With the recent announcement of the new features for The Last of Us, has Naughty Dog done enough to justify the £69.99 price tag?
With new consoles comes new opportunities, and Naughty Dog is exploring that by revisiting The Last of Us (again), rebuilding it from the ground up for a new audience, and also tying in with the release date of the upcoming TLoU TV series.
Given that the original PS3 release is less than a decade old, and that it was already remastered for the PS4 since then, there are many out there who see this as a shameless cash-grab. The game was given away as one of the PS Plus free games in October 2019, as well as having been frequently on sale in its various guises in recent years, so it’s fair to say it has been accessible for a long time. Even now, The Last of Us Remastered is available for just £15.99 in the UK, so the remake will have to be pretty special to justify the huge jump in cost.
Pricing the remake at £69.99 feels out of touch, though, especially with the cost of living skyrocketing. Obviously, a lot more work goes into a remake, but the framework is already there, and it must take but a fraction of the resources the original demanded. I’m sure it will sell well, as games that have spanned multiple generations have already proven (GTA V and Skyrim, most notably), but that still doesn’t make it right.
Whatever your perception of Sony’s motives in re-re-releasing The Last of Us, the demand seems to be there, despite the numerous dissenting voices. It’s also fair to say that the game is, quite frankly, a classic all-time masterpiece, so it’s not hard to realise why they chose to go down this route (even if there is a massive and deserving back catalogue of PlayStation IPs crying out for sequels).
The new ten-minute trailer, featuring Neil Druckman and members of the Naughty Dog Development team, has them going into specific details of the game’s new features compared to the previous versions, for the public to decide whether or not the price tag is justified. However, for anyone who has yet to experience the incredible first part of Joel and Ellie’s story, and indeed any hardcore fans who want to replay the game in all its PS5 glory, this will most certainly be the definitive way to play arguably one of the best games of all time.
- Experience the emotional storytelling and unforgettable characters in The Last of Us, winner of over 200 Game of the Year awards.
- In a ravaged civilization, where infected and hardened survivors run rampant, Joel, a weary protagonist, is hired to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie out of a military quarantine zone. However, what starts as a small job soon transforms into a brutal cross-country journey.
- Includes the complete The Last of Us single-player story and celebrated prequel chapter, Left Behind, which explores the events that changed the lives of Ellie and her best friend Riley forever.
Rebuilt for the PlayStation 5
Completely rebuilt from the ground up using Naughty Dog’s latest PS5™ engine technology with advanced visual fidelity, fully integrated DualSense™ wireless controller features and more.
A faithful remake
Experience the emotional storytelling and unforgettable characters of Joel and Ellie in The Last of Us, and explore the events that changed the lives of Ellie and her best friend Riley forever in the critically acclaimed prequel chapter, Left Behind.
All-new experience
A total overhaul of the original experience, faithfully reproduced but incorporating modernized gameplay mechanics, improved controls and expanded accessibility options.
Feel immersed in improved environmental storytelling, effects, facial animations, and enhanced exploration and combat.
The Last of Us Part 1 Remake releases on the 2nd of September exclusively for the PlayStation 5.
