The Last of Us Part II Remastered developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, has finally made its way to the PlayStation 5 and comes with some bonuses and new features, and if you already own The Last of Us Part II, you can gain access to everything this remaster has to offer as an upgrade cost of $10.

The story is just like the original, third-person action/adventure game, though it is centred around Ellie this time. Ellie is now 19 and has settled in a tiny little community safe from the infected lurking beyond the walls in a post-apocalyptic version of Seattle set 5 years after the first game in 2038.

Not all humans are as friendly as Ellie’s neighbours. Groups of survivors are walking among the infected, killing one another for territory control and resources. With Ellie living happily in her friendly community of survivors, it soon turns into a revenge story where she is left witnessing something so traumatic it drives her to very quickly leave her haven and head out into what’s left of Seattle to seek revenge, hunting down those responsible one by one.

Let’s get to the new Remastered features first. The new DualSense features enable the adaptive triggers to make each gun feel unique and different from the resistance when aiming and firing. There are different settings to adjust to the player’s personal feelings with the adaptive triggers, you can keep it set to default which is on all the time for aiming and firing, or you can set it to a preference of firing solo or aiming solo.

I will say I did enjoy having the resistance feel especially while using a bow. Along with the new control system, the graphics have been upgraded to include a native 4K fidelity mode with improved frame rates and upgraded texture resolutions, and it shows everything in environments you explore in the game. It has always been great to behold that the graphics in this series have always been a reward to experience.

Moving onto the Lost Levels, I have been seeing much confusion around this on social media, with users thinking these are new chapters added to the overall story, but sadly, that is incorrect; the lost levels can be found in the main menu under the Making of section as there are three lost levels to explore, these segments of the game were done during pre-alpha stages of the game so there are graphical downscales, and things that were left as they were with animation and clipping being the less concern at the time.

Jackson Party is the first of the lost levels, which shows Ellie attending a party at Jackson when you load into the level if you have the options set, you can see an interview with creator Neil Drunkmann as he gives a bit of insight into where the direction of this section was going and why it was removed, as you explore you will be able to interact with all the points of interest that were used in the early stage of the development of the game, while also being able to interact with a voice-over prompt that will have a team member talking more about specific segments that were created and what was cut or changed to fit into the overall game.

Second is Seattle Sewers now, if you have played the story, you will know Ellie does visit the sewers in the story but it is very brief, the sewers were initially meant to hold more for the players to get used to having to climb into narrow sections and fighting against the water current which we do end up doing later in the story.

Seeing what the sewer segment was initially meant to do had me wishing it was in the full release as I liked the design and it extended the end of the chapter.

The final lost level is The Hunt, an end-game sequence that jumps forward from the end of the game as it shows Ellie still dealing with her PTSD from the story’s events as you hunt down a boar. At the same time, this segment was cut in playtime and cut scene, which is something players could still experience lore-wise while reading the journal.

Now the significant new addition that I love, No Return. It is a roguelike survival mode in which you fight through a series of randomised combat encounters that end with a boss fight. Death is permanent in No Return and any acquired weapons, items, or upgrades will be reset and a new randomised map is generated each run.

There are many different types of missions you will be tasked with such as Assault, which is where groups of enemies will spawn in waves and you just have to wipe them out. Hunted mode is just survival with a timer, you can bunker down and take on enemies as they rush you, or you can rush right back and have a full-on brawl as the time ticks down to you clearing the mission.

There are mechanics to assist the player such as supply boxes that spawn after completing each wave that will hold some ammo and crafting items, if you do lose track of the box you can highlight it by holding down R1. The planning board is used to pick the next mission type you would like to go on as it will show the enemy and location of the encounter, one bonus thing that may happen is next to the location you will see a photo of another character, this means you will have a friend on the mission to assist you.

In No Return, players will start with Ellie and Abby both unlocked, and as you play you can unlock other characters from the story, such as Joel, Tommy, Lev, and Manny. To unlock other characters, you will need to clear challenges with set characters first, while also unlocking some cosmetic rewards that can be used in No Return and the story mode when you have finished it.

Last but not least, we have Guitar free play in this mode. You will be able to kick back and play the guitar with a range of styles, from the acoustic guitar to a Banjo, and you are also able to unlock other styles like Jazz and Rock. You do not have any timers or challenges it is just freely open for you to enjoy creating music.

In the menu for this mode, you will be able to change who the character is from Ellie, Joel, and Gustavo, along with changing where they are playing with the background changing to set the theme. My personal choice is using Joel in Jackson as he sits on the coffee table in Ellie’s room strumming the guitar, it offers a nice moment before you recall his golfing accident.

In conclusion, The Last of Us Part II Remaster offers up some great new content that will find a home for many players, and for the price of $10 for upgrading it is a great price for the content in return. The two big stand-out new features for me were No Return, I have loved every run I have done so far in it, and the Lost Levels getting a peek of early-level designs and behind-the-scenes experience was great seeing what was there or could’ve been made me appreciate the whole finished project.

Also, granted that the game overall is still the same story experience, I have referred back to our first hands-on with The Last of Us Part II and agree with the one negative we had, it can be slow at times, so it will be carried over here.

Written by: Shane Walsh