How a lot time has to move earlier than it turns into acceptable to remaster and even remake a sport? 10 years? 15 years? What about three-ish years? Is that sufficient time between the unique and the remaster? Well, that’s what’s occurring early subsequent yr as Naughty Dog is remastering 2020’s The Last of Us Part II.
Let’s again up actual quick. In case you missed the information final week, The Last of Us Part II Remastered leaked on-line. Shortly afterward, Naughty Dog confirmed the sport was actual and can be launched on January 19, 2024.
After the leak after which the official affirmation from Naughty Dog, there was after all pleasure from Last of Us followers—which there are in all probability extra of at this time than ever earlier than because of the HBO present—who couldn’t wait to re-experience the critically acclaimed sequel. But there have been additionally lots of people who weren’t positive if this sport wanted to be remastered. Others questioned if this was even a standard remaster or only a next-gen improve. Things obtained murkier when Naughty Dog revealed that house owners of The Last of Us Part II on PS4 might spend $10 to improve to the remastered model on PS5. Hmmm…
Let’s assume for the second that this can be a remastered sport and never simply an improve, which is how Naughty Dog and Sony are advertising it. The sport’s latest launch does beg the query of how quickly we’d like online game remasters. I don’t suppose anyone—exterior of purists—would deny that fashionable video games from the ‘90s and even the early ‘00s deserve a elaborate remaster. But a sport from 2020 being remastered in 2023 appears too quickly. Then once more, it appears unattainable to set a selected time requirement for remasters or remakes (and, unrelatedly, attempting to outline these phrases in 2023 is getting more durable and more durable, too).
Should remasters solely occur a decade or extra after the unique sport’s launch? Then that might imply EA and Bioware jumped the gun with 2012’s Mass Effect 3, which was partially remastered as a part of 2021’s Legendary Edition. But was that even a remaster? And are there elements apart from merely the passage of time that needs to be thought-about?
In that case, as an example, the technical leap between an Xbox 360 sport and an Xbox One/Xbox Series X/S sport appears giant sufficient to warrant a touch-up. In comparability, a PS4 sport being remastered for PS5 doesn’t appear as crucial, although I think about diehard followers eager for a better-looking model of Last of Us Part II would disagree.
So we depart it as much as you within the feedback beneath. You inform us (and different readers) if The Last of Us Part II Remastered is going on too quickly or not, and why you’re feeling that means. How lengthy ought to builders wait earlier than remastering a sport and why?
.
