More beautiful, more visceral: The Last of us Part II Remastered, an absolute masterpiece in anticipation of Season 2 of the series

Flashback sequence. In June 2013, The last among them Landed on PS3. From the first 10 minutes, absolutely paralyzing, the game developed by the Naughty Dog studio forced the player to never let go, until the final stop with a double reading, carrying an emotional charge that splits the stones in two.

Filled with moments of pure horror and tension that gave areas of suggestive fluidity to melancholy and poetry amid a desolate landscape both grand and terrifying. And Eli left an indelible mark on many players’ video game memories; At the same time there is a sublime swan song for the console at the end of its life.

Seven years later, in June 2020, The Last of Us Part II eventually fall. Refining their recipe with a precision worthy of a Swiss watchmaker, Naughty Dog delivered a game with absolutely incredible visual and visceral power, taking the player on an absolutely insane emotional rollercoaster.

With its narrative and formal boldness and sometimes even its extremes, which may unnerve some, The Last of Us Part II It is a work that haunts the memory for a long time.

An even more beautiful version

Like its remastered version released on PS5 in September 2022, the second chapter is coming in its own way, with a new special treatment.

Here’s the trailer…

Already brilliant on PS4, TLOU Part II’s graphics have been boosted to 4K resolution, bringing another notch to the level of detail that was already staggering in the previous version, especially in the criss-crossing forests. Transition times are also shorter for a quick return to action.

This version is not just a “simple” look. It is smartly accompanied by interesting additions. First, an additional gaming experience called “Irrevocable”. A roguelike survival mode where the goal is to last as long as possible against waves of enemies, choose your path through a series of random encounters. These encounters will put you face-to-face with various enemies in iconic locations throughout history The Last of Us Part IIAll punctuated with boss fights.

If the “Free Guitar Play” mode is completely anecdotal, we really appreciate the inclusion of three sections of dedicated levels during development in the version. Work is in progress. Each is accompanied by an introduction from Neil Druckman explaining the reasons for these cuts, as well as audio commentary from the developers unlocked as you progress. A great initiative behind the scenes.

Among other additions, there’s also the ability to unlock in-game audio commentary from the game’s developers, which happens sporadically when you first start the story and as you progress.

If the initiative to include audio podcasts posted on the web after the TLOU episode is appreciated, enthusiasm will be very (very) obviously dampened by the fact that they will be reserved for the most English-speaking among you, as they exist without subtitles. You should go and read the transcript online…

We have already seen much more practical and above all less stressful. Given the revenue generated by such a license supported by Sony, it would be minimal to provide directly accessible subtitles rather than inviting players to look elsewhere…

As for our overall assessment The Last of Us Part II, clearly no inch has changed. Therefore, we repeat below what we wrote four years ago.

The poetry of ruins with a beautiful cry

In TLOU 2, there is a visual setting first. We thought the studio had already reached a certain peak of its know-how in the past, but apparently we didn’t know very well. We lack superlatives to describe the masterful work of the Naughty Dog teams on the title. It’s great to cry.

If the frame of the story offers a rich hilly and mountainous scenery, such as the scenery of Wyoming, which Michael Cimino and his Heaven’s Gate did not deny, what can we say before this amazing shot of a farm in the middle of a field. Of wheat, where the rays of the setting sun caress the wheat? A shot whose composition reminds us of the fabulous work of cinematographer Nestor Almendros on Terrence Malick’s Les Moissons du ciel. We can reproduce at will examples of these plans, which can be considered canvas.

Traveling the country on horseback (a little) and on foot (a lot), the player’s jaw drops more than once as he arrives in and travels through the city of Seattle, which is effectively the heart of the game in Bathed in the Sublime. The architecture of the ruins, the skyscrapers of the city cut their disturbing silhouettes in the background, with an amazing depth of field, and we, a little stunned, discover the moving and scattered remains of a civilization that collapsed on itself.

