Do we really need a remake of The Last of Us? (The answer is yes!)

Dead Space, Star Wars: KotOR, Advance Wars, maybe Silent Hill 2, now obviously The Last of Us: The remake wave doesn’t stop. I admit I prefer a “real” remake to a mere remaster anytime. This may not be the most exciting news from a world-renowned game house, but I enjoy taking a fresh look at refreshed versions, slight reinterpretations, and find comfort in the thought that upgrading to a new technical capability will make the work easier to access in the medium term as well.

In The Last of Us, the case is a little more difficult. The game is the fan community’s sacred cow, it’s “only” nine years old, we’ve already received a remaster that plays decently on the PS5, and we still haven’t gotten a remaster of the legendary Factions multiplayer mode. Many are therefore wondering whether Naughty Dog could perhaps invest its time better. Quite a few, on Reddit, in Internet forums, but also in the specialist press, even go so far as to say that we don’t need a remake at all. But that is a problematic statement.

On the one hand, a decision for this project is not a decision against another. Especially not at a studio of Naughty Dog’s size, which employs up to 500 people, depending on the report. Much worse, however, I find the excessive generalization: Personally, I don’t “need” a remake of this game, in the sense that it wouldn’t be the first game on my wish list. But dismissing this endeavor as pointless sweeps under the rug not only people like me who enjoy playing remakes, but also those who nine years ago weren’t old enough to experience this game.

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I’ve noticed this more and more recently: there are a lot of young people who couldn’t have been expected to play Last of Us 2013 – and who can no longer be expected to see graphics at (admittedly excellent) PS3 level 2022.

So those who care about upholding video games as art and cultural assets should also welcome remakes. No other art form is as dependent on technical aspects for its effect as the video game. Of course, the story and acting performances are timeless. However, stutters, inappropriate animations, visible dropouts of the AI, graphics that no longer appear lifelike and outdated controls and gameplay sabotage even the greatest classic for everyone who is not already intimately familiar with the game.

And they are what remakes are made for in the first place. Re-editions are a means of preserving substantively but not technically timeless works and expanding and rejuvenating the community that has gathered around them for good reason. Of course, they are also a means of flushing safe money into the coffers of cold-calculating corporations. But from a consumer and game-maker perspective, remakes keep a game alive in two ways – and as such are rarely a bad idea.

Nothing is as valuable as experiencing such a game for the first time. And I won’t be so narrow-minded as to deny the next generation of gamers to do so under the best possible circumstances!