I went through a variety of different reasons about The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered and why, as a fan and as someone who understands marketing and whatever, this was something that made complete sense and actually wasn’t just a cash grab but was a really smart, brilliant idea on Naughty Dog’s behalf. And now, there have been rumors of a Last of Us Part II director’s cut for a long time now. I’ve thought since day one, and with the PS5 announced, that it was a sure thing that this would happen at some point. And finally, it’s here: they released a trailer, and it looks really great, and they have announced it. But the thing that I wasn’t prepared for that I should have been prepared for was the amount of negativity surrounding this thing.
I heard what people were saying, and it’s all the normal BS of people being like, It’s just a cash grab, or this game doesn’t need a remake. Tetris, the original game and remake that’s a worthy remake, stuff that’s just so silly and so bonkers and so much negativity, and also being like, Oh, we’re going to remake a game that’s a day old. It’s so frustrating, and I still feel like this is great news. The Last of Us Part II getting a remake, getting a remaster, is a really great thing, and I’m excited for it, so I want to dive into it. And share my thoughts as to why this is actually a good thing, why fans should be excited, and why I think all the negativity is a load of garbage from a bunch of whiny fanboys. And so we’re going to dive into it in this one.
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So first off, I want to address the Naughty Dog hate and why it doesn’t make any sense. And why the claims that this game’s only like a day old and doesn’t need a remake, and there are so many other games that need remasters, why is this one it? Is absolutely silly. And I’m going to point out the absolute hypocrisy of these fans. And so the first one is that many games have gotten director’s cuts. In this PS5 era, there are a plethora of games that have been released originally on the PS4 and have been brought to the PS5. And those games never received the amount of hate that The Last of Us Part II is receiving. And to be honest, it’s just because it’s The Last of Us, Part II. It has nothing to do with the fact that this game is being remade and remastered, and it’s a director’s cut.
It’s just because it’s The Last of Us, Part II, and people are going to be upset no matter what. For example, does anyone not remember that Spider-Man for PS4 was remastered for PS5? It was only liked. Two or three years after the game’s release, they remastered it. Nobody whined and complained when they did that. That was fine. Also, Ghost of Tsushima got a remaster and a director’s cut, where they upgraded a bunch of different things and took that PS4 game and re-released it on PS5. Death Stranding, and so on. I can go after a million different things that nobody was whining about, that got a remaster or remake, that are games that are not old, that were simply brought over to the new platform because the new platform is better, and it’s pretty easy to add in some extra features and get new fans into this game and give old fans something that they can play and enjoy.
in the meantime between sequels, but I think the most egregious and obvious case of proof that these people whining about this are ridiculous is that The Last of Us Remastered is the case in point for why this kind of hate is silly and that it’s just people who don’t like Part 2 whining. When the last of us remastered came out on PS4, it was only one year after the original. The last of us released it on PS3, so we only had to wait a year for the last of us to get remastered for PS4, and when they did it, nobody was whining. Nobody was complaining that if you had the original game, you could play and enjoy it.
But it was very clear that the remaster on the PS4, because it’s a more powerful console, was a better way to play it. And guess what? Many of us experienced The Last of Us for the first time with that remaster that came out a year later on our PS4s because it was the new console that everybody had and you wanted to play great games. And so I just want to say that those whining who weren’t around complaining about all of the various director’s cuts and the original Last of Us Remastered need to just chill out and recognize it’s a lot of hypocrisy.
And guess what? When The Last of Us Remastered was originally released, you had to buy a whole new game. You want to know what happens if you own the original Last of Us Part II and you want to own the remaster? You only have to pay $10 for an upgrade, and you get a bunch of different stuff. And so it’s not like Naughty Dog is out here stealing people’s money. It’s not like they’re out here charging an egregious price for a remake of a game. They’re charging you $10 if you own the original Last of Us Part 2 and you get all the new stuff, and it helps this franchise in a bunch of different ways that I want to go into now. Now that we’ve addressed all of the nonsense, let’s dive into why this is an exciting remaster.
So first off, this is above and beyond. This is far above most director’s cuts and remasters that get released. You have all the normal stuff that comes along with a director’s cut of a PS4 game moving to PS5. You get the haptic feedback; you get the adaptive triggers, photo modes, costumes, etc. All of those little things that the regular remasters and director’s cuts receive. But Naughty Dog did something crazy, and if you’ve been listening to the official Last of Us podcast and watching interviews, you know that there was a lot that was left on the cutting room floor of this game, that there was a lot of great content and great ideas that they took out to essentially trim the fat a little bit, just like how if you watch the Lord of the Rings, the theatrical release, it’s a smoother movie that flows quicker together and makes sense that would be what was released in theaters. But if you’re a real fan, you kind of enjoy the extended cuts that are a little bit longer.
