As a preface I just want to outline that this is only a review of the remake itself.

That being said - God damn, this is one of the greatest remakes of all time. It is practically beat for beat perfect to the original PS1 classic, down to even using the same voice clips from the 1998 Medievil. This might just be the definitive way to play Medievil, hell you could just go throw away your PS1 copy, but we'll get to that later.

It's clear that this remake was crafted with such a love and reverence to the original that it practically bleeds into every level. The puzzles, while sometimes simplistic, still hold up really well and often require a good thinking about, the familiar hack'n'slash combat is as great as ever, and the new multi-weapon system is an absolute lifesaver. Where the original required the player to scroll dolefully through the weapon menu to change weapons, the remake not only allows for quick access through the weapon menu, but it also has added a two-slot weapon system, allowing the player to quickly switch between two weapons. This is great for encouraging the player to use more of the wide variety of weapons that can be unlocked through gameplay. The orchestral soundtrack is as beautiful as it is chilling, and the gameplay is smooth as butter. Sir Dan controls even better than in the original, with perfect running speed, and pinpoint accurate platforming - both great improvements to the original, where Dan would control somewhat clumsily.

On the other hand, barring this remake from being a perfect 10 are a couple of small issues, for example the actual way that the game plays - there are framerate drops that can affect gameplay, but not to a great degree. The slightly larger problem exists within the graphics and atmosphere of the remake. Don't get me wrong, Medievil 2019 looks absolutely incredible, and the graphics and art style are flawless. However, Medievil loses a special something in its translation to the modern day - it just doesn't have the same creepy atmosphere running throughout the game. Medievil 1998 is the first game I ever remember scaring me - the weird uncanny way that the undead moved, the darkness of the sky and the general colour palette. There was something about the pixel-y graphics that gave the 1998 original a certain charm, but to a larger degree, a terrifying gothic undercurrent that ran throughout the game, that is just missing from Medievil 2019. While this doesn't take away from the quality of the remake, it does just subtract from the atmosphere, and makes that tension noticeably absent.

In spite of this, the developers should be proud of Medievil 2019 - and I think they are, because they literally put the original game as an additional unlockable bonus within the remake, as if to demonstrate how well the remake stands up to Medievil 1998. Finding and putting to rest all 19 of the lost souls throughout the game allows the player to play the original Medievil in its entirety from the main menu. Not only does this provide extra replay value within the main game, but it gives the opportunity to directly compare the remake to the original and see how perfectly it was crafted.

OtherOcean have truly set a standard here in terms of classic videogame remakes. While it is not a perfect remake, it certainly has given Sir Daniel Fortesque a chance to rise again, and show players why Medievil is such a cult classic, and how its quality remains alive and well to this day.

To begin at a surface level, setting aside the story details, this instalment has everything you'd expect from a modern Naughty Dog release. The controls are intuitive and react well; the graphics are gorgeous, and it is overall a perfectly competent gaming experience. If you enjoyed the gameplay of the original The Last of Us, then great news, that gameplay makes a return here with some interesting twists and updates.

There's a new personality-based system introduced in this sequel that aims to provide a level of humanity for the previously faceless hordes of living enemies that you encounter. This system gives names to each of the living enemies, that when encountered or killed, the other enemies will shout their name, in order to remind the player that that was a human being and it's now time for the player to feel bad, I guess. However, this system is very surface-level, and it is for this reason that it fails for the most part. Because now I just....know the name of the guy I killed, and then I've forgotten it entirely because I've already moved on to the next enemy. Perhaps this personality system would work better if it was implemented alongside a morality or choice-based system wherein the player could choose to avoid killing, or avoid these combat scenarios entirely. In this way, the killing of the enemies would be on the player's head should they choose to engage. At present, the intended guilt doesn't carry any weight because I know that the game almost always requires me to kill to progress. I'm not doing it out of choice, and I can't continue the game without doing so, therefore there is no guilt. This system doesn't even serve a narrative purpose either, because unlike the original TLOU, Ellie's journey is entirely optional, so nobody has forced her into the position of killing; if killing in TLOU2 were as optional for the player as it is for Ellie, this system would work, but it isn't, so it doesn't.

