The Last of Us Part I Review

If you look at The Last of Us Remastered, which is still visually impressive eight years later, and say, "Yes, that looks pretty good, but we can do better," you almost have to admire the hedonism of that. There is very little left to say about the original The Last of Us, a potent, post- apocalyptic cocktail of stealth, survival, and slaughter that is revered for its haunting story. You probably know that. I think you know that it is one of the best games of all time and one of the few to get a 10 from ign. The Last of Us Part I is the third version of a game that was built three times.

This remake takes full advantage of the added grunt afforded to it by the PS5 by delivering amazing new levels of detail and animation. It's also equipped with a number of accessibility options, as well as the use of the dualsense controller. The result is the best way for solo players to experience this modern classic. There is something inherently inessential about it that it can't shake, as a remake of an already fabulous remaster that remains a must-play on hardware only a single generation older.

The story in both the main game and the short prequel, Left Behind, is as strong, as captivating, and as shocking as it ever was. If you haven't yet played The Last of Us, you're in for a treat. It may trade in despair, selfishness, and misery, but it still has hope, redemption, and love in it. The upshot is one of the best journeys I have ever been on.

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If you're familiar with the story, you'll know that I enjoyed watching it unfold all over again. When I played The Last of Us Part II, I suspected that the original was better than the sequel in terms of its story. The Last of Us Part II is a technically outstanding follow-up with a fascinating tale of its own that completely immersed me, and the heavy spotlight on revenge, hate, and self-destruction is exhausting and disillusioning. It's not always the case.

What We Said About The Last of Us Part II

The Last of Us Part II is one of the best parts. The sequel feels like the culmination of everything that has made the first one so memorable since it was released on the PS3 in 2011. The game improves the first game's mechanics while incorporating a bit more of Uncharted's greater mobility and action. There is time for a stunning exploration of the strength and weakness of the human spirit in Part II. One of the best games on the PS4 is an exclusive.

Score: 10

The Last of Us Part 2 review is available here.

A Joel New World

The Last of Us Part I is a remake for PS5 and not a new game. This does feel true despite some handwringing. One of the display modes in The Last of Us Part I is native 4K at a targeted 30 frames per second and the other is dynamic 4K at a targeted 60 frames per second. Our full performance review of The Last of Us Part I goes into a lot more technical detail, but it does show that all the characters and environments have been changed completely.

I agree that it has been difficult to see a big difference between The Last of Us Remastered and The Last of Us Part I in the video comparisons, but I will warn you that watching two cutscenes on a phone screen can be dangerous. There is an overt jump in fidelity and quality in the game. I chose the dynamic 4K/60FPS performance mode and toggled off the film grain, as the higher frame rate makes for far, far smoother camera panning and the default grain effect does little but obscure how good everything actually looks on the PS5

The most noticeable changes are the fact that foliage is denser, destructible objects are more abundant, and reflections are a big deal. If you don't look closely, you'll miss the details of the soft lighting, it's gorgeous. I was stopped in my tracks by the way the rain dripped down on his shirt and the way the light picked up airborne dust. The visual showcase of what the PS5 is capable of is top-notch.

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Some changes have been made to a couple of key characters. I think the change is a smart one, despite some resistance. A woman in her 40s seems to be more authentic than a woman in her 20s, which would make her younger than his daughter. The faint hint of a relationship between the two that perhaps hasn't always been platonic makes way more sense in this context.

The same performance capture, voice acting, and direction that was used for the original PS3 version of The Last of Us Part I can be found in the first part. I appreciate how high the level of facial detail has allowed for more subtle microexpressions from the cast's performances. Adding spit shooting from a character's mouth as they shout adds a new layer of intensity to the drama that I enjoy. I wouldn't group The Last of Us Part I in the same category as rescripted because of how high quality and future proof it was in the original.

The Last of Us for All of Us

The new range of accessibility options in The Last of Us Part I is an evolution of the many options available in The Last of Us Part II. There are high contrast modes for low-vision players, automatic navigation assistants for blind and low-vision players, and more. Every button command can be assigned to a different input, and the core difficulty options are broken up into different pillars that can be individually adjusted. You can find a complete list of accessibility options on the website.

Endure and Survive

I missed the larger and regularly more vertical levels of Part II due to the fact that they were designed to run on hardware that first appeared when Bey was still a third of the way through the game. The ability to go prone and crawl was missing from Part I, as well as the improved melee combat of Part II. Considering the levels weren't designed to ever require it in the first place, the lack of a dodge feels odd.

The movement in the game is a lot more smooth than it was in the first game and the second one. Blending character movements from one direction to another makes them look more connected to the ground. As a result, they feel a little heavier, which makes them feel more connected to the world.

Changes have been made to the enemy artificial intelligence, who now works in small teams to flush us out, just as they did in Part II. Part I didn't copy Part II's brilliant trick of naming its unfortunate grunts for their buddies to call out in distress as they stumbled across their bodies, but it did stop short of copying it. It was a clever way of adding more gravity to the bloodshed, but it didn't make the cut. It also reduces, but doesn't completely eliminate, instances where your friends shuffle out into the open during stealth and remain unseen, making it crystal clear that this is a video game.

There is a review of the game by ign.

The Last of Us Part I has some of the best use of the dualsenses that I have seen. From the sound of a shotgun shell to the beat of a horse, subtle feedback is mapped. Overall feeling what is happening on screen in your hands adds a lot to the experience. I haven't finished a session yet with more than a bar of charge left on my controller battery.

There is a significant portion of the original The Last of Us that hasn't been included in the PS5 remake. Neil Druckmann recently claimed that the studio is working on a game that is as big as any of their single-player games that they have done. Next year, there will be more details on this spin-off.

It takes about 20 hours to finish the story, which includes Left Behind's two-and-a-half hour campaign. Messing around with costumes isn't something I like to do, but if you add a bit of individuality to your second game you might feel differently. I was distracted by the idea of making the girl a fan of the video game. I wouldn't expect a lot of mileage out of the visual modes. The comic style filter, which flattens out the detail and throws a black outline on characters and key objects, is perhaps worth a look, but the bulk of them are simply coloured filters. The last of us is green. The last of us is red. The last of us was dark red.

Good old-fashioned cheats, which are sadly almost extinct in the modern games industry, are the most appealing as far as I can see. It's very neat to experiment with Infinite Ammonia and crafting ingredients. It's bloody fun and more than a little cathartic after being on the run from those bastards for so long, but it's off-brand in The Last of Us, but it's bloody fun and more than a little cathartic after being on the run from those bastards for so