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A quick word before I begin this accessibility review. While I believe it’s important to discuss The Last of Us: Part 2 Remastered on this video game accessibility focused series, I do want to give a quick caveat up front.
There’s an article on Vice that I’d like to recommend that people read, titled “The Not So Hidden Israeli Politics of The Last Of Us: Part 2”.
It includes quotes from creator Neil Druckman about the game being influenced by his being born and raised in Israel, and events he saw growing up which shaped his views on retributive anger as a “universal experience”.
Additionally, the article details many of the ways that politics around Israel and Palestine are presented in the published work itself, and the stances that the game seems to advocate for when viewed through the lens of being allegorical for the Israel Palestine conflict.
Given the above, I’d like to explicitly state at the start of this review that I believe in the need for a ceasefire, and support the movement for a free Palestine. Palestinian civilians are being killed in huge numbers by the Israeli military, and it seems clear that Israel is trying to justify its actions as retributive justice and self defence while committing war crimes against a civilian population. A genocide is being committed, and I cannot be silent and ignore that fact.
I would highly recommend watching a video titled “The Games Industry Must Not Stay Silent on Palestine”, on the YouTube channel “People Make Games”. The video is hosted by Tamour Hussain and Rami Ismail, and is one of the better videos right now in terms of talking about the importance of games media not ignoring this conflict, and the plight of Palestinians.
While I think there are merits to discussing the accessibility additions being made to this particular game, I cannot do so in a vacuum. Given the context, the narrative inspirations for the game are important to acknowledge. That said, the accessibility review to follow will be solely focused on the accessibility support seen in The Last of Us: Part 2 Remastered.
When The Last of Us: Part 2 originally released on the PlayStation 4 back in the summer of 2020, the game was quickly placed on a pedestal as one of the most broadly accessible big budget video games ever released. Nearly four years have passed since then, and the game is still largely the litmus test by which many other big budget video game accessibility efforts are being measured.
The original release is not perfect in terms of accessibility, but it brought together a lot of existing best practices while pushing forward new innovations and catering well to a wide variety of groups of disabled players. Other innovations have been seen in PlayStation first party releases that have happened since then, such as degrees of accessibility preset in God of War: Ragnarok, but by and large The Last of Us 2 is still most people’s go-to example of video game accessibility best practices.
The game was playable start to finish by sightless blind players via audio cues and smartly implemented navigation assists, contained accessibility presets for common disability categories such as motor, hearing, and vision disabilities, popularised accessibility menus appearing on the first boot of a game, and was the first major example of a video game using high contrast mode visuals to improve visibility of in game elements during play.
The biggest complaint I had about the game’s accessibility, upon its initial release, was that the game lacked support for audio descriptions for blind players. While the game was playable for players with limited or no vision, narrative for those players was only communicated via spoken dialogue and sound design, leaving many of the game’s more nuanced narrative moments unable to be enjoyed fully without assistance.
When The Last of Us: Part 1 Remastered launched back in September of 2022 the game incorporated many of the accessibility settings seen in Part 2’s original release, while notably adding Cinematic Audio Descriptions to the series’ first entry. These audio descriptions were undoubtedly a step forward for the series, ensuring that Part 1’s narrative could be better enjoyed by blind players navigating via audio cues, but the implementation wasn’t without its limitations.
Audio Descriptions in Part 1 Remastered were limited to cutscenes, and not present in moments deemed “In Engine”, including scripted moments where player position and timing were known. This meant that while more of the story was accessible, often gameplay scenes were lacking context. Players were not given descriptions of new locations being explored during gameplay, and often entire set piece moments in the title received no description for blind players.
I bring up Part 1 Remastered’s implementation of Audio Descriptions because they are a strong point of comparison for the implementation seen in Part 2 Remastered. Audio Descriptions in The Last of Us: Part 2 Remastered are also near exclusively the domain of cutscenes, and specifically cutscenes that are not deemed to be in engine. As a result, Part 2 Remastered has not attempted to overcome the challenge of incorporating audio descriptions into gameplay via in-world triggers, similar to how in-game conversations are triggered when walking through certain in-game locations.
I want to be clear, I think these audio descriptions being included in The Last of Us: Part 2 Remastered is a huge positive. It brings the series first two entries in line with each other, ensuring that both titles offer the same degree of narrative support to blind players. This was one of my biggest requested feature additions for Part 2 when it first released, and this does make it more accessible to blind players.
Still, the moments that do not receive audio description do feel notable, and worth critique. While there is a technical challenge to implementation of audio descriptions in a game compared to more static media, I do still believe that it is something that developers of 3D narrative focused games need to eventually attempt to overcome.
