- [Jake] Hey, and we're back with another episode of Before You Buy, that show where we give you some straight up gameplay and our first impressions of the latest games releasing. Today we're taking a quick look at "The Last of Us Part II Remastered." This is the PS4 game ported to PS5 with faster speeds, smoother graphics, DualSense controller support, a couple extras, a new mode. We've been playing a review copy for a few days now and this footage is captured on PS5 and is spoiler-free. If you've managed to avoid everything, good for you, man. Now, love or hate the game, whoever you are, they're charging $10, 10 bucks for this as an upgrade if you have the game on PS4. This is the type of update most people are probably
gonna want for free, myself included. But if you're gonna charge for it, you know, 10 bucks is fine. There's some extra stuff here. It's way better than it becoming a whole new game you need to go out and buy for full price again. And it's a perfectly fine, if small, upgrade package for fans of the game. This isn't an update as big as "The Last of Us I Remastered." This game already had all those bells and whistles, so it's not this massive new wow-factor thing. But if you've never played or were waiting for a reason to replay, this definitely helps. The game already looked
great on PlayStation 4. Just, you know, kind of a step back for a second. This was originally
released in June of 2020. I know it feels like it was just 2020, but 2020 was actually a long time ago now when you think about it. That was June, and then the PS5 released a few months later in the fall. So this was kind of like the swan song of the PS4, like one of the last big exclusive titles. And like the end of
every console lifecycle, you usually get the
most impressive visuals because the developers
have really mastered working with that hardware, with that tech. So it's a long way of saying "The Last of Us II" already looked great. Now it has higher resolutions and better frame rates. I mean, it actually
already had a 60 FPS mode that was patched in a while ago, I believe. But how it works now is you can get 1440p60 in performance mode, which looked very good to me, or native 4K at 30. You can also take advantage of variable refresh rate if your TV supports it, and that's a good bonus if you got it here. Now, in the marketing materials, Sony says the graphics have been improved with some better textures and lighting tech, level of detail stuff, but I didn't really notice it too much, personally, a bit here and there with certain specific things, but really it's close to the same looking game to my naked eye, still even more than when it was originally patched in. The frame rate seems super lock solid here and I had zero dips that I could see. And it all loads much faster now, which is nice. You notice the faster loading, especially with, like, jumping into all the
little extra stuff here, like aside from some
accessibility options, like more new ways for people to play, there's some lost levels
you can check out, developer commentary and a guitar free-play mode that's actually pretty fun. The mini game from the
main game is the same, but now you can play
to your heart's content and swap characters and locations and even guitar tones. It's weird how accurate it is. Like, the fingers play the right chords, the fingers are actually
on the right strings. It's a little thing, this mode, it's not a big deal, but yeah, wanted to commend it. Now the biggest thing with this package, and arguably the best, is the new mode, new game mode called "No Return." It's really good. It's a rogue-like survival mode. So you pick a character, you jump into a level with some modifiers and try to survive. In between levels, you're then back, like, you're teleported into a little home base where you can buy more weapons, customize and mod them and upgrade your character. There's a bunch of upgrade tracks to unlock more playable characters and skins just by playing, putting time into it, completing certain challenges and getting through scenarios. In this mode, you access a map, like a planning board, and then you can jump into different kind of like randomized missions that do a good job of shaking things up. Like on one hand, you're hiding as a bunch
of soldiers rush in. In another scenario, you're just trying to fend off clickers until a timer runs out. But you're either, like, the hunter or hunted in a lot of these situations, and it's a good kind of rotating playlist of just murder violence. (Ellie panting) (clicker struggling) - [Soldier] What? Oh, shit. - [Jake] This is a really good way to just play the core gameplay here, which I think is really solid. You know, it's still on, like, the heavier, clunkier side of a third person action game, but it's really smooth, there's a high level of control, a lot of different things you can do. You can craft, you could throw things, you can dodge, you can do melee, you can shoot, you can go prone, you can dive on the ground. If you're really get- Like, high-level "Last of Us" play is actually a very cool thing. So I think this mode is special because it encourages you to try different strategies, mess around, get aggressive and do what you can. I've watched people for
