One of the best games on the PS3 is now available on the PS4, but do the improvements to the graphics justify the high asking price?
CLICK HERE FOR OUR THE LAST OF US REMASTERED INTERVIEW
Whenever reviewing a remake, particularly one of a fairly recent title, we’re always wary of exactly how much we should assume the reader knows about the original game. But that is pretty much the whole point of The Last Of Us Remastered. It was originally released at almost exactly this time last year for the PlayStatiion 3, but at that time the Xbox 360 was dominant in the US and UK and so plenty of gamers missed out simply by virtue of having a different console.
The other reason this Remastered edition exists is because Sony has so few PlayStation 4 exclusives due this year that it needs to find a quick way to bulk out its release schedules, with other remastered versions hinted to be on their way (the Uncharted trilogy and Beyond: Two Souls seem the most likely candidates at the moment). All of which is perfectly reasonable, as long as you understand that this is exactly the same game as last year, only running at a higher resolution and frame rate – and with a small number of even more trivial enhancements.
None of which alters the fact that this is one of the best story-based video games ever made.
The Last Of Us uses many of the same gameplay and storytelling techniques as Uncharted, but for a much darker tale. The background of the story is a future where a fungal plague has devastated the world’s population, turning the majority into mindless, zombie-like creatures. (Despite the fact that they both came out at almost exactly the same time the portrayal of the infected is curiously similar to the zombies from World War Z.)
The remaining humans live either in harsh government-controlled cities or attempt to survive on their own either as scavengers or in small close-knit communities. As the game begins you take control of Joel, an amoral smuggler who is convinced to take a 14-year-old girl named Ellie across America to meet with a resistance group called the Fireflies.
Ellie’s secret is only revealed partway through the game, but even when it is Joel is reluctant to take on the role of father figure. At this point neither character is especially likeable and they appear as fairly basic tropes: Joel is the terse action man with a troubled past and Ellie is the spunky teenager who swears like a sailor.
Neither attitude seems unreasonable given their situation though, where a horrible death lies in wait around every corner – from either humans or infected. The infected come in only two varieties: deranged humans who look and act very much like traditional, fast-moving zombies and ‘Clickers’. Clickers are humans that have been infected for longer and fungal growth on their head has made them blind, but given them a form of echo location.
Clickers are much more dangerous than infected and can kill you in a single attack, they also have an advanced form called a Bloater – although on the default difficulty you’ll only encounter them four or five times in the whole game.
This means that while infected can be avoided in the traditional manner of running away and hiding, Clickers will react to any but the most subtle movement – but not you standing stock still in the middle of the room. Although it may seem disappointing that there are really only two enemy types the night and day difference between the tactics you use against them is a brilliant piece of gameplay design.
And besides, we don’t really consider the infected to be the primary enemies in the game. They’re the reason the world has gone to pot but the most dangerous enemies are still ordinary humans. We’re not sure if that was always the plan, or if Naughty Dog just realised partway through that it was more interesting fighting intelligent enemies, but scavengers and other humans are your opponents for over half the game.
Given the often shocking levels of violence they’re just as frightening an opponent, if not more so. The presence of the infected may seem to paint the game as a survival horror, but it really isn’t. It’s tense, not frightening, and never more so than when you have half a dozen wild-eyed scavengers bearing down on you and you’re down to your last bullet.
Ellie can occasionally help in a fight by distracting or jumping on an attacker, but although you have a decent range of upgradeable guns the ammo is limited enough that escape and concealment is always the most sensible option – and often the most satisfying. But if you do get into a scrap the melee combat is extremely well handled, and by drawing in the camera manages to feel horrifyingly frantic despite the simple controls.
There’s also a dynamic cover system which works similarly to the new Tomb Raider, in that you don’t have to manually glue yourself to any obstacle to hide behind it – just duck down nearby. None of these individual elements would sell the game on its own, but they’re perfectly solid mechanics and the gunplay is certainly superior to Uncharted 3.
The only video-gamey ability is ‘listen mode’ where you crouch down and can suddenly see through walls in a kind of x-ray vision. The idea is that you’re listening for the noise that enemies make, with the game providing a visual representation, and although the effect is a bit jarring there’s no arguing it’s not useful.
It’s the free form nature of battles that is the most impressive though, with the game perfectly happy to let you run as far away as possible before looping back to tackle the fight from a new angle. The enemy artificial intelligence is also sensible enough to do the same, often disengaging if things go badly or calling for help.
