: Part Two— Remastered ( 5, £44.99 or a £10 upgrade if you own the original)
Verdict: Remasterpiece
With The Last of Us — the game of chilly cinematic brilliance that last year got adapted into a TV show of brilliantly cinematic chilliness — the developers Naughty Dog earned the right to do whatever they want. So that's precisely what they did.
When The Last of Us: Part Two was first released in 2020, it dismayed some people with its choices. It jettisoned — or at least moved on from — what had been carefully built up in the first game.
The father-daughter relationship between husky Joel and headstrong Ellie? Not so much, any more.
The careful explanation of a world blighted by mushrooms that turn people into zombies? Nuh-uh. Lots of revenge and bitterness and stabbing? Oh, actually, yes — that there is a lot of.
I found this narrative bravery, this overturning of expectations, exhilarating back then. And I still find it exhilarating now that The Last Of Us: Part Two has returned in a newly remastered form.
When The Last of Us: Part Two was first released in 2020, it dismayed some people with its choices
A remaster? For a game that came out just over three years ago? It sounds like little more than a cash-grab, inspired by the incoming season of the show. But, actually, this release does more than enough to justify its own existence
The graphics, which were already plenty impressive, are now pretty much the best way of showing off the capabilities of your PlayStation 5
Hang on. A remaster? For a game that came out just over three years ago? It sounds like little more than a cash-grab, inspired by the incoming season of the show.
But, actually, this release does more than enough to justify its own existence.
The graphics, which were already plenty impressive, are now pretty much the best way of showing off the capabilities of your PlayStation 5. There are also new forms of play — including a testing 'survival' mode against waves of zombies — added on top of the original's 30-hour-long story.
Or perhaps I'm just being controlled by some sort of mind-seizing fungus. Either way, I was more than happy to play through this masterwork again.
Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC, £44.99)
Verdict: Back on the throne
The sands of time had almost completely swept over the Prince Of Persia. It's been more than a decade since this once-popular, once-influential series received anything like a proper new entry. Mario, Link and even Sonic have kept on striding into the future, leaving the poor prince far behind them.
Until now. Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown isn't just a return, it's a return to form. Welcome back, your majesty.
Its excellence is clear from the off. A snappy prologue introduces your character — a brash but brilliant warrior called Sargon — as well as his fellow superpowered 'Immortals'. It's down to them to overcome an invading army, so they do.
Dodging, parrying, swinging swords. It's quick, colourful and utterly compulsive.
Until now. Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown isn't just a return, it's a return to form. Welcome back, your majesty
Its excellence is clear from the off. A snappy prologue introduces your character — a brash but brilliant warrior called Sargon — as well as his fellow superpowered 'Immortals'
What follows is much the same.
..in a good way. Soon there's a betrayal and you're rescuing a member of the royal family from a time-bending, demon-summoning bunch of baddies in a great, sprawling ruin-complex. The forward momentum of this game is extraordinary, in both its plot and its moment-to-moment gameplay.
The Lost Crown is recognisably Prince Of Persia: it is, after all, a side-scrolling 2D platforming game that involves lots of leaping from one thing to another and swatting at enemies with a scimitar. But it's also learnt from games released during the series' absence.
There's something of Dark Souls in its dodge-and-parry combat, particularly when it comes to the (actually pretty challenging) boss battles.
Modern 'Metroidvania' games, such as Axiom Verge and Hollow Knight, have also clearly influenced The Lost Crown's come-back-here-later-when-you've-gained-a-new-ability level design.
To some extent, this makes The Lost Crown a derivative release. But it's all put together so well, and with such sympathy for the original Prince Of Persia games, that it's hard to hold that against it. Long live the, er, not-quite-a-king.
