Why The Last of Us' Upcoming Remaster is Poor Value for Money

Naughty Dog's critically acclaimed story-driven game, The Last of Us, is due to get a remaster on PlayStation 5 on September 2nd this year. While graphically the remaster is certainly an upgrade on previous titles, there are several problems that players should be aware of. 

Let's start with the positives. The Last of Us Part 1 for the PlayStation 5 definitely makes use of the upgraded hardware to achieve some improvements on the original release on the PS3, and the 2014 PS4 remaster. 

This remaster will boast higher resolution character models in gameplay, improved lighting, faster loading times and more seamless transitions between gameplay and cutscenes. There will also be a permadeath mode, speedrunning timers, some improvements to buddy AI (to prevent them from hilariously crouch-running in front of enemies while you are in stealth) and character animations, new collectible costumes for characters, and improved accessibility options. 

The Story mode in the Last of Us is top-notch and the original still plays very well and stands up quite nicely against modern games. However there is a problem with this remaster - the price tag. The standard edition of the PlayStation 5 Remaster of The Last of Us Part 1 is $69.99, and comparing what this remaster actually offers you over the previous versions of the game, one has to really ask the question - is this price tag justified?

Of course, "too expensive" is an entirely subjective concept and will vary between individuals. But there are several key pieces of information that we need to point out to people before they buy this remaster. 

Firstly, the Factions multiplayer mode, included for free in the original game and the 2014 remaster, is completely missing from this version of the game. Not everyone will be interested in the multiplayer mode of course, but this is a huge amount of content that has been removed, and yet this remaster costs $20 more than the 2014 one did at release. 

You can currently purchase the PS4 remaster, which is also compatible with the PS5 and includes all DLC content and the multiplayer mode, for $19.99 on the PlayStation Store. So players deciding whether or not to purchase the new remaster of this game should ask themselves if they want to pay an extra $50 for some extra cosmetics, graphical improvements, gameplay tweaks, loading time reductions and minor AI and animation improvements.  Sure, there are some extra goodies in this version, but with the multiplayer mode gone, are these goodies really worth that amount of money?

Naughty Dog have said previously that they are working on a standalone multiplayer game in the world of The Last of Us. Perhaps this is the reason why multiplayer was removed from the PS5 remaster - they do not wish for their new product to be competing with a remaster of their old one. 

There is also a PC port of The Last of Us Part 1 in the works - no release date has been confirmed for this yet, but it seems likely to come in the next 12 months, and continues the trend of PlayStation's previously exclusive titles eventually being ported to PC, such as the highly successful God of War port. 

We will have to wait and see exactly what features will be in the PC version of The Last of Us. It seems quite likely that the Factions Multiplayer will also be absent from that version of the game when it comes out, but we will have to wait for more information to be released by Naughty Dog before we know for certain. 

We hope you enjoyed this article about The Last of Us Part 1, remastered for PlayStation 5.