Everything, absolutely everything in the game feels like it was the subject of truly amazing attention to detail. Every blade of grass, every crumbling wall, every effect of light gives the impression of having been placed there with scientific rigor. An opportunity to also measure how much weight is given to the visual narrative in the game: everything has a meaning and a story to tell.

And if some might be afraid of the repetition of the city environment that reflects a very important part of the story, there, too, the Naughty Dog teams are quietly responsible for anesthetizing doubts.

“A Story of Trauma and Redemption”

“The Last of Us was a story of love. The Last of Us Part II is a story of hate. On the surface, it’s a simple ‘revenge story.’ How we belittle and belittle each other.

It is also the story of an obsession; When should we let things go? But also when should we keep them at all costs? It is a story of trauma, redemption and compassion.” explained Neil Druckman, the game’s director and screenwriter.

A brilliant confession of faith indeed. Adopting a narrative structure imported from Rashomon, Druckmann was also supported in his difficult task by the sharp pen of screenwriter Hallie Wegreen Gross, who was particularly responsible for tracing the narrative arc around the game’s character Abby.

The first experience in the world of video games for someone who has used his talent in the world of TV series as a screenwriter. He notably worked on Westworld and Too Old To Die Young by Nicolas Winding Refn.

In a story that multiplies the flashback sequences, but without losing the weak thread of its story, the player is drawn into the story of an abyss of darkness, which has the appearance of an ancient tragedy. The heroes are driven by stupidity; That is, excess, immodesty, pride and even self-confidence, which can lead to fatal mistakes.

An extraordinary emotional lift

Alternate tense sequences where the characters’ rage erupts in visceral violence of unimaginable savagery, weightless, deeply moving sequences, some of which we watch with a bruised heart like cuts on the eye. To his soul, the player goes through different ranks. Incredible emotions, some of which have the power of an uppercut. This is the genius, if not the science of writing, of a duo of screenwriters who perfectly master the famous wheel of emotions of Robert Plutchik.

An American professor and psychologist, the author of the classification of general emotional reactions, he believes that there are eight basic emotions: joy, fear, disgust, anger, sadness, surprise, confidence and expectation.

In his Wheel of Emotions, he proposed his 4 fundamental emotions, qualified as primary (fear, anger, joy, sadness), which combine the mechanisms of memory and reflection and give 4 other fundamental secondary emotions: confidence (related to joy), disgust (related to sadness), Expectation (related to anger) and Surprise (related to fear).

A neat twist do you think? Absolutely not. We went through all these emotional spectrums in the game thanks to absolutely masterful staging.

A visceral experience

While we talk about this whirlwind of emotions, we have to thank the direction and the actors who make it possible. Augmented by very, very high-class animation (particularly on the face), Troy Baker (Joel), Ashley Johnson (Ellie), Shannon Woodward (Dina), Jeffrey Pearce (Tommy, Joel’s brother) and Laura Bailey (Bee) give their best. On their own, sometimes even seeming to push their digital incarnations to a point of incandescence never before reached.

With its thematic wealth, which we have not finished exhausting (especially religion, which deserves a whole development in itself, almost all of its characters in the game have biblical names); By virtue of his story, words and staging; With its stunning technical quality, it seems so The Last of Us Part II It’s almost done eliminating that playful dimension of video games to offer a visceral, sensory, raw experience that’s as close as possible to a movie or TV series.

In the end, exhausted, our brains are on fire to put down the controller at the end of this adventure, while we stay for a long time in front of the screen, thinking about the last credits that are happening under the eyes red from exhaustion and fatigue. emotion.

Nostalgia is already winning over us. And with it a very vivid, persistent feeling of having lived an intimate, sometimes painful, extraordinary experience thanks to a work that would go down as a landmark in video game history.

This means that the second season of The Last of Us, which recently revealed its casting, will have to be very (very) solid on its foundations in order to live up to the original model.