Game Review: The Last of Us Part II Remastered – Evolution of the Revolution
The Best Way to Play the Best Game Ever Made!
Hello, dear readers! My name is Victor, and I am a totally blind gaming, technology, and entertainment journalist. I am also an ambassador for universal design, an accessibility consultant, advocate, and tester.
Nearly 11 years ago, in June 2013, Naughty Dog revolutionized the gaming industry with the action title The Last of Us, exclusively released for Sony’s PlayStation 3 home console. The captivating and emotional journey of protagonists Joel and Ellie has resonated with tens of millions of gamers worldwide, earning The Last of Us the title of the best game ever made from players and journalists alike.
The deserved acclaim resulted in numerous Game of the Year awards from both renowned publications and passionate gaming enthusiasts alike, creating a lasting impact that transcended the gaming world.
A decade later, in 2023, even more people discovered The Last of Us through the successful HBO show of the same name. The first season garnered prestigious awards and nominations, and the confirmed second season, set to begin shooting in February, promises to continue the saga.
This brief history leads us to The Last of Us Part II, the epic 2020 sequel that followed the original game. As a journalist covering games since 2010, I’ve played thousands of them since the late 80s before going blind. However, the emotional depth of Part II’s story and the divisive creative decisions it presented were unprecedented and divided fans like nothing ever did before. Released amid the corona pandemic, it offered a frightening and immersive experience, resonating with those in isolation.
For me, The Last of Us isn’t just a game; it’s a brilliantly executed interactive experience that transcends its medium and manages the unique feat of evoking unexpected reactions and emotions. Part II, in particular, played a pivotal role in the Accessibility Revolution for the gaming industry, making this captivating universe accessible to gamers with impairments and disabilities.
I encourage you to check out my reviews for The Last of Us Part I and Part II to understand what I felt about each of them at their respective release dates. Both games are entirely playable by blind gamers, showcasing the industry’s potential for innovation and dedication to breaking barriers.
What many of you don’t know is that The Last of Us was, for me, the last game I was able to play and finish on my own before going blind. But with Part II came the realization that maybe I don’t have to give up being a gamer, although I can’t see anymore. This thing happened because of one man and because the most talented and dedicated game creators in the industry listened to him and did their best to make his dream a reality.
Brandon Cole is the award-winning accessibility consultant, accessibility advocate, social media influencer, streamer, a down-to-earth nice guy, and just like me, he is blind. But, unlike me, he is the one who has forever changed the way we look today at gaming accessibility for the blind. A long time ago, he asked the right question of the right people. Long story short, he asked the wonderful people at Naughty Dog, who were attending a presentation at the first gaming accessibility developers conference if they could do something so that blind gamers can play The Last of Us. What followed is now history; it should become part of the mandatory game development courses at universities all over the world, and Brandon has worked tirelessly with the talented team at ND to deliver us this game, The Last of Us, Part II for PS4 in mid-2020 and The Last of Us, Part I, the TLOU Remake as some people call it, in September 2022 for PS5. Both games are fully playable by the blind, but also by other disabled and impaired gamers. He also consulted on Forza Motorsport for Xbox and Mortal Kombat 1, and as a result, those games are also fully accessible.
Brandon and the people at Naughty Dog showed me that there is gaming after blindness, and for that, I will love all of them forever! Their unwavering dedication to creating accessible experiences for as many impaired gamers as possible has made our world a better place for us all, and since then, more and more studios are taking accessibility into consideration when they create a new game.
In November 2023, Naughty Dog announced via PlayStation Blog that The Last of Us Part II will get a Remastered version for PlayStation 5 on January 19, 2024, and they promised that this will be the definitive way to experience Ellie and Abby’s emotional journeys.
After spending one week with the game I can confirm that they definitely delivered on their promises!
The Last of Us Part II Remastered is available now, providing ample reasons for both new and returning players to delve into this iconic story. With an affordable $10 / €10 upgrade path from PS4 to PS5, enhanced technological features, and new modes like No Return, this version offers an opportunity to deepen our understanding of the creation process and development through new behind-the-scenes videos and playable access to unfinished levels.
Even more Innovation in Accessibility
Everything I love about The Last of Us Part II is still here, but now it’s even better, thanks to audio descriptions, director commentary, fabulous haptics, new game modes, and even updated narration for all in-game menus and collectibles. This shows once again how far Naughty Dog is willing to go to offer the best experience to us as blind gamers. The narration was great anyway, but they recorded all the text-to-speech again for this release just to be on par with Part I.
Thanks to the revolutionary features like adaptive triggers and haptic feedback offered by the PS5 DualSense controller, now we can feel the world around us and the thrill of combat in unprecedented ways.
