The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, the enhanced re-release of the critically acclaimed 2020 sequel, is out for the PS5. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered Review Overview
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Makes More Use of DualSense Performance is Amazing New Additions are Good |
Upgrade or Director's Cut Would’ve Been a Better Name No Return Is a Missed Opportunity New Content Seems Lacking Compared to the Others |
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered Overall - 78/100
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered gives you the excuse to play the game, whether you wanna experience it again or a new player who didn't get to experience its initial release. The new roguelike mode focuses on the game’s gritty, methodical, and intense combat which highlights its best foot forward. However, the game is more of Director’s Cut or a PS5 upgrade than calling it a remaster as compared to its previous iteration. Or maybe it was just too soon for them to rehash such a controversial game.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered Story - 7/10
Nothing changed as it was a remaster of a very, VERY divisive story. For the most part, Naughty Dog is gutsy to delve into controversial topics like the effects of trauma and the cycle of revenge. On the other hand, you can’t exactly ignore how many holes there are in the plot as well as the writers forcing a narrative to alienate the audience. I think No Return could’ve been this game’s Valhalla, where they add more context and more depth to the characters involved, but that’s not my decision to make.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered Gameplay - 9/10
I’m a big fan of the game’s combat especially with how the game gives you the feeling of how bleak and brutal the game’s world is. No Return lets you do just that, you get to experience the game’s combat with multiple maps, upgrades, and modes. From a gameplay perspective, the game is amazing from the gameplay loop, the AI, and how the different enemies vary in how dangerous they are.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered Visuals - 9/10
The enhanced version runs the game at a perfect 60 fps, as I didn’t experience any frame drops in my playthrough. The visuals, while they marketed it with graphical enhancements, I don’t really see too much of a difference as the PS4 version looked really good at the time.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered Audio - 8/10
The game’s audio design has always been lauded as a huge part of the game’s experience. The ambient noise, the delivery, the sound design, a lot of it is great and rounds out the game as a whole. Other than the new accessibility options for disabled players, I don’t think the remaster can really improve on something that was already good to begin with.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered Value for Money - 6/10
As an upgrade to the older PS4 version and the addition of No Return, you can argue that the $10 is worth it. However, I can also argue that the amount of content offered pales in comparison to what was offered to the Ghost of Tsushima upgrade and the other games that PlayStation offered. With how much time it’s been since their last new IP or even sequel, it baffles me that they’ve been making the same few games for the past decade.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered Review: More Like Director’s Cut
Let’s get it straight, The Last of Us Part 2 was a great game. We can argue all we want about its controversial story (where I myself am also against how the whole thing played out), but everything else that game had was great. Putting that aside, it’s been 3-4 years since the game came out and it still doesn’t feel like it was the right time to pull the trigger on this re-release.
The addition of the Lost Levels is a pretty good peek at the developers’ creative process and what goes into making a level. There’s a lot of tidbits of what feelings they want to convey to the player, where the level was supposed to be if it made the cut, and also the reason why it didn’t make the cut. They also tackle the level’s cohesiveness with everything, and why these stages weren’t in the final game and were substituted instead.
The new No Return game mode is an arcade rendition of the game’s combat. It focuses on the moment to moment gameplay with different game modes and maps which is personally the highlight of the series. The roguelike mode is a pretty good offering from the different characters, enemy variety, and more. It also reminded me of the stellar AI that the game has and how it's relentless in how they address your approach.
It also rewards the player for knowing the layout of the maps as knowing where to get resources is a vital part of the gameplay. It’s intense, brutal, and most of all pretty fun. There are some characters that I think are obviously better than others in the new game mode, but I think that balance is a different problem entirely.
The new No Return game mode also shows what could’ve been for the recently canceled multiplayer game. The different characters have different traits and different loadouts which was similar to the first game’s Factions game mode. I was an avid fan and player of Naughty Dog’s older multiplayer offerings in both Uncharted and The Last of Us, and I was also saddened by the news that it was canceled.
Now with that out of the way, it seems very tone deaf on their part to encourage the new game mode which is basically a cycle of brutal violence with what they’re trying to say in their narrative. While it’s good that the game finally lets its combat shine for once, it feels very tacked on with the recent cancellation of the series’ multiplayer game and a little more of a cash grab at this point.
