Verdict
Even although it doesn’t present the gameplay overhaul that some avid gamers had been little doubt anticipating, The Last of Us Part 1 remains to be one of the simplest ways to take pleasure in one of the vital clever and nicely designed video games of latest reminiscence. The up to date visuals helps to breathe new life into the story, and the world it presents has by no means felt extra immersive. And that’s earlier than contemplating the plethora of accessibility options available, enabling swathes of avid gamers to play the sport for the primary time and see what all of the fuss is about.
Pros
The Last of Us has by no means regarded betterImproved lighting and a spotlight to elementStill an unbelievable story that’s value revisitingTons of accessibility options
Cons
£70/$70 price ticket is questionableVery few of Part II’s gameplay upgrades have been utilised right here
Availability
UKRRP: £69.99
USARRP: $69.99
Rebuilt for PS5:The recreation makes use of the PS5’s {hardware} options
New accessibility options:Imported from The Last of Us Part 2
Introduction
Naughty Dog revisits its iconic post-apocalyptic survival shooter, this time rebuilt for the PS5 and stylised as The Last of Us Part 1.
When the credit rolled on 2020’s The Last of Us Part 2, I felt so engrossed on this planet that Naughty Dog had created and its brutal story of revenge that I wasn’t fairly able to say goodbye to all of it. I booted up my copy of The Last of Us: Remastered however the technological leap between the 2 video games was an excessive amount of to disregard and my enthusiasm for replaying the sequence’ first entry shortly light away.
Someone at Naughty Dog both hacked my mind or had the identical feeling themselves as a result of the The Last of Us Part 1 is identical nice recreation that everyone knows and love, however redesigned with the Part 2 toolset.
With a £70/$70 price ticket at launch, the sport has already been criticised for not providing sufficient incentive for returning gamers, however is that this actually the case? Here are my ideas.
Graphics and efficiency
Massive visible leap in world designUpdated character fashions make cutscenes extra cinematicYou can swap between ‘Performance’ and ‘Fidelity’ modes
If you’ve seen a trailer for The Last of Us Part 1 or caught a few of its advertising and marketing marketing campaign, you then’ll already know that the sport’s greatest improve over the unique is in its graphics. Following the visible prowess of The Last of Us Part 2, the Part 1 remake is a drop lifeless attractive recreation to take a look at, and the newer model provides excess of a lick of paint to an nearly decade previous title.
For starters, the extent of element that may be discovered when strolling by means of the sport’s imaginative and prescient of a post-apocalyptic United States is actually one thing to behold. The Last of Us already did a incredible job of making a plausible world in its degree design, with deserted properties containing traces of the households who lived there, and sprawling cityscapes which have now been reclaimed by nature. But this time round, it feels as if the builders have been in a position to totally ship on these ideas in a means that know-how merely couldn’t 10 years in the past.
The numerous knick knacks that you simply may anticipate finding in a household house have been given extra consideration, and at numerous instances I discovered myself distracted by dusty household images that advised a narrative of their very own for a bunch of off-screen characters. There’s a lot depth within the particulars of Part 1 that you simply simply spend a number of hours of your playthrough simply admiring the efforts of the artwork division.
Because all of that is now operating on the PS5’s heavy-duty {hardware}, lighting results have additionally been given an uplift and so they go a good distance in direction of exhibiting what Sony’s newest console is able to. For instance, I don’t recall ever being fairly so enamoured with Bill’s hideout early into the sport, however the way in which the sunshine seeps by means of the church’s home windows compelled me to cease in my tracks and admire the scene.
Beyond the in-game visuals, Naughty Dog has additionally been eager to notice the upgrades which were made to the character fashions, which in flip may be most keenly felt throughout cutscenes. I’ll admit that once I noticed the primary few comparability trailers, I struggled to see the rapid distinction – an issue that doubtless stems from simply how nicely these cutscenes had been initially animated on the PS3. But whenever you begin taking part in the PS5 adaption, the size of those enhancements are made extra obvious.
For instance, Tess has been given a brand new, extra age-appropriate look that higher displays her lived experiences. And when paired with the added element of Joel’s middle-aged look, their conversations felt extra plausible, doing justice to the unique movement seize and voice appearing, and actually driving house the emotion of every scene.
If you wish to get much more out of the graphics, then the sport provides you a selection from the outset, with the flexibility to play in both ‘performance’ or ‘fidelity’ mode. The former runs at a focused 60fps whereas the latter prioritises the visible prowess of the sport and is capped at 30fps. There’s undoubtedly a noticeable distinction to be present in these two modes, and you’ll change between them at any time so that you don’t have to fret about being locked in.
For my my playthrough, I stayed with ‘performance’ mode nearly solely. After all, probably the greatest upgrades of 2014’s The Last of Us Remastered was the flexibility to play within the enhanced body price, lending itself brilliantly to the chaotic nature of the sport’s shootouts.
I additionally observed a formidable little bit of tinkering with the sport’s audio high quality, as sounds really feel extra layered than ever and dialogue comes by means of extra clearly and outlined than earlier than. There’s even help for 3D Audio, which makes a gunfight with the sport’s contaminated enemies much more adrenaline inducing.
