The Last of Us 2 Remastered review: Reanimating a great game's corpse

radiotimes.com:

Let’s get something cleared up first — this reviewer is a big fan of The Last of Us Part 2 in its original form. In fact, when put on the spot recently and asked what my favourite games of all time are, TLOU2 is one of the first that came to mind.

You’ll probably remember that the game was pretty divisive at launch, with some being put off by a shocking major plot point early on, with later perspective shifts doing little to tamper their fury.

It was hard to tell at the time whether this was a vocal minority or a larger pool of players, and to be honest, it still is hard to tell on that front.

For me, however, every one of these bold storytelling choices felt like a masterstroke of gaming as an art form, with the developers challenging the player to accept the consequences of the first game’s violent ending (which was recently recreated with impressive faithfulness in The Last of Us TV show’s first season finale).

While many games focus on blood-hungry power fantasies, TLOU2 takes an honest look at what might happen next if an actual person in the real world shot up a whole hospital full of people to save their surrogate daughter. Even in a post-apocalyptic setting, every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and this game explores that concept beautifully.

After that amazing TV adaptation on HBO (or Sky here in the UK), it now feels like the perfect time to revisit TLOU2 while we wait for the televised version of these events in The Last of Us season 2.

With Abby now being cast for the show, this is the ideal point at which to refresh your memory of the second game and get ready to spot all the homages and differences in the upcoming telly version.

Whether you’ve played the game before or not, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is a great way to experience that amazing story and the impressive slate of gameplay ideas that the title boasts.

From the brief open world map-using segment to the ingenious use of throwable ropes in puzzle situations, TLOU2 remains a