When originally released for PS3 last summer, The Last of Us enjoyed praise, awards and a place among the ranks of the true greats of game design. Here, the engrossing tale of survival in a contemporary post-apocalyptic world returns, with a technological spit and polish for the next-gen console where it remains a brilliantly written, graceful action game, both challenging and sometimes genuinely unsettling.
But with Remastered, this intelligent story is also noticeably prettier. Animations are more graceful, detail is richer, and there are generally fewer instances where the illusion of struggling to exist in a collapsed society is interrupted by graphical impurities. Beyond this, there is also extra content originally released as separate downloads and a smattering of new features, such as customised support for the PS4 controller, meaning that Remastered is ultimately a subtle refining of a game released only a year ago, rather than a revolutionary reworking. But in the case of this masterpiece, that is more than enough.
