Returning to The Last of Us: The Aesthetics and Contexts ofRemaking & Remastering The Last of Us Franchise

This paper will examine the industrial contexts, textual characteristics, critical reaction, and player culture of three entries in the The Last of Us franchise -The Last of Us Remastered (2014), The Last of Us Part I (2022), and The Last of Us Part II Remastered (2024), in an effort to analyse the nature of remastering and remaking in videogames in general and how these particular entries contribute to the TLoU franchise by creating 'definitive versions' of the original games.Identifying that the three games represent, in terms of some of the key research on remakes -'direct remakes' (Druxman, 1975), 'true remakes' (Leitch, 1990), and 'acknowledged, close remakes' (Greenberg, 1991) and by applying theory on videogame horror (Krzywinska, 2002;Perron, 2009, Rouse, 2009) and both film (Horton & McDougal, 1998; Klein & Palmer, 2016) and game remakes (Brown, 2023), insights can be gleaned into the effects of alterations in game design elements such as cut-scenes (Howells, 2002;Klevjer, 2008), sensation, game feel, and accessibility.The approach to remastering and remaking employed by the developers was to modernize features such as graphical textures, character models and accessibility, while preserving the 'essence' of the originals in terms of the power of the gripping, affecting narrative, sensation, game feel, and environmental storytelling.Adapting the conceptual framework from Verevis's 2006 study of film remakes, this paper investigates the network of relationships between developer, text and game culture using developer accounts, critical analysis of the games, reaction of game critics, and player responses via forum discussions and YouTube videos.