Spoilers from here on

I became actively annoyed at about the halfway mark after Seattle Day 3, at which point the game inexplicably switches to Abby's perspective. This wasn't because I dislike Abby's character - instead it was because I had spent what adds up to hours of gameplay scouring every corner of every environment during the first half of the game to find supplements, parts and supplies to make Ellie as strong and equipped as she can possibly be, only to then be dropped back at square one to do the exact same with Abby. I simply do not understand why the game would spend so long developing Ellie's strengths, with the action and the tension all rising to a crescendo, to then stop the story dead in its tracks and rewind 3 days. At this point all tension is entirely dead, whilst the player has to grind through the now snail-like pacing of the beginning of Abby's story. Surely the two characters' stories would have been better told were they intertwined for the length of the game? For example, spend a day with Ellie, a day with Abby and so on until each character reaches their climax together (no pun intended). This way each character is developed in both story and gameplay at the same pace, and neither side becomes stagnant because it is teased out across the length of the game, rather than spending ten straight hours with Ellie, and then ten straight hours with Abby. This would also improve the characterisation of the Wolves that Ellie kills, because we get to see them through Abby's eyes first - I don't care about seeing the Wolves with Abby after I've already killed them as Ellie. Let the player get to know the Wolves with Abby, before moving on to Ellie's story where she kills them like any other videogame enemy; Ellie won't feel anything but the player definitely will.

That said, I really like it when stories tell the same narrative from multiple perspectives, I think it's a really interesting way of telling a story, and that goes the same for The Last of Us Part II. While it wasn't done exactly to my liking as explained above, I still think it was a good idea to give the player time enough with each character that they would get attached to them. Giving the player time enough to discover their personality, quirks, fears and aspirations makes this grim tale of two characters so desperately human, which is gravely needed for the narrative to work. The sheer contrast of knowing the awful things Abby and Ellie have done to each other, yet also being able to cheer for both characters when they overcome insurmountable odds surely is exactly what Naughty Dog were attempting to do here, and I think, for the most part, it works.

There are also an abundance of compelling side characters in The Last of Us Part II that truly bring the story together in a marvellous way. No matter which side they belong to, if a companion spends an extended period of time with either of the protagonists, the player really gets to know them as complex, three dimensional characters in their own right, and so it is always devastating in the cases where the character is lost. They feel like this because each of the side characters have their own personal story occurring parallel to the protagonists', rather than their presence serving only the protagonists' journey. Just like in Part I, or the Uncharted series, Naughty Dog has a brilliant way of creating captivating characters with which to populate their worlds.

As for the story, and the ending, I don't really have room to complain honestly. While I loved the original The Last of Us, and will definitely revisit it, I only played it a couple of years ago and thus have no long-term special connection to the game, but again, I do love it. In my opinion, the story and characters felt like natural progressions of what would have happened in the aftermath of TLOU. The dual protagonists are well developed in their motivations and actions and thus I have no complaints in the story department. I really liked the fact that by the time the final confrontation happens, there is no fanfare or relief; both of the protagonists have been through so much that it's such a sad fistfight between two broken, meek women, both of whom have lost so much that this feud rightfully becomes pointless.

To address the hate and controversy surrounding this game - just because some players went into the game with certain expectations, and those expectations weren't met, doesn't make this a "bad game". If you don't like the story, that's fine; if you're disappointed because you didn't get what you hoped for, that's fine too. But at the end of the day, the developers were under no obligation to cater to those expectations, they made the game, and the narrative, that they wanted to make, just like they did with the beloved original The Last of Us.

I don't know if there will ever be a Part III in this series, but I would be satisfied if Ellie's return home is the last we see of these characters. A happy ending was never possible, but a peaceful ending is good enough for me.