunt for the most beautiful picture you can have. All of this makes the PS4 version graphically a step better, but not in such a way that the gaming experience changes dramatically. In our opinion, the graphical improvement alone is not sufficient reason to play The Last of Us again.
And with that, apart from mentioning that all previously released content for the PS3 version of The Last of Us is included on the Remastered disc, we’ve actually mentioned all the important differences between the two versions. Furthermore, the review of the game published last year, based on the PS3 version, still fully applies. Read that review again for more background information about the game.