Naughty Dog's seminal action adventure the Last of Us arrives on PS4, come see what all the fuss is about!
A shiny coat of paint
The new generation of consoles have brought with them a new slew of games, but since they're not backwards compatible they have also brought with them a desire for us to be able to play games that we considered favourites on the previous generation, Uncharted 1-3 and the rather emotional and sometimes brutal - the Last of Us, arguably one of the finest games of thel ast generation and possibly one of the best swan-song games for the PS3 to bow out on.
We gave the Last of Us PS3 a 9.8/10 and rightfully so, the mix of incredible storytelling, spot-on voice acting and crisp reactive combat tumbled together in a layer of stealth that had been fine tuned to near perfection was extremely addictive and kept us playing well into New Game+
If you're curious about the Last of Us and are new to the franchise, then take a moment to check out our PS3 review of the game found here: Last of Us PS3 review
The remaster then, brings with it new and shinier graphics(PS3 the Last of Us was no slouch) and improved frame-rates, visuals and textures. Nothing else has been altered; the combat remains the same as it was in the previous generation and the stealth too. The game has not been changed in any fundamental way and as we blitzed our way through the various fantastic encounters and snuck past infected and humans alike, it struck me that even though I hadn't played the game in ages...
I'd learned from my PS3 days with it.
I was able to get past certain encounters in one try, whereas it took me a bit more time/effort/perseverance in the previous version.
I'd love to say that the Last of Us PS4 isn't without its problems, but for our review of the game there was an issue - which we tested both on the review disc and a retail copy. Right near the end, you are escaping- if you get caught, you're pulled into a scene where Joel is gunned down - only the textures on the models remain in this scene - everything else becomes a big blue box where there should be corridor textures and so on.
This is a particularly bad graphical error that I would love to ignore, but honestly, I can't.
There are other issues like pop-in in some of the larger areas of the game, but these are extremely minor and don't really detract from the whole. It may be that as of now the blue corridor bug has been fixed by the latest update to the game, hopefully that's the case.
As remastered games go, the Last of Us is one that continues to impress even now and having the additional Photo Mode (that's how our screenshots were done for the game) and bells and whistles really makes a good game shine (barring that bug).
Last of Us Remaster also contains...
Left Behind
Those curious about the DLC should note that it's not all that long, it's intense and extremely well paced filling in an important gap inElly's backstory and showing just how determined the young girl can be when faced with nigh-on insurmountable odds. It's produced with the same care and attention as the main story and it's definitely well worth playing to experience the whole Last of Us package - if you can get the Day One edition of the game you'll pick up some extra bells/whistles DLC as well.
If you own a PS4, you have played or never played Last of Us, get this game and give it some love - it's one of the most genuinely interesting takes on zombie survival horror and action/stealth we've seen and whilst it doesn't have the OOMPH in other departments that the remasters of Metro and GTAV (and possibly Sleeping Dogs) will have, it's still well worth it for this slice of PS3 gaming history.