The Last of Us Part 1

The Last of Us has defined the past nine years of Sony and the PlayStation.

Released days after Sony’s legendary 2013 E3 conference, The Last of Us was an expression of years of work mastering how to craft games for a console. Three massively influential Uncharted games acted as the catalyst to Naughty Dog’s gritty, post-apocalyptic vision. Joel’s path towards redemption through Ellie is considered one of the zeniths of gaming and, at minimum, one of the highest bars of that generation.

Fast-forward to 2020 and The Last of Us Part 2 is one of the PlayStation 4’s swan songs. To some it may be divisive but I found Part 2 to be exceptional, matching the resonance of its predecessor and often surpassing it.

Naughty Dog has consistently raised and often set the bar for third-person, narrative-driven games. And as players wait with bated breath for what comes next, I’m honestly not surprised that The Last of Us Part 1 came to fruition.

A year after The Last of Us released, Sony put out The Last of Us Remastered. Remastered was meant to capitalize not only on the success of The Last of Us but on the success of the PlayStation 4. At the time, not everyone had a PlayStation 3 but by god were players flocking to Sony’s new console. The remastered version of the game included spruced up textures, 1080p resolution, 60 fps gameplay, and select other bells and whistles. But at its core, Remastered was still a PlayStation 3 game with a more noticeable high definition sheen on it.

Even by today’s standards, The Last of Us is an incredibly attractive game. In its later days, the PlayStation 3 was a workhorse that delivered smooth action and detailed character models. It was also a console that saw numerous HD ports of titles from the previous generation, merely giving players a chance to experience beloved titles with little more than higher pixel density. But it took a few years for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One to start churning out games that were simply unfathomable on the previous consoles. Yet The Last of Us often found itself on the tips of tongues.

Enough time has passed where Part 1 feels as necessary as it ever can be. Certainly there is an inherent business decision made across most facets of this industry. If it isn’t going to make money, there likely isn’t a reason to put the time into programming all this complex code. Part 1, thankfully, justifies itself. The Last of Us being retrofitted with “Part 1” aligns the first game with the legacy and sequel it created. Additionally, Part 2 has been out for two years, giving it time to gestate in players’ conscious. Plus, there’s the HBO show arriving at some point. Of course, Naughty Dog teased a separate online-based entry in the series but who knows when that will arrive.

The Last of Us Part 1 is poised to gobble up new and old players alike. The question, however, is will it?

Let’s just get the ugly stuff out of the way. Most eyes will water at Part 1‘s $70 price tag and justifiably so. I’m not often callous enough to bring in the specter of value when reviewing games and while I’m plenty cynical, not so much that I will label Part 1 a 10-year-old game with a 1-year-old game’s price tag. But there are certainly those who at least know the legacy of The Last of Us and its place in time and wonder why Part 1 costs the same as Horizon: Forbidden West. Oh, and the multiplayer component of The Last of Us isn’t here, which is a bummer because it was awesome.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake took a title over two decades old and built a nearly unrecognizable game from it. The Last of Us Part 1 is not doing the same heavy lifting. But in this scenario, The Last of Us not only still works within modern sensibilities, it doesn’t need to say or do anything new. The original Final Fantasy 7 remains a classic but also has room for reinterpretation with character models, dialog, and story beats.

With Part 1, Naughty Dog asks, “What if virtually everyone can enjoy this medium-defining experience and it looks and feels almost as good as Part 2?”

Technology, like time, moves fast. Some might say technology moves faster. I could never imagine watching Joel’s unyielding grief play out with a blocky, polygonal model on the PlayStation 1, as interesting as that might be to see. When the The Last of Us arrived, I had been conditioned to expect a lot out of Naughty Dog’s performance capture and attention to detail. Nathan Drake and his charming ways were made more infectious by capturing Nolan North’s actual performances. But with The Last of Us, that kind of bombastic delivery and exaggerated movement was replaced with subtle pain and muted fury.

