DF Direct Weekly typically focuses on the week’s gaming and technology news, but the latest episode actually kicks off with a story we missed from seven days prior: the announcement of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered. Rumours have circled this project for months now and we’ve often wondered why Sony and Naughty Dog would embark on a remaster for a game that doesn’t need remastering – and already has 60 frames per second support for PlayStation 5. Now, everything has come into focus but is it a worthwhile endeavour?
Well, with the details we now have in terms of features and pricing, I don’t think there are any significant concerns remaining – just that perhaps that the term ‘remastered’ in the title is a little misplaced. Essentially, what we’re dealing with here is broadly equivalent to a release along the lines of Death Stranding: Director’s Cut. It’s the original game with a dash of extra content and additional visual modes that tap into the power of PlayStation 5. Yes, Sony is likely to release this with a premium price, but there’s a £10/$10 upgrade fee for owners of the original PS4 release – and of course, there’s nothing stopping anyone from procuring a used disc and upgrading from there. A free upgrade for PS5 would have been welcome, of course, but similar to Ghosts of Tsushima, there’s already a 60fps patch available that doesn’t cost anything at all.
Based on Sony’s PR, other enhancements are in line with the changes made for The Last of Us Part 1 and the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves collection. Primarily, The Last of Us Part 2 becomes a native PlayStation 5 app, primarily gaining access to graphics features from the RDNA2 GPU liberated from back-compat mode, along with more memory. This opens the door to a native 4K fidelity mode, higher resolution textures along with increased level of detail and animation sample rates. The kind of HDMI 2.1 features we’ve seen previously also appear, meaning that the door’s open to a 40fps fidelity mode along with unlocked VRR frame-rates. In combination with the new survival mode and ‘lost levels’ content, that’s a pretty compelling package for the upgrade fee being asked, while the game is refreshed and ready to appear on the shelves for new PlayStation 5 owners to buy.
