Not even sure what im reviewing tbh. For what is ultimately an extremely safe remake for a game more normie than Fortnite, The Last of Part I has me bizzarely fascinated. Not really in the game's content itself, but of the avenues of attack for criticism available here. Both good and bad.

The deal is that the things that make this specific version of TLOU good and bad are things that i'd argue are completely valid to make the focal point of your review. At the same time, I think it's also fair to completely disregard it. Chief of these is the price. $70 is an unconscionable price for this and the only reason I bought it at all was that I was fairly confident I could beat it before Splatoon 3 came out and just trade it in and get the experience for basically £15. It's truly indefensible and up there with Super Mario All Stars and EXA-Arcadia of a Publisher knowing they'll get away with blatantly predatory consumer practices. But at the same time, is that a fault of the game? Should it be judged against for that, especially when price is temporary? Likewise, yes, this remake is pretty pointless, especially as it's ultimately not that compreshensive and doesn't bring P1 quite up to the spec of P2 - but i'd personally that since it's out here, Idk, i'd rather judge it on it's own merits.

But on the other side of the coin there is the game's incredible accessibility options. Even compared to P2s excellent inclusion they're a true step up here, with the dualsense haptic vocals being absolutely mindblowing in particular. I care quite a lot about accessibility options and if i wanted, i could easily focus a 5 star review of this game on them alone. But they're also very reasonable to completely ignore, even if I think the majority of players could improve their experience by at least dabbling in them.

And that's all without discussing the matter of the original game. How much should that factor into a criticism of an enhanced re-release? Honestly this game is very fortunate in that regard because I think both the remastering and the original game are both a case of "yeah pretty alright", but I know i've thought about this before. Still not sure Demons souls PS5 should deserve when its a wack remaster attached to one of the best games ever made.

To give this review a veneer of actual criticism instead of drunken rambling, i'll touch on the TLOUPI remaster work here, irrespective of other stuff. It's fine. The main improvement is honestly just the lighting, of all things. It being more dynamic and more stark than in the original game lets Naughty Dog flex their muscles of directing the players eye better than ever, and has let them slightly tone down the original game's kinda laughable use of landmarks in the distance, etc. The enemy AI is also vastly improved, with Humans loving to flank behind you, something that means the game is a tad more challening in a fun way, and encourages player movement more. It also just looks generally better, and you can see more emotion in the characters faces particularly.

But there's also a real case of it not changing enough when there is clearly the oppurtunity - despite the left behind DLC and Part 2 showing that humans + infected encounters can be really good among many other imrprovements to be had out there, the entire game's encounter design is identical to the original, and a couple of the combat improvements in Part 2 which definetly should have been included arent - dogs, prone, more craftables, an improved weapon balance and drops.

And that's probably where I actually reach point of attack. This game's job, for my money, was to bring Part 1 up to the standards of Part 2. It doesnt really come close. Its the best version of the original game but still lacking versus Part 2, especially as a stealth action experience.

In conclusion, I have no idea what i'm going on about.