To this day, there are only a handful of games with this production value that have matched the writing, directing, and acting of The Last of Us. A game told across one moment 20 years ago and then four seasons. The world has been ravaged by the cordyceps fungus that infects the flesh and turns people into mindless monsters. What remains are the broken and battered pockets of civilization that primarily look out for themselves.

The Last of Us sees Joel, a damaged father haunted by his past, lead the young Ellie through destroyed American cities towards potential salvation. The pair meet others along the way–both hostile and friendly–all while avoiding infected, mutated humans. Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson’s performances are in the pantheon of voice acting to this day, giving Joel and Ellie the weight of this bleak world. Neil Druckmann and Bruce Strayley’s direction weave action and drama expertly while Druckmann’s writing punches at the player’s emotional core.

By the end of The Last of Us, players are likely to feel as weary and raw as those who remain. Commentary on the lengths we will go for loved ones or who the real monsters are will pop up. The game is thematically, narratively, and mechanically dense. Each element coalesces in a way that broke ground in 2013 and remains a standard today. The desperate hunt for supplies to build tools for survival made sense in the world and for gameplay. Terrifying encounters with clickers would be broken up with calm moments of discovery or cascade into new feelings of dread.

The Last of Us often blurred the lines between a traditional “fun” video game, a movie, and a powerful expression of entertainment. It is difficult to not to reminisce about the game’s impact since it first launched. Even harder not to delve into the complexities of its relation to the sequel.

Now, imagine those experiences transplanted to The Last of Us Part 2‘s fidelity. That, in essence, is what The Last of Us Part 1 has to offer.

Naughty Dog has worked to put The Last of Us‘ visuals on par with that of Part 2. With Part 1, players new and old should be swept up by the game’s beauty. As a caveat, don’t expect the sheer density and realism of something like Forbidden West or the upcoming God of War Ragnarok. After all, this is using an engine that was nearly perfected in 2020 and eked out as much PlayStation 4 Pro power as possible.

Part 1 is an exceptional take on The Last of Us. It doesn’t “reimagine” the game’s world and characters, it truly defines them. Even with the limitations of the PlayStation 3, the dilapidation of The Last of Us was expressive. The darkest, rain-soaked, bombed-out buildings were packed with detail and the lushest vegetation pierced through the crumbling cement. Now, those environments are given new life and new details.

One unfortunate thing when attempting to compare the visuals of the original game and Part 1 is that a player would literally have to have both games running side by side to truly see the extent of the updates. Throughout my time with Part 1, I would scurry over to YouTube in hopes of piecing together differences by watching other playthroughs. Sony has smartly done a few comparison videos to express changes made. Though I have no doubt the original game is what Naughty Dog wanted to make, Part 1 allows them to really expand on that vision. Imagine the Special Editions of Star Wars without going off the rails.

Environments have assets, details, and depth like never before. As Joel and crew flee the city in the rain, the world isn’t as swamped in unrecognizable darkness. Skylines have deeper draw distances. Abandoned streets feature buildings with more bountiful signage. Little things popped out to me, like Joel’s broken watch being heartbreakingly readable at all times.

Having only played through The Last of Us twice–once on PlayStation 3 and right when Remastered came out–my memory of the finer points of the game are a bit hazy. Personally, I would not be able to explore a level or engage in a fight and readily identify what exactly was different. But I knew what felt different and that was the game’s atmosphere and its characters. Not that they were altered in any negative way, just that they were easier to soak up.

For example, Tess’ new character model is the first stark contrast from the original that shows where Part 1 excels. Meant to more closely capture the voice actor’s performance, the new model for Tess is expressive and shows signs of living in this violent world. Joel, Ellie, and Tommy are designed to more closely represent their Part 2 counterparts and it feels less drastic than the shift from Uncharted 3 to Uncharted 4.