There were a lot of things on the cutting room floor for this game that got dropped. There were some really cool ideas that fans wanted to see, and those were things that clearly Naughty Dog themselves wanted to release but felt like it was just too bloated of a game. And so in this remaster, they’re actually giving us those lost scenes. That those cut gameplay elements are going to be playable. You’re going to be able to go through them with a director’s commentary. And you’re going to be able to experience those things that were talked about. The things that were lost. It’s the things that we’ve heard so much about and that the hardcore fans have really wanted to see.
And that’s incredibly cool. And for them to release something like that, for me as a fan, I already sold my $10, and I want to see that stuff. And it gets me incredibly excited to see what is in those lost scenes. And then, on top of that, for me, this is the most exciting thing because I love the Factions multiplayer in the first Last of Us game. I have been eagerly anticipating the Factions sequel that it’s supposed to be releasing. but obviously it’s taking a long time. And obviously, that sequel was originally supposed to be released with The Last of Us Part 2 until it turned into its own Last of Us game into this monstrosity of a thing that is hopefully still being worked on, but we don’t know 100 percent for sure.
And so Naughty Dog, almost in an attempt to apologize for fans for waiting so long and to maybe give us a glimpse as to what this multiplayer looks like, is releasing this like rogue survival mode, which looks incredibly exciting and gives the Last of Us part 2 remastered. tons of replay value that the current Last of Us Part 2 for the PS4 doesn’t have. It didn’t have that multiplayer faction where you could go back in time and experience a new game. They’re actually giving you that ability for Part 2—that you now have this survival mode. Where you can play as different characters in unique situations. Every situation is a new one with artificial intelligence. they’re able to put into the PS5 and into this game to play against It’s almost like you get a few factions, too. Before it’s released, you get to experience multiplayer. You’re not playing with other players that we know or don’t know fully. if that’s possible or not, but you kind of get to have that experience of just being rushed out with enemies, and every encounter is going to be different that you have.
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It’s incredibly exciting that it just ups the replay value of this game to a ton. And if the last scenes weren’t enough to convince me to pick this thing up and all of the normal directors cut things, that probably would have had me picking it up. just because I’m a big fan of the game and I want to replay it again. To be honest, it’s hard to go back after playing Part 1 just because I do like the quality of life improvements that the PS5 brings. Also, this rogue survival mode is so cool and exciting for someone who’s a fan of the original factions. They went above and beyond on this remaster, and it’s far more than a lot of companies are usually giving us with these things.
The last reason gets me excited, and this is the same reason that I ultimately went to the original remake for when they took The Last of Us and made Part 1 for the PS5. This is actually a really great thing because this is actually going to bring new friends to the franchise, and tons of new players are going to be able to play this remaster. Like it or not, it’s hard to play Part 1 on the PS5 and go back to a PlayStation 4 game that doesn’t have quality of life improvements, doesn’t have adaptive triggers, doesn’t have haptic feedback, doesn’t have ray tracing, and those kinds of things, so it’s weird to play a sequel that feels like a downgrade. And so, to me, it always made sense that it was going to be released eventually.
And now those new fans who have jumped onto part one—and believe me, there are tons of them. The tons of people who, for the first time in their lives, played The Last of Us with that PS5 Part 1 remake are now going to have the sequel to that on the PS5 as well. And they’re going to be able to enjoy the story, or if not, enjoy it, depending on how they feel. But for the most part, enjoy it and be able to experience the story. On top of that, season 2 of HBO’s The Last of Us is about to go into filming, and this is again great for this game in this franchise. People are going to tune in for season 2. They’re going to want to play it for themselves, and to be able to give those players an experience on a modern-day console and be able to experience it the way Naughty Dog wanted them to is great. It’s a win for those who already own the game. They can pay $10 for the upgrade if they want. If they don’t want to, they can continue to play the PS4 version, and for those who are new fans of this franchise, they can jump into Part 1 and then immediately go to Part 2 and not feel like there’s a weird dissonance between the two. They flow together much more nicely and smoothly than they did before.
I just think that’s great. And let’s be honest, there is a new console bias. People who own the PS5 preferred the PS5 games playing on the PS5, not the PS4 games on the PS5. That’s a quality of life thing that is nice to fans who already own a PS4. All it’s going to do is increase the fan base so that there will be more fans. There were more fans of the original game because of the Part 1 remake for the PS5, and because there were more fans of the original game because of the PS4 remaster, you’re going to have more fans because of this PS5 remaster for Part 2. I think it’s incredibly exciting to get those lost scenes, to get Rogue Survival, and to get all the other things that Director’s Cuts normally have. I personally am super excited for this. I can’t wait to get my hands on The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered in January 2024.