Those of you who played Part I in 2022 will be familiar with most of the features, but one that’s totally new for this remastered version of Part II is the ability to sense tripwires placed throughout our environment. This small thing will make a world of difference because the haptics are quite short and subtle, giving us the same limited experience as a player who can actually get a glimpse at the the tripwire for just a moment.
The excellent speech-to-vibrations feature has also been added to this version so deaf gamers can have a more immersive experience. I have to admit that I always have it turned on because I love how it feels in the controller.
Everything else is there. I already mentioned text-to-speech, audio descriptions, and speech-to-vibrations, but there’s target lock, navigation assist, auto-pickup for items, color filters, subtitle customization, sound cues, puzzle assist or puzzle skip, presets for vision, hearing, and motor disabilities, and many, many more.
I encourage you to read Brendan‘s comprehensive review because he is much better at explaining all the features in detail. Considering he worked on most of them and tried them out, I believe he is the best person to do this.
Endure and Survive
I will not say anything about the campaign here aside to reiterate the fact that it delivers one of the best-written and emotional stories featuring some unforgettable characters and events. to say more would be to spoil things for those who are just now embarking on this journey and I absolutely don’t want to do that. In case you are familiar with the story you can check out the video below to see how I play the first hour of the game as a totally blind individual.
The Last of Us, Part II Remastered features an exciting new single-player roguelike survival mode, titled No Return. This mode is also fully accessible for us with unique accessibility features and it was built to highlight the visceral, nuanced, and engrossing gameplay from Part II in exhilarating ways.
No Return starts off by allowing us to choose between Ellie and Abby as playable characters, but we can unlock others. By progressing through various challenges, characters like Ellie’s friends Dina, Joel, Tommy, and Jesse, or Abby’s companions Lev, Yara, Mel, and Manny are all unlockable. Each of them has unique traits that offer different playstyles, so there’s a lot of space for experimentation.
The rules are simple; we need to prepare, plan, and survive as long as we can in each run, choosing our path through a series of randomized encounters featuring different enemies and familiar locations. If we are successful, everything will culminate in intense boss battles. Rest assured, there are many comprehensive tutorials to guide us through the experience, and with enough patience, we will succeed.
Aside from No Return, The Last of Us Part II Remastered also features a guitar play mode in which you can pluck away at the musical instrument, and yes, that’s fully accessible. There are also three unfinished levels that are playable, but one of them seems not to be fully accessible for us as blind players.
In this first week spent with the game, I made my way through the campaign and tried out No Return a few times. The runs are definitely challenging, and I believe they will keep many of us on our toes for the foreseeable future. I can’t write about this mode without mentioning the canceled multiplayer project. I always support Naughty Dog in their decisions because I believe that they know better what will work and what will not, but I can’t help but dream about what could have been if the multiplayer was accessible for blind players. With No Return, I think we got a glimpse into what could have been in store for us.
Along the way through my exploration of the campaign, I experienced a few bugs, I don’t know why but from time to time I couldn’t interact with characters or elements, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed by a restart checkpoint. I’m sure these small issues will be fixed with upcoming updates, so I have absolutely no worries.
Beautiful and Wild!
As expected, The Last of Us Part II Remastered looks awesome and runs flawlessly on the PS5. The two or three minutes long loading times have been reduced to 10% of what they were before, so now we can jump back into this epic adventure in less than 20 seconds.
The Last of Us Part II was already a technical showcase that pushed PS4 to its limits, so the game already looked five years ahead of anything else on the market. That’s not to say that there are no new visual elements that have been improved or other graphic enhancements with this remastered version, but I’m not the one to give you the verdict on that, so feel free to check out Digital Foundry for an in-depth analysis.
A Unique and Unmissable Experience
I’ve been recommending The Last of Us to everyone that I know, from able gamers to disabled friends, and I will continue to do this till my last breath! The Last of Us Part II is, in my humble opinion, the best and most accessible game ever made, and this remastered version is the best way to play it. If you love The Last of Us, now you can continue your adventure, spend time with your favorite characters, cry for them, be angry at them, fight for them and with them, but always care about what will happen!
The Last of Us Part II Remastered is the natural next step in the evolution of the accessibility revolution and every developer out there should do their best to learn and put into practice everything they see here! There are over 450 million impaired and disabled gamers in the world so making a game accessible is good for the Accessibility Community and good for business, as each and everyone of those gamers can be a potential customer.
The Last of Us Part II Remastered is available now exclusively for the PlayStation 5.
Review copy provided by Naughty Dog and Sony Interactive Entertainment via PlayStation Norway
Victor Dima
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