It’s been over a decade since the The Last of Us first launched on PS3, and we have to address the elephant in the room. When is Naughty Dog going to release a new game? Alas, this isn’t my question to answer. It’s up to them when they’re gonna be bringing something new instead of re-releasing the classics.
Pros of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered
| Things The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered Got Right |
|---|
|
Makes More Use of DualSense Performance is Amazing New Additions are Good |
Makes More Use of DualSense
Naughty Dog has always used the PlayStation’s new features in all of its releases. In this case, the game’s use of haptic feedback and rumbles are all pretty good additions to enhance the experience. The use of the DualSense in the Guitar Free Play mode was surprisingly pretty good and I'm glad Naughty Dog is still one of the main proponents of the PlayStation's controller features.
Performance is Amazing
In my playthrough, the game ran as smooth as butter with no frame drops. All the while the game looked gorgeous at the same time. Load times were also much faster and definitely made it a better experience overall. While I can’t exactly attest to it being straight 60 fps and not dipping a little bit, there were no noticeable frame drops or slow downs in my experience.
New Additions are Good
The new content of No Return and the Lost Levels are pretty good offerings for the upgrade. The former lets you sink your teeth into the game’s amazing combat and gameplay loop, and the latter lets you see cut content in the form of levels and hear the developers’ commentary on the level design and process of how they go about choosing these levels.
Cons of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered
| Things That The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered Can Improve |
|---|
|
Upgrade Would’ve Been Apt No Return Is a Missed Opportunity New Content Seems Lacking Compared to the Others |
Upgrade or Director's Cut Would’ve Been a Better Name
It may have been better to use a different name for this package, as saying the game was a remaster really does leave a bad impression as they haven’t released anything new for the past decade. Calling it a direct upgrade or a director’s cut would’ve been the more appropriate name for this type of offering as the new content feels like an older film’s enhanced version of having the behind the scenes footage during filming.
No Return Is a Missed Opportunity
While this is most definitely just the bias from experiencing God of War’s roguelike mode, Valhalla, Naughty Dog probably could have made some sort of story in No Return to tie their story together. It could’ve explored more into the minds of the different characters in the game, even the side characters that didn’t really get involved in the whole thing.
New Content Seems Lacking Compared to the Others
This may be controversial as I was comparing this upgrade to Ghost of Tsushima’s Director’s Cut upgrade. Ghost of Tsushima set a high standard for me when it came to little upgrades like these, as it added more story, more gameplay, a whole other island, and more. The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered added 3 levels with commentary and a replayable roguelike mode that yes, could last you more than 10 hours, but it didn’t exactly enhance what was already offered years ago.
Is The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered Worth It?
As a Re-Release, Not So Much.
It shouldn’t have been called a "remaster" and more like a director’s cut since it just adds a little cherry on top rather than comparing it to the previous game’s remaster. The audience for the remastered version are for those looking for an excuse to play the game again or for those who felt FOMO when the game initially came out. There’s not much else to say other than the new content is good, but I’d much rather purchase another full game than buying something I already experienced way back.
| Platform | Price |
|---|---|
 PlayStation |
$10.00 with PS4 copy / $49.99 |
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered Overview & Premise
The Last of Us Part II follows an identical story to the one presented in the game's original release in 2020. The story once again follows Joel and Ellie, two survivors trying to make ends meet in a post-apocalyptic world filled with monsters infected by a mutated strain of the cordyceps fungus.
You play as an aged-up Ellie in a story set several years after the events of the first game. The world still hasn't recovered from the ravages of the infected, but monsters have become the least of your problems, as religious cults and paramilitary groups have begun to stake their claim on the territories of the former United States.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered FAQ
How do I upgrade my physical PS4 copy of The Last of Us Part 2?
After slotting in the disc of the PS4 in your PS5, it should give you the prompt to upgrade to the PS5 version afterwards.
I thought that The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered was only $10?
The $10 offering is only available to those who have previously owned a physical or digital copy of the game for the PS4. Otherwise, it’s $49.99 for new players.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered Product Information
 |
|
| Title | THE LAST OF US PART II REMASTERED |
|---|---|
| Release Date | January 19, 2024 |
| Developer | Naughty Dog |
| Publisher | Sony Interactive Entertainment |
| Supported Platforms | PlayStation 5 |
| Genre | Action, Shooter |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | M 17+ (Mature 17+) |
| Official Website | The Last of Us Part II Remastered Website |
