The Last of Us Part II Remastered Review (PS5)

The Final of Us: Half 2, within the eyes of us right here at Push Sq., is a masterpiece. Naughty Canine’s divisive sequel surpassed the hype after which some with a stunning, heart-wrenching, and visceral story of revenge that subverted sequel expectations in a daring and brazen method. So with The Final of Us Half 2 Remastered, a PS5 re-release, we’re confronted with some massive questions: why ought to we return to this Naughty Canine traditional? And is it actually definitely worth the worth of admission?

On the very coronary heart of these questions is in fact the unique marketing campaign, which stays one of many boldest gaming experiences in PlayStation’s decades-spanning historical past. It has been 4 years since Ellie’s story was continued on in bloody vogue, and now in 2024, it holds each quantity of energy that it did again then. Half 2 is not for everybody, because it shirks anticipated narrative beats to recontextualise the primary sport with cruel brutality. You may query whether or not you need to push the buttons in your DualSense controller, and whether or not that character you have grown to like goes down the suitable path. It serves as a potent reminder that Naughty Canine is among the best to ever do it, and all of what makes Half 2 particular continues to be right here — however now it has been made greater and higher due to this remastered effort.

However how precisely is it greater and higher you could ask? Properly, we first have to think about what’s new with The Final of Us Half 2 Remastered. For starters you might have visible and efficiency enhancements due to the PS5. And then you definately’ve acquired new skins for each Ellie and Abby to put on in-game, a brand new speedrun mode, new idea artwork, behind-the-scenes Misplaced Ranges, and most notably, a survival roguelike mode known as No Return. It even has a Guitar Free Play mode, for people who like to strum a tune as Joel or sport composer Gustavo Santaolalla. On paper, it is a fairly spectacular remaster, particularly when so many earlier than it have supplied up a lot much less — however is all of it nearly as good because it sounds?

Actually the most important question a whole lot of gamers could have issues how significantly better the visuals actually are. The Final of Us Half 2, which launched on PS4 in 2020, is definitely probably the greatest trying video games to return out of the earlier era, and it nonetheless holds up with trendy releases to today. What’s extra, due to backwards compatibility, it already runs at a boosted 60 frames-per-second on PS5.

Now taking a look at this remaster, we now have efficiency and high quality mode choices, with the previous working an upscaled 1440p at 60 fps, and the latter rendering in 4K with a focused 30 fps. Moreover, for televisions that assist Variable Refresh Charge, there may be an unlocked body charge possibility, which does noticeably clean out the standard mode, boosting the body charge to someplace round 40 fps. Even when we don’t fairly assume the visible improve is definitely worth the worth of admission by itself, that is nonetheless the perfect Half 2 has ever regarded and carried out. In case you’re evaluating side-by-side there shall be a lot of pixel peeping to find out which is which, however in movement the sport is a noticeably smoother expertise – which works brilliantly with the fluid and hectic fight. On the very least it’s going to guarantee parity between The Final of Us: Half 1 remake and this, which means the entire story could be skilled in a single seamless and constant degree of high quality.

Arguably the most important technical additions to the PS5 model are haptic suggestions and adaptive triggers. These immersive DualSense options are as sensible as you’d anticipate from a Sony first-party title, sustaining impeccably detailed rumblings and set off resistance, making the sport’s already top-tier motion even higher. It is tremendous satifying as you agressively reload your weapon and might even amplify an emotional cutscene with some refined vibrations. Haptic implementation in Sony exclusives by no means fails to impress, and that’s actually no completely different right here.

Then there’s the additional content material, reminiscent of Misplaced Ranges, which in themselves are an extremely attention-grabbing addition to a remaster like this. These are partially developed ranges reduce from the primary sport, that includes developer commentary on their design decisions and supreme reasoning for being reduce. We are able to’t assist however really feel they’ve been barely oversold, because the three ranges quantity to not more than a half hour of content material, however what’s there may be fascinating. It is not usually that we get to peek backstage in video games improvement, and it is cool to then see the place the degrees ought to have slotted in when enjoying by means of the primary marketing campaign. Actually, our largest gripe with the Misplaced Ranges is that we had been left wanting extra — we’d like to see different studios take observe and begin to embody behind-the-scenes options like this.

Nevertheless, let’s chew into the actual meat of this remaster: No Return. This survival mode sees gamers struggle by means of 5 encounters, earlier than dealing with a boss. After every encounter you’ll return to your property base the place you’ll earn provides to improve your character, purchase and improve weapons and crafting recipes, and choose your subsequent stage. Encounters vary from capturing safes guarded by Seraphites, to holding out from an onslaught of Contaminated. To spice issues up although, modifiers are randomly utilized throughout your run, which vary from molotov rain to invisible enemies. Companion that up with the already sensible and nail-bitingly tense third-person fight, and you’ve got a roguelike that’s constantly chaotic.

It’s arduous to not evaluate it just a little bit to God of Warfare Ragnarok’s latest roguelike efforts with Valhalla, which we expect has a greater method of permitting gamers to danger all of it to enhance their construct. There are features of danger versus reward right here, like having the ability to select which encounter you may face, finishing Gambit challenges mid-encounter for small rewards, and Lifeless Drops the place you deposit essential gear like medkits for an enormous reward once you return to base. With this strategy, we nonetheless generally felt like we weren’t absolutely prepared for the boss by the point it inevitably got here round. Nevertheless, The Final of Us is not an influence fantasy; it desires you to outlive by the pores and skin of your tooth, so in that sense, No Return excels.

It additionally meant that by the point we reached a boss — generally after a 30-50 minute run — we actually needed to regular our nerves, as one deadly error might erase all our work. We skilled our fair proportion of heartbreak and full euphoria as we had been ripped to shreds, or progressed to victory.

What we actually respect about No Return although, is its pacing. By the point we had crushed the ultimate boss — of which there are six — we had racked up round 18 hours of playtime. This may fluctuate enormously relying on the talent degree of the participant, however throughout our time, No Return managed to maintain issues contemporary and interesting. There are ten characters in complete to play as, every with their very own beginning weapons, recipes, perks and playstyles. Starting with Ellie and Abby, you unlock the following character by enjoying by means of encounters. As you unlock extra characters, you additionally begin to unlock new modifiers, gambits, and encounter sorts.

In order you delve deeper into this roguelike mode, it steadily expands round you, changing into extra dynamic and difficult within the course of. Even defeating sure bosses will introduce new enemy sorts that may present up in encounters like The Rattlers. It does imply that in the end there’s a level the place you’ve “accomplished” No Return — as as soon as each gameplay facet is unlocked, solely challenges for character skins stay — however even nonetheless, you may probably have round 20-something hours earlier than you have wrapped up the ultimate problem.

And that’s to not say there’s nothing else to do as soon as you have accomplished the challenges. There are six issue ranges to check out, together with the notorious Grounded issue, whereas each day and customized runs imply you possibly can actually mess around with all of the modifiers to make it as gruelling an expertise as you want.

Conclusion

Wanting upon the entire package deal, The Final of Us Half 2 Remastered is a superb improve. In some ways it is a elegant deal with for followers of the collection, with behind-the-scenes content material that we lapped up, a survival mode definitely worth the buy worth by itself, and small, albeit current visible and performative upgrades to probably the greatest video games to return out of the PS4 era. However extra importantly, it is the right package deal for these seeking to expertise Ellie’s story for the primary time; this divisive sequel nonetheless packs the identical visceral punch that it did in 2020. Now partnered up with the Half 1 remake, The Final of Us Half 2 Remastered is one of the best ways to expertise this Naughty Canine masterpiece.