My concerns with The Last of Us Remake
Officially called The Last of Us Part I
Naughty Dog officially announced they are remaking The Last of Us (2013) for PS5 and in development for PC, The Last of Us Part I. They’ve rebuilt the game to take advantage of the PlayStation 5 technology to improve the visuals and gameplay. “Effects, exploration, and combat have all been enhanced,” Naughty Dog said in their blog post. In addition, the game will be an opportunity for new and old fans to experience The Last of Us (2013) “in a whole new way.” The Last of Us Part I is set to launch later this year on September 2nd at $69.99.
My Opinion
When rumors started to spread around the industry about The Last of Us (2013) being remade, I wasn’t 100% on board. A remake feels unnecessary when the game has been consistently updated for new generations. The Remaster came out for the PS4 and later updated for PS5 to support 60fps/4K. Now that it’s officially announced, it does look like a huge improvement visually. The remaster on the PlayStation 4 looked pretty good but then again, the game looked phenomenal on the PlayStation 3 as well. My biggest concern is the game being priced at $69.99. While I believe Naughty Dog have worked hard to recreate this game for new and old fans alike, I have to see the gameplay improvements to justify this $70 purchase. The FireFly edition, which is $99.99 and exclusive to the PlayStation Direct webstore, is already sold out which means fans are eager to dive back into The Last of Us and/or they did not make a lot of copies.
My proposed price point is $59.99 which is only $10 cheaper than the retail price. I know Sony wants to keep the PlayStation Studios games at $70 but it’s okay to lower it down for certain titles. Naughty Dog is rebuilding the game from the ground up for the PS5 but it shouldn’t have the same price point as newer games such as Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Returnal. Some could argue “a remake equals a brand new game” but it’s not on the same level of rebuilding like Resident Evil 2 (2019). Demon’s Souls, which saw a remake as a PS5 launch title, is in my opinion justified remaking because that was a PS3 title from 2009 that could use the next generation improvement.
I hope that the gameplay improvements are truly there. Fans have played Part I multiple times (I’ve done like 3–4 playthroughs at this point), so the exploration and gameplay mechanics have to be vastly different to truly call this a whole new experience. I’m still buying The Last of Us Part I day one but I would like to see how much different the gameplay is compared to the original.
My review of The Last of Us Part II:
Read it on Medium
Travis “tvsonic” Vuong
Business e-mail: travisvuong56@gmail.com
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