I remember when The Last of Us: Remastered came out on PS4 and I had all sorts of nasty things to say about that because is there anything more obviously money grubbing than "remastering" a game only a year after the release of the inital version? Well history does like to repeat itself as yet another lazy cash grab from the hacks at Naughty Dog, who haven't done anything other than bottom of the barrel, shallow dross since the early 2000s I might add, are doing yet ANOTHER version of the first Last of Us game.
See, there is nothing inherently wrong with a remastering of a game as evidenced by the release of Resident Evil on the Gamecube.
When this came out it was cool to see because there was a 6 year gap between the release of the original and this one and in that time there were HUGE leaps in graphical tech and game play conventions. We went from the game having cereal box people walking around on low poly pre-renders to models that actually looked like people walking around some really high detail environments. On top of that the game was changed up a little with some additional mechanics, new areas and new bosses and a few other things. When this came out it was absolutely incredible to play.
The problem with The Last of Us Part 1 is that even though there is technically a bigger year gap (9 years) the tech hasn't jumped up quite as dramatically as it had back then and game play conventions have become a homogenised mess that even the PS3 version back then was very much playing into. If what I've read about the game is true also there is no extra content or nothing particularly special about it so it's literally a case of throwing it into an up-res machine, spitting it out and charging $70 for it. It's disgraceful, lazy bullshit and the fact that anyone is even remotely excited for absolutely boggles my mind.
If I'm being really honest, if a company MUST wallow in their back catalogue I'd rather they remake a game entirely rather than just remaster it and slap a new price tag on it.
For example I'm much more a fan of something like the Final Fantasy VII Remake because is's basically an entirely new game. The good thing about a remake over a remaster is that it's not really a replacement for the original game and therefore feels like almost an entirely new experience. If I want to go back to my 3 disc semi-turn based RPG with Duplo people on the PS1 then I can pop that game into my PS1 and enjoy that. Then if I want to play a stealth-sequel retelling of those events with real time combat and modern graphics, I can play that and now both the old and new retain equal value. The same thing goes for the Resi 2 Remake. If I want to enjoy some classic zombie murdering with tank controls, RE2 is right there for me to enjoy and if I want the same thing but a bit more modern then I can fire up the remake and enjoy both the game and the ugliest 3D burger ever produced by an artist ever made.
If The Last of Us Part 1 had waited, let's say, 10 more years to come out. When the first game was nothing more than a memory in some old mans mind and then he could re-live that memory in 2032 turbo-graphic-o-vision then I wouldnt mind. If the game had been added too, or reworked in some way akin to REMake then I also wouldnt have minded. But as it stands The Last of Us Part 1 seems like a soulless, lazy, cash grab pile of bullshit because Naughty Dog KNOW they can milk your comfort zone to cash and they are willing to do it, as hard as possible, with absolutely no remorse
Shameful bullshit