years now on YouTube do, like, crazy awesome no-hit speed runs of "The Last of Us," where they're just beasting through, diving around, one-hitting enemies on like the hardest difficulty mode and it's so impressive. And I've always played these games very slowly and carefully. So, this mode really
opens up the possibility of you just going buck wild, running around, throwing a brick at a dude, diving behind cover, tossing a Molotov at
someone else super fast. Because death is inevitable and you're really just
kind of going for scores, it's really fun to just mess around and change up your strategies. This mode isn't like the biggest thing in the world, but I just think it's a lot of fun. I think "The Last of Us" gameplay in small bites like this is just a blast, because if we're talking
about the main game here, like the actual adventure, like, look, this is "The Last of
Us Part II Remastered." They didn't change the story if you don't like the story. But I said it when it released and I'll say it now, like, I didn't love it
as much as the first game and one of my bigger criticisms was that towards the end it just really dragged on. Like, I think it kind of outstayed its welcome a little bit. Of course, just personal preference, but whereas by the end of the adventure I was like, "Oh, my god, how many bricks am I gonna throw at dudes' heads?" The new "No Return" mode essentially makes me go, "Hell yeah, I can't wait to throw more bricks at dudes' heads." Because like I said, there's an upgrade track, there's a little bit of things to progress through, there's a really good and pretty in-depth scoring system. So I think some of those hardcore players that love maximum play are gonna have fun with that. And then again, like I said, you have the whole main adventure. It's a lengthy one, it's a divisive one. Some people love it, some people hate it, like I said, but it does a lot with the sequel when you think about it. It expands this world, it adds like creepy, spooky cult, it adds new horrific monsters. And I'm curious to see where the series could go after this. The way I looked at it, like I didn't think the original "Last of Us" needed a sequel, but now here we are, that bandaid is ripped off. So where does the world go beyond this? I was really looking forward to the factions multiplayer mode that Naughty Dog was working on, but that of course has now been officially canceled. So I'm just left wondering, like, what the future of this franchise is. Is it going to continue on? Probably, because it's like a big-hit
television show now, the brand power is stronger than ever. And honestly, that's probably the biggest reason why now "The Last of Us Part II" is completely beefed up, spruced up for the modern PlayStation 5 console. Again, the frame rate's really nice, but some people have been playing with better frame rates
because of the patch. The DualSense stuff is great. It worked really well with "The Last of Us Part I" with, like, that upgrade and it works similarly here. And I actually think it heightens the experience. It just adds a little bit of oomph to the gameplay and this whole adventure, this big sweeping, ambitious adventure that takes some big swings, those big swings might
miss for some people, but yeah, without like opening up and just like re-reviewing
the entire game, the entire story, the levels, everything like that, I don't really think we
need to do that again, most people's minds are made up. The bottom line is, like, if you are into the game, this is, like I said at the start, a good reason to replay it at some point. Not gonna keep you here all day, but I did want to just get this nice shiny 4K gameplay up on screen for you here. So that's a Before You Buy, you know how this goes by now, I give you some pros, some cons and some personal opinion. And now I wanna hear yours
down in the comments. I'm sure things are gonna be completely civil here, but I do wanna know what you guys are thinking about the game. This video is coming out a couple of days before it releases, but I would love to hear your thoughts on this new "No Return" mode. I think if you like "Last of Us" gameplay, this is a really fun opportunity. So let's talk about that. Let's talk about anything "Last of Us" down in the comments. If this video helped you out, maybe informed your purchasing or downloading or whatever decisions, clicking the like button helps us. Thanks. And if you're new, consider subscribing because we put out
videos every single day. But as always, thanks for watching and we'll see you guys next time. (clickers screaming) (Abby panting) - [Abby] Just keep going. (clickers screaming) Okay, okay. Up this way. (Abby panting)
