The Last of Us Part II Remastered PC review: A stunning return to a familiar place

Despite being an avid fan of The Last of Us franchise and even going as far as to sport my very own Ellie tattoo, I have only played The Last of Us Part II once and that was back when it was first released in June 2020.

So, to relive the trauma but this time in 4K, I jumped at the opportunity to try out The Last of Us Part II Remastered now that it has finally arrived on PC.

Introduced to Steam and the Epic Games Store for the first time, The Last of Us Part II Remastered offers the hit Naughty Dog game but with improved graphics, performance, and new gameplay modes including No Return.

Check out The Last of Us Part II Remastered in the trailer below!

The No Return mode is a roguelike survival mode which allows you to choose a character and fight across randomised encounters and locations, complete with boss battles.

You will be able to choose between playing as Joel, Ellie, Abby, Yara, Mel, Tommy, Dina, Manny, Jesse and Lev so if you want an idea of how these secondary characters would fare in the apocalypse and what abilities they may have, No Return is the perfect opportunity to do so.

The Last of Us Part II Remastered also includes a new guitar mode which allows you to spend more time with Joel and Ellie’s instrument of choice as you play with no goal or time limit.

You can also use this mode to try out different instruments, characters and guitar effects.

I tried out this mode and despite not being at all musically gifted, I had a blast and even looked up chords online so I could try out different songs in-game.

It was also nice to play the guitar in TLOU II without suffering the trauma that came with playing Future Days by Pearl Jam. Am I the only one to get war flashbacks from that song now?

The main menu also gives you the opportunity to try out different skins, including a new Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet inspired jacket which you can now put on Ellie by linking your Steam or Epic Games account to your PSN account.

Naughty Dog

Last but not least, you can access a Filter Gallery, Gameplay Modifiers, Speedrun Recap, and even a model viewer which will be perfect for the artists and cosplayers out there.

So what about The Last of Us Part II Remastered’s performance on PC?

Well, I by no means have an incredibly powerful PC but I am happy to say that I had no issues during my time with the game.

I ran into no stutters, or crashes and the game ran as smoothly as it did when I first played it on the PlayStation 4 back in 2020.

This made appreciating the improved graphics even easier.

I noticed the sunbeams bursting through Joel’s home as you explore the memories of him as Ellie, I saw her red-rimmed eyes and the tears threatening to burst through, I saw the blood, a startling shade against the white of the snow as you explore the outskirts of Jackson and the burst of fire as you sneak through the dark Scar-infested forests.

Ellie and Dina’s touching moment together was made all the more impactful with the graphics enhancing their shy glances and brief smirks and serves as a shocking juxtaposition of the horrific scene between Joel and his ultimate killers.

Naughty Dog

Scenes both impactful and quiet are appreciated just the same thanks to the chiaroscuro-like lighting and focus on the horrors and the beauties that are present in this post-apocalyptic world.

Did The Last of Us Part II need a remaster just five years on from its release?

If you ask me, the answer is no. I believe that other games (not naming names) deserve a remaster or remake even more and there is no denying that TLOU II was already stunning despite first being released on an old-gen console.

However, I can appreciate what I have in front of me and you cannot deny that this remaster breathes even more life into the game and even if you are not too involved in graphics and enhancements, you can appreciate the brand-new modes that have been introduced.

Pros: Stunning graphics, exciting new modes, smooth performance

Cons: Did not really need another remaster

For fans of: The Last of Us

8/10: Excellent

The Last of Us Part II Remastered is available now for Steam and Epic Games (tested on Steam) and has previously been released on PlayStation 5. A review code was provided by the publisher. Read a guide to our review scores here.