GAMERTIMES

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE LAST OF US: PART 1. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!

The Last of Us when it was released back in 2013, it was a huge success for the franchise people still today keep talking about how good the storytelling of the game was. The visuals on PS3 were already too good to handle for the people and it was selling so well that a remastered version of the game was released for the PS4 in 2014. Now they remake the game again, rebuilding from the ground up for the PS5.

The Last of Us Part 1 feels quite similar to how it did when it was released back in 2013 which may be a good thing or a terrible thing. When you sit and compare the PS3 edition, PS4 Remaster, and PS5 Remake, the remake is undoubtedly the best version out there. They made identical changes to the game like the interiors have been redesigned and collectibles have been repositioned to make more sense of the buildings and even repositioned the enemies’ movement.

The gameplay is much better than the original with Naughty Dog using the motion-matching technology which was introduced in The Last of Us Part 2 gives protagonist Joel more freedom and seamless transitions between animations rather than running and stopping and it will black out and then the cutscene will play. However, when it comes to combat, it just doesn’t feel the same as the original. The developers decided not to add the ‘dodge’ and ‘prone’ mechanics and keep the encounters the same which is just not worth it.

It doesn’t end there. The restrictions which were there in the original are still there in the remake which feels kinda pointless for a remake considering it’s the year 2022 and the mechanics of Part 2 could have been introduced for Part 1. The game offers freedom but now when you compare it to Part 2, it was a big world to explore but in Part 1, there are fences, and debris well-placed to avoid you from going through it.

An important improvement that came was the Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the game. The much better AI which was implemented in Part 2 was brought in Part 1 so there won’t be Allies running in front of enemies while you’re in stealth. The enemies will collaborate and communicate with each other, calling out your position, and finding flanking positions makes it better than the original.

Talking about the visuals of this game, it’s just unexplainably incredible. The amount of details Naughty Dog has invested in this game is truly incredible. Even though we know all those locations of the game, it still had the element of surprise, like The Capitol Building, for example, it was unrecognizable, in a good way though. The environment is just incredibly gorgeous. I find myself wanting to just slowly walk through it and take in all the visuals and see Joel and Ellie react to it. It’s incredible how this environment just speaks for itself.

The animations have been completely reworked by Naughty Dog. The cutscenes now work in real-time and will be less abrupt. The facial expressions in the cutscenes are now too much to handle. In important scenes like the Prologue cutscene where Joel held Sarah in his arms before they both get shot and Sarah dies, that heart-breaking intensity of the scene simply doesn’t exist in the original game. The facial expressions in each scene feel so real that sometimes you feel super sad and in some scenes, you can’t stop complimenting how good those scenes look.

Talking about the PS5 features, The Last of Us Part 1 has support for 3D Audio which probably is the best audio to listen to when you play. The haptic feedback is another best thing, I mean for example when you use the bow, you could feel that pull of the bowstring when you’re about to release it, feels really good. You’ll also feel the rattle of shrapnel when you craft a nail bomb. In case you don’t like it, you can always go to the settings and turn it off and forget about it.

Naughty Dog also added a speedrun mode for players that can be accessed through the PS5’s activity cards. Then the bonus content they have added are the artworks of the original game and the remake, and new skins for Joel and Ellie which mostly consists of exclusives by PlayStation. There’s also a Permadeath mode in which you can complete the whole game either in ‘Whole Game’, ‘Per act’, or ‘Per Chapter’ modes.

The Last of Us Part 1 has five visual modes on offer: If the PS5 is set to 60Hz, you have Fidelity Mode which will offer 4K 30FPS at 30Hz, Performance Mode will offer 4K 60FPS but technically it delivers 1440p. With the PS5 set to 120Hz, it will offer Fidelity Mode at 4K 40FPS, Performance Mode will offer 120FPS at 1080p, and with the VRR option, it will let you play at unlocked frames.

In the end, The Last of Us Part 1 has an incredible improvement over the original. The accessibility option that they offer are great which wasn’t present in the original, and the graphical upgrade is just insane. But what is surprising is that the pricing for the game is $69.99, which is just not worth paying considering you only get a campaign and no multiplayer at all. Even though the game’s campaign looks modern, the pricing just makes you wanna cry.

“THE LAST OF US PART 1 IS AN INCREDIBLE IMPROVEMENT DOING JUSTICE TO THE ORIGINAL GAME”