The Last of Us Part II Remastered: Another year, another remaster, what is Naughty Dog upto?

(Image: Screengrab taken from PlayStation 5)

Revenge. It’s a tale as old as the hills itself, and a videogame trope as old as back when the left paddle decided to avenge the loss of a point to the right paddle in Pong. It’s also the central theme of developer Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II, and so rather unsurprisingly, it’s what The Last of Us Part II Remastered is about as well. The original version of the game released back in the thick of COVID-19 (June 2020) to critical acclaim and massive review bombing — as detailed here — by all manner of disgruntled souls.

Now, nearly three-and-a-half years on, it’s safe to assume that if you were interested in the game, you’ve already played it, and if you haven’t, you’ve done well to avoid story details (or you just don’t care about them). It does, however, behove me to warn you at this stage that spoilers will follow thick and fast. Should you wish to avoid them, skip ahead to the section titled ‘The bigger picture’. Consider yourself duly warned.

A violent tale renewed for the current gen

My travails with survival horror games have been well-documented across the internet, including on the pages of this very website, and so I was among that small percentage of PlayStation 4 owners who gave The Last of Us Part II a miss the first time around. Admittedly, it wasn’t even until August 2022 that I played the first part (in its remastered form, of course). Back then, I came away with a largely positive experience. Sure, the gameplay loops seemed somewhat dated and the remaster was a bit rough around the edges, but The Last of Us contained some well fleshed-out characters, a beautifully-told story and some truly heartstopping moments. This is also your final warning about spoilers.

(Image: Screengrab from the game taken on a PlayStation 5)

The sequel picks up a few years after the startling events that occurred at the end of The Last of Us Part I. The world, for the uninitiated, has been afflicted by a cordyceps virus that turns people into violent and dangerous zombie-like creatures. The events of the first game take place 20-or-so years into the cordyceps pandemic and the sequel is set around eight years later.

We enter to find Joel Miller (voiced by Troy Baker) and Ellie Williams (Ashley Johnson) living a stable life in a township. The first game focused on their journey across the USA to find a way to turn Ellie’s immunity into a cure, but to no avail. Now, they seem to be leading a calm and peaceful existence in the township of Jackson, Wyoming. This tranquility is shattered by the arrival of Abigail “Abby” Anderson (Laura Bailey) and her comrades from the militia group Washington Liberation Front (WLF). In a shocking twist (or it would’ve been had it not been leaked beforehand), Abby viciously beats Joel to death in front of Ellie’s eyes. Considering the father-daughter relationship the latter shared, this sets Ellie on the path of vengeance, rampaging through anyone and anything that would stand in her way.

Over the course of multiple flashbacks and important information — found in seemingly randomly-strewn letters and diary entries, we learn that Abby was on a revenge mission of her own. Revenge against whom? Against Joel, because it was he who killed Abby’s father (a doctor who sought to dissect Ellie’s brain for that cure I’d mentioned earlier) in the denouement of The Last of Us Part I (cue the music).

And so we experience the ebbs and flows of this intertwined and bloody tale of vengeance, until the cycle breaks leaving both revenge-seekers broken and virtually alone, but possibly wiser for the experience.

Bundled with the main story is a roguelike survival mode called “No Return”, early versions of three deleted levels, director commentary and an array of gameplay and character customisation options.

(Image: Screengrab from the game taken on a PlayStation 5)

While the story certainly had its moments, I did feel that it relied greatly on coincidence and an abandonment of common sense. Why, for instance, would a militia unit (that is battling a cult, the psychotic Seraphites, while dealing with the continuing threat posed by the monsters created by the cordyceps virus) sign off on a personal revenge mission that includes eight or nine members of personnel? And if it was indeed unsanctioned, why were there no consequences for the breach of protocol?

The bigger picture

Outside of the story, if you’ve ever played an Uncharted game or The Last of Us Part I, you’ll have a good idea of what to expect: Lush visuals, cinematic set pieces, the frequently-occurring illusion of free exploration and some exciting gameplay loops. The Last of Us Part II Remastered is no different, however, while the visuals have apparently been improved (quite hard to tell in comparison with the original 2020 version), everything else feels extremely similar to earlier outings.

This time you get to play alternately as Ellie and Abby, which is a nice combination of creeping around and stealth weapons for the former, and more brute force and power weapons for the latter. Both characters also get a handful of puzzle-platforming segments which provide a nice change of pace from all the bloodshed.

(Image: Screengrab from the game taken on a PlayStation 5)

Apart from those aspects, however, the preponderance of dated game design is somewhat grating. Take for instance the game’s basic formula: enter area, eliminate all threats, someone (maybe your own character) says something to the effect of “all clear”, search the area for useful items, move to the next area, rinse and repeat.

This brings me to the main point of this piece: Just what is Naughty Dog upto?

In order to answer that question, the establishment of some context is in order. Founded in 1984, the studio only really hit its stride in 1996 with Crash Bandicoot (my apologies to any fans of 1994’s Way of the Warrior) and in 2001 with Jak and Daxter. But it wasn’t until 2007’s Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune that the studio laid out its blueprint for the future of action-adventure titles.

(Image: Screengrab from the game taken on a PlayStation 5)

If we look at the PlayStation era alone, the studio put out four new Crash Bandicoot games for the PS1 and four new Jak and Daxter titles for the PS2. The PS3 brought with it three Uncharted games and the debut of The Last of Us. For the PS4, Naughty Dog released two Uncharted games (admittedly the second of these, The Lost Legacy, was half the length of the first one), The Last of Us Part II and The Last of Us Remastered.

This brings us to the current generation. The PS5 launched globally in November 2020, and in the three-plus years since, Naughty Dog has released zero new games and three remasters: Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, The Last of Us Part I and The Last of Us Part II Remastered.

The first remaster of The Last of Us made sense because although it launched a year on from the original, the PS4 did not support backward compatibility and so there was no way to play that game on the new console with its snazzy new controller (the trackpad was incorporated into the control scheme). But was there really a need to remaster the game a second time? Or how about the fact that the PS4 version of The Last of Us Part II still looks incredible and the PS5 does support backward compatibility?

(Image: Screengrab from the game taken on a PlayStation 5)

Has Naughty Dog found a new bone?

It’s worth noting amidst this rash of remasters that the studio laid off 25 contracted developers in October last year and that the eagerly anticipated The Last of Us Online, a multiplayer game, was also cancelled in December. Far be it from me to ascribe motive, but much as with The Last of Us Part II, when you see enough instances of coincidence, you begin to suspect that it might all be somewhat manufactured. Let’s take a quick look at the calendar. Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection launched on January 28, 2022, and the woeful Uncharted film launched on February 22, 2022.

The Last of Us Part I remake launched on September 2, 2022, which was mere months before the first season of the Pedro Pascal- and Bella Ramsey-starring HBO series premiered in January the following year.

(Image: Screengrab from the game taken on a PlayStation 5)

Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann’s status as a videogame auteur is established and well-deserved, however, it is possible he and his team have taken their collective eye off the ball in search of televisual/cinematic glory.

We don’t know for certain, but if that is the case, it would do a massive disservice to the franchises Naughty Dog has built, the army of fans the studio has amassed and the stories that are still to be told. I’d go as far as to say it would even be as big a disservice as The Last of Us Part II Remastered is to Naughty Dog aficionados still awaiting a new game in the fourth year of this console generation. It doesn’t matter that it costs only Rs 2,999, or even less if you’re upgrading from the PS4 version. This is still an old product being given a lick of paint and sold back to us.