The Last of Us Remastered (PS4) Review

 The Last of Us Remastered (PS4) 9/10

Hello everybody. I’m back with another review. Today, I’ll be talking about the critically acclaimed video game The Last of Us. Originally released for the PS3, The Last of Us Remastered came out on June 29, 2014 for the PS4. The game was developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. I have played the original version around the time it was first released on the PS3 and I loved it. Back when I first played the game, I didn’t really understand why everyone was saying “oh the game is a masterpiece” and all that. I enjoyed the game, but I never put it on that pedestal. Revisiting it now, I can totally see why people put it in such a category. Well, let's discuss it.

The year is 2013. On the night of Joel’s birthday, an outbreak of cordyceps is unleashed on mankind. Cordyceps are parasitic fungi that attack and take over plants and certain insects. Normally, these cordyceps don’t affect humans, but they’ve mutated. Joel loses his daughter Sarah during all of the commotion and has been a broken man ever since. 20 years have passed and Joel is working as a smuggler in the Boston Quarantine Zone with his partner Tess. During a run, they run into Marlene, head of the Fireflies (an opposition group that’s trying to find a cure for the cordyceps). Marlene wants Joel and Tess to escort a girl named Ellie from Boston to the Firefly headquarters (which is hidden somewhere). On their journey across a broken America, Joel and Ellie will form an unlikely bond as they face numerous dangers.

This story is a masterpiece. The writing, the characters, the dialogue, the world building. It’s all perfect. Joel is a broken old man that slowly warms up to Ellie and sees her as more than just cargo. Ellie faces abandonment issues all while trying to stay positive. She’s fierce and loyal and has a good heart. As you play the game, you’ll get to see their relationship blossom into this sort of father/daughter relationship and it’s so goddamn beautiful to see. Their chemistry together is also beautiful. Joel acts like a strict father that means well while Ellie acts like a bratty teenager but quickly matures when needed to. They’re an excellent duo (up there with Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, and Cole and Zeke) that constantly bounce off each other. There’s so much more I can talk about with the main story, but I’ll leave it at this.

The graphics are great too. The remaster took the graphics of the original game and amped it up to 11. This game looks so fucking good that certain areas look like wall art (city landscapes, cordycep infected areas, and lush forests). I love that I can see every hair strand in Ellie’s ponytail, all the threads for Joel’s flannel, and other minor details. There’s so much detail here that it makes games like Death Stranding and Jedi: Fallen Order look like downgrades despite those games coming out after this.

The sound design is top notch too. Idk if it’s my headset or what, but the sound quality for everything is amazingly detailed. I can hear enemies footsteps, clickers clicking in the distance, and birds chirping with the utmost clarity. The soundtrack for this game is also a masterpiece. There aren't too many musical queues or even a huge score as the soundtrack focuses on a restrained, acoustic sound that amplifies the game’s atmosphere. This sense of restraint allows the game to breathe more organically and when the music does hit, it hits like a Goddamn truck. Gustavo Santaollala nailed it to perfection.

The acting is phenomenal as well. Troy Baker (Joel) and Ashley Johnson (Ellie) played their roles perfectly. Troy Baker is one of my favorite actors, seeing as he played some of my favorite characters in gaming. Like I said earlier, Joel and Ellie’s chemistry is perfect and it reflects into their acting. Well done here. Also shout out to Hana Hayes (Sarah), Annie Wersching (Tess), William Earl Brown (Bill), Jeffrey Pierce (Tommy), and Nolan North (David).

Now for the gameplay. The game is linear. If you’ve played any Uncharted game, then you’ll know how the maps work, but there’s a more survival aspect to it. The level designs are linear-based but reward you for exploration. As you play the game, you’ll be hunting for supplies to help you fight against your enemies (such as ammo, duct tape, blades, etc). You use these supplies to craft weapons and medkits. As you explore, you’ll also stumble upon several collectables (Firefly Pendants, training manuals, artifacts, and comics for Ellie). If you want the most out of your time with the game, try and find everything. I followed a collectables walkthrough which was very helpful. There’s also a difficulty setting for the game. For the best experience, play on hard mode. With hard mode, supplies are even more limited than usual and the enemy AI is more intelligent. Playing and beating this game on hard mode was extremely satisfying as you have to make all of your supplies count.

Controls are extremely tight. I love the way Joel and Ellie move around, albeit I did have some trouble moving in very specific areas, but nothing to riot about. Ellie is a decent assistant on the battlefield and looting, although she did get in the way a couple of times which caused me to die. Imo, Ellie could’ve been a bit more helpful. She’s not on the same level as Atreus from God of War or Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite, but she’s useful to a certain extent.

There are a few boss fights. The most notable ones being your first Bloater and Ellie’s fight with David in the burning restaurant. Both of these fights are phenomenal, with one being based around action while the other based around stealth. I also love how the Bloater fight was a great way to introduce such a beast of a new enemy and I love how the game treated such a rare level of infected with scrupulous rarity. There’s only a handful of Bloaters in the game and the game treats them like a special event. While on the topic of infected, I greatly appreciate the variety of “zombies” in the game. There’s a decent amount, but they all seem like natural evolutions of the cordyceps infection.

With the Remastered version also comes the DLC: Left Behind. Left Behind follows Ellie as she searches for supplies to heal Joel after the events at the university and as she remembers her final day with her best friend Riley before she met Joel and Tess. The DLC will flip flop between Ellie searching for supplies and her memory. The DLC is fine, I guess. It’s not a masterpiece like “A Criminal’s Past” from Deus Ex: Mankind Divided or “Shivering Isles” from Elder Scrolls Oblivion, but it does its job to further develop Ellie. My only problem with it is Riley. I was expecting something more from Riley instead of being used as a plot device for Ellie. In the DLC, there’s some more collectables for you: more artifacts and optional conversations with Riley. You can also play Jak X on one of the arcade cabinets, so that’s cool lol. There’s not much to talk about, so I’ll end it here.

The final mode for TLoU is multiplayer. Why this game has multiplayer is beyond me. I only played 2 rounds before I quit. Multiplayer is the game’s weakest point. You choose a faction (Hunter or Firefly) and you play. The more rounds you play, the more your faction will grow. Your goal is to grow it to maximum by the end of the 12 in-game weeks. There’s different modes that you can play, but I barely touched these. Imo, if it weren’t for the multiplayer, this game would be a perfect 10/10, but sadly that’s not the case.

Overall, the game is a (borderline) masterpiece. Everyone needs to play this at least once in their lifetime. The main story is perfect and the DLC helps fill in a gap. Graphics, gameplay, soundtrack, everything about this game is perfect. The multiplayer though is trash. You can skip it entirely. If you haven’t played this yet (due to either money constraints, not owning a PS4, or some other reason), please find a way to play. You will not be disappointed.

Thank you for reading. I’ve been wanting to play this game again for the longest time and I’m so glad I got around to doing it.

This is Zorgak, signing off.

P.S. I have no intention of playing or even acknowledging Last of Us Part 1, the PS5 Remake. Personally that version of the game is nothing but a technical cash grab and you’ll be perfectly fine playing the Remaster over that. Okay, over and out.