Naughty Dog's Matthew Gallant has said he doesn't “understand some of the consternation” surrounding The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered's release.
The director was asked by VGC his thoughts on the backlash remakes and remasters – such as Naughty Dog's upcoming native PS5 version of The Last of Us Part 2 – are often met with. After all, the original game came out less than four years ago.
“I don't understand some of the consternation about what The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered offers,” Gallant replied, adding he believes this release is “the best way to play The Last of Us Part 2, if you're a new PlayStation owner and new to the franchise”.
The developer said the PS5 hardware will give users the “best” gameplay experience. “My sense is there's an audience for this for whom the idea of a PS5 version is thrilling,” he continued. “I'm also speaking for myself, I'm excited we can bring this to the fans, and if it's not for everyone, that's fine.”
Earlier in the conversation, Gallant touched on the various features that are included in the remastered version, and which he feels makes this a worthwhile upgrade. As well as improved visuals and rendering (something Digital Foundry discussed in their The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered tech analysis), the director also highlighted the DualSense's haptic feedback and accessibility improvements. Some of these, Gallant said, have been bought over from the studio's Part 1 remake, which was released in 2022.
“The biggest one was cinematic descriptions. So we now have those audio-described cinematics that we didn't have in the original game. So now players who are blind or players with low vision can have more story context of what's going on in the cinematic with those audio descriptions,” he explained.
Along with the game's original story, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered also adds three Lost Levels – Jackson Party, Seattle Sewers, and Boar Hunt – and a roguelike survival mode called No Return. This mode has garnered a certain amount of chatter recently as, while a fun addition to the game, some feel it goes against The Last of Us Part 2's narrative. After experiencing a story that is so focused on the dark side of love, revenge and violence, does this mode actually trivialize the game's message?
Gallant told the team spoke about this a lot during development. “We talked a lot about how we use violence in the main story to try to explore the themes of the cycle of vengeance and things like that, and there's no way you could similarly honor those themes in a mode like this,” he said, noting Naughty Dog thinks of No Return “much more like an arcade mode”.
He added the main game is always grounded. “When we're making crafting items or enemies or stuff like that, we always have to make it believable. The worst thing a combat mechanic could do would be to take you out of this experience and make you realize you're playing a video game,” the director said. However, in No Return, the studio was able to be more free with its approach.
“It was an opportunity to take off that constraint. What are some ways we can make the combat shine, and what can we do with these environments you're used to surprise and shock you? I was the lead systems designer on the original game so I'm very familiar with just how much we were guiding our combat development around driving a story, so it's very interesting as a developer to have the opportunity to take that all away,” he closed.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered will be released this Friday, 19th January. Vikki Blake has already been hands-on with the game.
“I can't pretend to see a jaw-dropping difference in the graphics – it was jaw-dropping in the first place – nor bring myself to care much about the haptic feedback,” she wrote following her time with The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered. “But there's no denying that even with a tale as bleak as this one, I need no excuse to justify spending a little quality time again with one of the greatest games of a generation.”
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