The Last of Us Part 2 Remaster

 There's a LOT of Last of Us...

There's is a old and venerated expression urging us not to 'look a gift horse in the mouth', which essentially boils down to not treating gifts as curses and seizing that which is given to us. But as with all sayings there are points at which the old logical falls apart, because there is no one 'one size fits all' set of all expressions that will illustrate the way to live your life. Point in case: Can anyone really help but sigh when the games industry simply insists on throwing the exact same games our way in an almost aggressive attempt to flood us in a sea of purchasing options? As much as I've come around on the idea of remakes for how distinct this industries version of a remake is compared to how the movie industry approaches the concept, the idea of the 'Remaster' has gone the exact opposite trajectory with me. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of hearing about it. I want less remasters in my life, thank you very much.

It probably goes back to the infamous Dishonoured Remaster which shocked the world for how indescribable it's improvements upon the original product were. I mean I am sure that under the hood the game was treated to a whole host of improvements that made the game run smoother, cleaned out the bugs and created a tighter package, but that's all ephemeral- the product that delivered is, to the day, visually indistinct from the original product because both rock the exact same, unaging, stylised visual style with exaggerated physical features, a vaguely sketch-book conceptual base and that rhythmic colour base vaguely reminiscent of a graphic novel in it's various locations. From then on I think the public started to take a more suspicious stance to what it was that Remasters provide us, and if they're not simply an excuse to hawk the same game again at full price.

I mean some 'Remasters' like the 'Return to Arkham' series totally drop on the ball on the most basic aspect of a remaster, the improvement of visuals. I suppose to be fair there's not really an objective quantitative scale by which one can slide artistry to create an indisputable 'improvement', beyond the ideas of 'resolution' and 'texture upscaling' it really comes to questions of artistic theory and distinguishing themes with styles or unifying them. Return to Arkham might have been an attempt at unifying the art of the franchise towards a single art team's style, but in doing so they created visuals that just failed to speak to an audience who loved those originals. Robbing the human-looking tinge of age to Hugo Strange, and the glint of wicked life inside of City's Harley Quinn. But even with these higher thoughts of artistry to consider, it's hard to shake the perception that the industry looks at 'Remasters' as an 'easy money making trick'.

And if there's one franchise that's slowly opening up to the idea of making quick and good money, it's The Last of Us. Whilst masterpieces of design and storytelling from some people's reckoning, the modern world of The Last of Us is also beset by endless exploitation on a simple story that once took the entire world by storm. Look no further than the Remake of 'The Last of Us Part 1', a nakedly obvious attempt to try and repackage the first game within the gameplay engine of the sequel, open it up to a larger audience at an achingly inflated overpriced tag. Developers on the product got indignant at that accusation, stamping their feet in the ground and dying on the hill their paymasters install to defend the full priced tag for a near-identical replica of a nine year old game. And then the game actually dropped, and those defenders became curiously quiet. 

Perhaps that was because The Last of Us Part 1 was the latest in a long line of shockingly badly optimised PC ports that landed in a disgraceful heap, possibly in a rush to try and capture the thunder of the successful live action series. Suddenly charging full price for a worse port of a game that ran and looked better a decade ago seemed like a bit of scam and once again the gaming public were tricked into buying an unexpected beta release of a game they had expected to be complete. Say what you will about 'It's about what the game becomes and not what it launches as', but personally I feel that if the company doesn't feel like dropping a full game on release day, it probably shouldn't come with a full price tag attached to the box. But that's just my two cents on the matter.

Which brings us around to The Last of Us Part 2 Remaster: an accidentally confirmed re-release of a game barely a few years old in a desperate attempt to milk more money out of the franchise in the dry spell between now and the eventual third game. It rings especially hollow in this very rare instance where the future of Microsoft's Xbox offerings looks... cautiously optimistic- it's never good to prejudge the success of a Bethesda game before it's launch date. But when Microsoft's exclusive new title is assuming to push the boundaries of the open world genre, and Sony is digging through the dustbin of recycled ideas- well a poor perception is getting slapped onto someone's shoulders somewhere down the line. Creativity and passion are usually the strong suits of Playstation first party studios, thank god that Spiderman 2 is nearly here else Winter at the Sony household would be looking mighty lonely.

Let's all be honest with one another: The Last of Us Part 2 is already at the cutting edge of visual fidelity. Oh, I'm sure they could squeeze out a few more pixels from the resolution if the team squeeze real hard- but is that really what anyone is looking for from bloody Sony? Masters of the AAA gaming experience? And we've been through this song-and-dance enough times before to know that the steps are likely to be all kinds of messed up too. Upgrade paths? Unlikely. Discounted price? Not a chance in hell. Accountability taken for another fruitless cash grab? Are you crazy? You really want this game to get a remaster? Wait until the PC version drops and the psychotic 'fidelity' community get their grubby mitts on all those juicy files!