I’m going to quickly include an example of a moment from the early hours of The Last of Us: Part 2 Remastered which does not contain audio descriptions, followed by a version of the same scene with basic audio descriptions that I’ve added in, to demonstrate what I’m trying to convey.
Without Audio Descriptions
[You alive?]
[Oh shit!]
With Audio Descriptions Added
[Abbie sees a dead body, frozen, slumped against a wall]
[You alive?]
[She kicks the corpse]
[As Abbie pushes through a tight rock chasm, she sees a frozen feminine corpse blocking her way]
[Oh shit!]
[She forcibly shoves the body in order to proceed]
Again, I want to be clear that I do think that the audio descriptions that are present in Part 2 Remastered are an overall positive addition. Where they exist they are well implemented, and I particularly wish to praise how well they handle conveying deliberately vague or ambiguous scenes via description. They do a wonderful job of walking the line when describing expressions which are meant to be up to player interpretation, something really important to nail when adapting a story like The Last of Us.
The fact that I have criticisms of the game’s audio descriptions, and want to see better from a future Last of Us: Part 3, doesn’t mean I don’t think these are still a VERY positive and vital addition to the game. I seek for them to improve because they’re really useful, and are so close to pushing standards forward for the industry.
Beyond the addition of audio descriptions, most of the accessibility support seen in The Last of Us: Part 2 Remastered is unchanged from the original release. However, a new game mode has been added titled No Return, which does have a couple of unique accessibility aspects worth discussing.
No Return is a roguelike style survival mode where players select one of multiple playable characters, who each start with a unique weapon loadout and stats, before taking on waves of enemies in randomised encounters. Players select missions from a branching path, facing different combat encounter types, spending resources on randomised upgrades between missions, while trying to complete challenges and defeat a final boss. Any death along the way results in a game over, and starting a randomised run from scratch without any of your gained materials.
Combat encounter types in No Return include fighting off waves of enemies with pauses between to gather resources, hiding and surviving a set period of time while being hunted by a large number of aggressively searching enemies, and encounters where you fight alongside allies and against boss enemies. Between mission purchases and upgrades include new guns and ammo types, weapon upgrades, and stat buffs which impact your character more broadly.
Every accessibility setting available in The Last of Us: Part 2 Remastered is available to use in No Return, including high contrast visuals, the ability to slow down time during gameplay, aim assist, and navigation assists.
If you’re, for example, a player who makes use of the invisible while prone setting, or uses advanced listening to navigate toward enemies in combat, those settings all are available in the new roguelike side mode.
While there’s no audio descriptions provided for No Return players, there is a unique implementation of navigation assist available. While in the apartment that serves as your hub between combat encounters, you can swipe down on the touchpad to change which upgrade location in the hub you wish for navigation assist to help you locate.
Additionally, given how many levels in No Return feature short 15 second windows of time to grab supplies from the environment between enemy waves, high contrast mode support is highly appreciated as a way to very quickly scan for nearby supplies when under time pressure.
Lastly, I do want to talk a little bit about the fact that this is a paid update for players who already own The Last of Us: Part 2. I do understand that $10 isn’t a huge asking price for this upgrade, and it definitely does try to justify that price pretty decently with the new No Return mode, the addition of lost levels, and the addition of a director’s commentary track, but I still feel uncomfortable about the fact that Audio Descriptions are part of this paid update, and not available as a free update or as standard to players who already own the PS4 version of the game.
I know $10 isn’t necessarilly a lot in the grand scheme of things, but as a matter of principle I really dislike the idea of accessibility improvements for games being bundled in as part of paid game updates, rather than being free updates of their own. I recognise there is a financial cost involved in developing audio descriptions, and I suppose if charging for access to them is the only way that tthey could be added to the game then I’m glad they’re available, but I really do believe that, wherever possible, accessibility updates for a game should not be gated behind a paywalled additional purchase, or bundled in with new gameplay modes that you’re trying to sell. I think that accessibility updates should just come to the game wherever possible for free for players who need them.
The Last of Us: Part 2 Remastered is, from an accessibility perspective, basically The Last of Us: Part 2 with added audio descriptions. That’s a positive addition, basically the only real complaint I had about the first release of the title. I think there’s still room for more robust audio description implementation in the series, and I don’t necessarily like that it’s part of a paid update, but I’m glad it exists. It’s great to see No Return support the base game’s accessibility support options, and it’s great that the new game mode is mechanically accessible, even if it does lack basic audio description for locations and settings during gameplay.
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