The updated character models allow performances across the board to improve. Players can watch as clothing wrinkles, neck muscles tense, and spit flies during a shout. Part 2 was a masterpiece in terms of cinematic performances and Part 1 edges so close to that. Yes, I could still see some of the game’s age but it absolutely felt more natural. What this amounts to is almost perfecting the vast array of emotional deliveries The Last of Us has. Part 1 manages to not only preserve the original experience but future-proof it. Part 1 and Part 2 can gleefully stand next to each other as generational bookends.

It would have been strange for Naughty Dog to create Part 1 with the goal of fundamentally changing any aspect of The Last of Us. But as players make their way through the game, it’s obvious the goal was simply to make the game as accessible and as jaw-dropping as Part 2, while introducing some PlayStation 5 flourishes.

Accessibility options are a feature I appreciate but not one I take much advantage of. But as HUDs become increasingly busy, I’ve been praising games that allow players to adjust the size of subtitles and certain HUD elements so they are easier to see from far distances without requiring an entirely new television. But the suite of accessibility options in Part 1 trump what was seen in Part 2 and similar releases. Naughty Dog wants to allow any willing player to experience the game, one way or another. Deaf players can feel the intensity of a conversation by allowing the DualSense to vibrate with the spoken dialog. Hushed utterances will result in small haptic vibrations while yells and shouts make the entire controller rumble. It’s a novel idea and one that I employed on my playthrough because it simply allowed for further immersion.

Players who need visual aids have a range of high-contrast options that highlight objects, enemies, and characters in bright colors and grey out the world. Listen mode can be altered to ping enemies through walls and farther than normal. Descriptive audio will allow further narration in cutscenes to detail what characters are doing and what is happening in the scene for players who need that kind of aid.

With Part 1, Naughty Dog does not want a video game’s fundamentals–gameplay, graphics, and audio–to hinder the experience. The Last of Us was more than just a game, it was a cinematic experience only accomplished through the medium. These new options thin the barrier of entry if not destroy it altogether for many players.

One shortcoming of Part 1 is that it inevitably cannot play like Part 2. Joel cannot go prone, there’s no crawling or ropes or any of the new things seen in the sequel. But any attempt to replicate those evolved gameplay moments would have required Naughty Dog to completely rethink and remake most of the combat encounters in The Last of Us, therefore altering what wasn’t necessarily broken in the first place. Part 1 tweaks enemy AI and makes friendlies less likely to run around during stealth and break immersion. But I already found The Last of Us‘ gameplay to be quite exceptional. If anything, the polished animations and visuals only make it feel better than before.

Then who, ultimately, is The Last of Us Part 1 for? At the highest level, Part 1 is for players who have never touched either game, own a PlayStation 5, and want to play one of the definitive games of the last three generations. From there, I think those who have only played The Last of Us once or twice like myself will get a lot of mileage out of Part 1‘s fresh face, especially since I never tried out the Left Behind DLC which also gets all the enhancements. Veterans of the series may lament the lack of multiplayer getting the glow up but are bound to appreciate the finer details that are lost upon those with less experience. So, in a way, The Last of Us Part 1 is for everyone. An argument can be made about how “necessary” Part 1 is. Does a game this new, this beloved need to be touched? Perhaps not. Regardless, that doesn’t take away from how important the additions of Part 1 are to the core experience of The Last of Us and how preserved the game now feels with minimal alterations to its core meaning and message. It has the same impact and perhaps it will have a deeper impact to newcomers and what is wrong with that?

The Last of Us Part 1 is the definitive version of one of our medium’s defining works. Nine years ago Naughty Dog crafted a masterpiece. Now, they have updated it for slightly more modern sensibilities, putting Part 1 in line with The Last of Us Part 2. The wealth of accessibility options remove numerous barriers of entry for players so that an even wider audience can appreciate this story of loss and triumph. The emotional gut punches sting even harder with overhauled visuals, bringing these tragic characters closer than ever to their astounding real-life performances. The Last of Us Part 1 is the timeless game we have all loved for years, now shining in an even brighter light.