It ought to be talked about that I encountered barely any visible or audio hiccups throughout my time with the sport which is a uncommon factor to see as of late. This is about as polished a AAA recreation might be at launch.
Story and gameplay
The story remains to be the sport’s crown jewelVery little in the way in which of gameplay changesAccessibility options make an enormous distinction
It’s nearly unattainable to have a dialog about The Last of Us with out circling again to the sport’s story. The recreation made waves upon launch for its bleak depiction of what humanity would do to outlive if civilisation fell aside.
Very few video games have come near the storytelling heights of The Last of Us, and in a post-pandemic world, the numerous references to quarantines, testing and face coverings all of a sudden don’t appear fairly so summary. But I believe it’s truthful to imagine, on condition that Part 1 constitutes the second re-release of the title, that many avid gamers shall be questioning if it’s value taking part in by means of once more. I’d argue emphatically that it’s.
As beforehand talked about, the up to date character fashions give the sport’s narrative features extra depth because the characters themselves are higher realised. Then once more, I’m talking as somebody who hasn’t revisited the sport in roughly eight years, so it’s been an thrilling expertise to recollect why I loved it a lot within the first place. If you’ve performed it extra not too long ago then that is the place issues get a bit tough.
Unfortunately, from a gameplay perspective, Part 1 is sort of equivalent to its supply materials. I had hoped that with a lot discuss in regards to the recreation borrowing from Part 2’s graphical upgrades that we’d additionally see a number of the gameplay tweaks that had been launched there, corresponding to the flexibility to go inclined in fight, and new enemy sorts like assault canines that had been skilled to smell you out, forcing you to remain on the transfer.
Having these parts inside Part 1 would have given present gamers extra of a cause to dive again in past the visible overhaul. Still, this isn’t to say that it’s fully devoid of recent content material – there’s now a ‘permadeath’ mode for gamers who can’t get sufficient punishment, and a speed-run mode to time how shortly you can also make it to the top.
Haptic suggestions by way of the DualSense controller additionally provides a brand new layer of immersion, heightening moments of depth corresponding to grappling an enemy from the shadows. The adaptive triggers additionally change how you utilize sure weapons. For the bow, you take away the weapon out of your backpack with L2 after which use R2 to slowly pull again the arrow, feeling the pushback within the set off as you accomplish that.
There’s even a handful of recent unlockables that may be swiped after you’ve accomplished the sport, together with costumes and idea artwork, however I discovered myself spending fairly a little bit of time within the recreation’s new mannequin viewer. Just like with Part 2, now you can view a group of character fashions as in the event that they’re small collectible figurines, pouring over the generally unreal quantities of element of their facial options.
One enormous promoting level for a lot of avid gamers out there may be the the sport’s new accessibility options. Part 2 paved the way in which in opening up new methods for in a different way abled avid gamers to benefit from the core expertise, and those self same options have now been applied in Part 1.
With every thing from colourblind modes to audio description throughout cutscenes, navigation help and narration of on-screen textual content, Naughty Dog has gone above and past in making The Last of Us Part 1 as accessible as potential, making it is a enormous boon for anybody who was compelled to overlook out on the sport the primary time round due to any limitations to entry. I solely hope that extra builders comply with swimsuit.
Latest offers
Should you purchase it?
You wish to expertise the very best model of The Last of Us: With a whole visible overhaul that makes the sport’s world and story really feel extra tangible than ever, there can’t be any doubt that that is one of the simplest ways to expertise Naughty Dog’s iconic title.
You’ve not too long ago replayed The Last of Us: If the reminiscence of the sport remains to be recent in your thoughts then there isn’t an awesome quantity of recent content material to attract you again in on day one.
Final Thoughts
With a £70/$70 price ticket and never a complete lot of recent content material to talk of in relation to the gameplay, The Last of Us Part 1 could also be a tricky promote for some avid gamers, however due to its huge leap ahead in visible constancy and making the world extra engrossing than ever, it’s nonetheless one of the simplest ways to play probably the greatest video games ever made – and that may’t be missed.
I’ve loved each minute of my time with Part 1, and the inclusion of barrier-breaking accessibility options implies that a complete sect of avid gamers will now get to expertise Naughty Dog’s post-apocalyptic story for the primary time. Even in the event you don’t nab the sport at launch, it’s one that every one PS5 homeowners ought to add to their library down the road.
How we check
We play each recreation we evaluate by means of to the top, outdoors of sure exceptions the place getting 100% completion, like Skyrim, is near unattainable to do. When we don’t totally end a recreation earlier than reviewing it we’ll at all times alert the reader.
FAQs
Does The Last of Us Part 1 have multiplayer? No, the unique multiplayer element of The Last of Us has been eliminated. Is Left Behind included with The Last of Us Part 1? The Left Behind DLC is included with the sport and may be performed instantly. Is The Last of Us Part 1 accessible on PS4? No, The Last of Us Part 1 is barely accessible to play on PS5.