There are also light role-playing elements, where Joel collects tablets to upgrade things like his maximum health and how much his aim wobbles when using a gun. But when not in battle scavenging the ruined landscape is essential and there’s a simple crafting system that allows you to create field bandages and weapons like smoke grenades, Molotov cocktails, and nail bombs. The Molotovs are the most useful, especially against Clickers, and cleverly they use exactly the same ingredients as the field bandages.
Viewed purely in terms of action The Last Of Us is an inspired mix of Uncharted, Resident Evil 4, and Fallout. It lacks the depth and variety of the latter two, and is extremely linear, but it’s the additional factor of the storytelling and visuals that really raises the game.
The Last Of Us looks absolutely stunning at every turn, from the highly detailed landscapes of ruined cities and deceptively tranquil wilderness to the superb character models and facial animation. But then that was true of the PlayStation 3 version too, and although the improvements here are perfectly welcome the only problem to fix in the original was some minor slowdown issues.
The higher frame rate is definitely an improvement, but in most cases a casual observer would struggle to pinpoint any specific changes between the two versions unless they were both running next to each other – at which point the improved lighting and higher detail textures also become more obvious. Although frankly we would’ve prioritised the immersion-ruining ally artificial intelligence, which still sees Ellie running right in front of a Clicker – despite the fact that if you did that you’d be killed instantly.
And yet even with so little to criticise we originally found that by the halfway point, when most of the game’s systems had become familiar and the story seemed to be heading in a fairly predictable direction, we did feel slightly disappointed. The voice-acting for Joel, Ellie, and the rest of the cast is worth every ounce of praise but the characters still have little real depth, and at this stage the game’s story appears to have no real narrative weight.
But then around two-thirds in these lowering expectations are suddenly reversed and the story ups its game, not just dramatically but thematically. We can’t go into spoilers of course but what seems at first to be a simple story of an emerging father-daughter relationship becomes something much more thought-provoking.
The final minutes are almost purposefully anticlimactic, but the meaning behind them illustrates the human need for companionship and family – surrogate or otherwise – as well as any film or novel we’ve ever experienced.
And all this in a really cool game where you get to shoot zombies in the face with a sawn-off shotgun.
In fact The Last Of Us is a surprisingly generous package, since the story campaign lasts for a good 16 hours even on the default difficulty. But beyond this it also has a separate multiplayer mode of significant quality. Much like Uncharted 3 it uses the basic mechanics from the single-player, which in this case means a more stealth-oriented style of action as you take on a team of up to four rivals at a time.
You also still have to scavenge for items and listen mode remains available – although you can now tag spotted enemies for your allies to see as well. There’s also a range of extra skills, buffs, and items to unlock with your character, in what has now become the online multiplayer norm.
But The Last Of Us goes further by offering up an extra meta-game where you have to manage a set of five characters over a period of 12 weeks. The better you do in the multiplayer the better you’re able to support your fellow survivors and grow the number in your group. Taking on specific multiplayer missions gains them specific skills and items, which is a very clever way of keeping your interest in what could easily have been just another tacked-on multiplayer option.
The Remastered edition includes all the downloadable expansions of the last year (with a final cross-format one due in a few months). On top of this you get the single-player story expansion Left Behind, which is largely superfluous in terms of plot but just as well made – and told – as the main game.
Beyond this the only extras is some director commentary, new audio options, and a photo mode (which wasn’t available in our review copy). Which is not to imply that The Last Of Us is missing any desperately needed feature, but with a RRP £40 it’s not necessarily an instant buy if you’ve already played the original. Especially given the fact that the surprises of the final few hours are one of the game’s greatest accomplishments.
But you can’t criticise a game for getting everything right the first time round, and everything The Last Of Us attempts it succeeds at almost perfectly, using its advanced technology not just for spectacle but to improve the gameplay and storytelling beyond previously attainable levels. Playing the Remastered version is like moving from a DVD copy of your favourite film to a Blu-ray: a small change by most standards, but still a desirable one.
In Short: Still a stunning achievement in both storytelling and third person adventure, and although this is the definitive version the differences are still minor.
Pros: Dynamic, tense, and highly visceral combat against believable human – and inhuman – opponents. Superb storytelling and pitch perfect voice-acting. Meaty and imaginative multiplayer.
Cons: The story and character development goes nowhere for much of the middle third of the game. No major additions on the PlayStation 3 version, despite the high asking price, and the ally AI is still flawed.
Score: 9/10
CLICK HERE FOR OUR THE LAST OF US REMASTERED INTERVIEW
Formats: PlayStation 4
Price: £39.99
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Naughty Dog
Release Date: 1st August 2014
Age Rating: 18
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