The Last of Us Part I is the remake of the eponymous 2013 game. The Naughty Dog studio has completely revised its masterpiece to exploit the technical capabilities of the PS5. Does this updated cult title deserve to spend 80 euros? We will see it right away.
The Last of Us is an important title in video game history. A true industry milestone, Naughty Dog’s 2013 masterpiece scorched gamers while redefining the adventure blockbuster. After a Remaster released in 2014 on PS4, it returns to PS5 in a full-fledged remake.
Soberly named The Last of Us Part I, this remake seeks to leverage the power of the PS5 by delivering a graphically at the top experience. The Last of Us Part II had already hit hard in 2020 and this new part wants to go even further. This is a remake, not a remaster. The nuance is important, since it means that the game was restarted from scratch and that it is sold at the “normal” price of Sony excluded, ie 80 euros. However, Naughty Dog wanted to preserve the original experience by not touching the gameplay.
Does this remake keep its promises? Is it relevant when the original component is still viable today? Answer right away.
The Last of Us, a still fantastic game in 2022
For those who have spent the last decade in a cave, let’s start at the beginning. The Last of Us is a third-person action/adventure game which follows a linear progression. The player embodies Joel, a disillusioned man trying to survive in a world ravaged by a zombie apocalypse. His life changes when he is in charge of protecting the young Ellie during a trip across the United States.
The title of Naughty Dog does not mark by its gameplay, very classic, but by its engaging atmosphere. It takes us on a twilight road trip through a dying world and brings us to life-scarred characters looking for a reason to go on living. A jewel of narration, atmosphere but also video game mastery, which will only be surpassed by its sequel in 2020.
The adventure is varied, subtly mixing phases of exploration, puzzles, horrific moments, stealth and fierce combat. Everything is interspersed with magnificent sequences that bring a little light into the darkness and allow us to breathe between two dangers. An example to follow in terms of rhythm.
We will also salute the certainly classic fights, but devilishly effective. They bet on the stress due to the constant lack of resources, on stealth and on the taking of initiative by the player. No need to think about getting into the heap by wanting to cross a camp of cannibal looters or a nest of infected. You will have to be cunning and save your bullets, even if it means being cowardly. An adventure that takes on even more meaning when the difficulty is high. Be careful, the game is strewn with ultra-violent sequences and is not made for everyone.
The Last of Us Part I therefore offers us a beautiful odyssey that ties the throat and turns the stomach. The most admirable remains the fact that he doesn’t seem to have aged a bit, even after a decade of inspiring the rest of the industry. We certainly find some old-fashioned gameplay ideas, such as obvious “combat arena” limits, very present QTEs or even boat-based puzzles based on crates, but overall, TLOU still teaches the lesson to the big recent blockbusters. of the same type.
The remake does not change any of this, since only the graphics have been revisited. Everything we have just said is valid for both the base game and this new version.
A remake that reviews the form, not the substance
For The Last of Us Part I, Naughty Dog chose to review only the technical part. The adventure was untouched, it stays the same, down to the pixel (so to speak). Every level, corridors, monsters, cutscenes… are exactly similar to the 2013 game. It just looks better. Even the gameplay hasn’t changed. Part I does not benefit from the novelties of the second episode, such as the possibility of crawling, for example.
The Californian studio has not only made a graphic smoothing, as was the case for the Remaster PS4, but has resumed the technical bases of his game. Using his expertise learned with Part II in 2020, he offers us a visually very accomplished adventure.
All the decorations benefit from particular care, with an often obsessive attention to detail. Every place you visit, whether it’s a reclaimed forest, a ransacked apartment, a ruined shop or a deserted street, is full of little things to observe. We really have the impression of evolving in a living world.
Environmental storytelling, or the art of telling things with a simple element of the decor, gains enormously from this. We are surprised to linger in an abandoned house, scrutinizing the slightest object to guess what happened there before our arrival. We can also note other contributions, such as more vegetation on the buildings or the appearance of small animations (like rats or insects) in the places explored. TLOU 2013 feels immensely empty and flat compared to its Remake. The latter is simply one of the most beautiful games on the market. A new standard meter on PS5.
This new opus takes care of all the technical aspect, largely surpassing Part II which was synonymous with graphic slap when it was released. The effects of light, the textures, the water, the dirt on the windows or even the dense vegetation, everything has been refined to the extreme. Special mention to the character models, more detailed than ever. The skins, the tired clothes, the overloaded backpacks, the pustules on the infected or the reworked faces of the heroes bring a new body to the adventure. The physics and animations have also been reworked.
The Last of Us clearly wins with this remake. Particle, light or smoke effects make certain moments even more intense than in the original game. They are mainly the horrific passages that benefit from this upgrade. If they were already scary in 2013, they become downright terrifying in 2022.
Graphically, the title offers interesting options. It is for example possible to juggle between two modes (Fidelity with ray-tracing at 30 FPS or Performance at 60 FPS), which is appreciable. One of the big additions of this version is improved accessibility. Naughty Dog continues its work of inclusion with tons of options: from larger subtitles to color filters and haptic controller feedback to make dialogue more understandable for the hearing impaired. We salute the effort.
Speaking of the Dual Sense, there are also significant additions, like the haptic feedback that has its little effect or the resistances of the triggers which make certain situations more stressful. This is felt when shooting with a rifle, for example.
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A remake of excellent quality, therefore, but which perhaps should not have been limited to the technical aspect. We would not have spat on some contributions to the level of the gameplay inherited from the second part, on a better AI (always strawberries), or even on more passages in order to bring additional playful interest. Even Left Behind, the DLC telling Ellie’s story, could have been easily integrated into the main plot. Here it is still a separate adventure, as before. 
The Left Behind DLC is present, but not integrated into the main adventure. The studio did not want to touch her baby, for fear of distorting it. A decision that we can understand, but which leaves a little perplexed for a title sold at a high price and stamped Remake.
A relevant remake?
Naughty Dog has done an admirable job on this new iteration, making its adventure more gripping than ever. The game was restarted from scratch and the final work is technically very impressive. It is always difficult to approach the case of graphic Remakes in video games, even more so with this Part I.
The Last of Us Part I is not a visual reinvention, like Demon’s Souls or Diablo 2 Resurrected, but a modern update that has the flavor of a Remaster. Nevertheless, it is indeed a real technical remake, with all the developer work involved.
Its two biggest weaknesses are that the base game is still quite viable and findable today, but especially its price placement. Sold at 80 euros like a recent blockbuster like Horizon Forbidden West or Gran Turismo 7, The Last of Us Part I is still an old game brought up to date. This is typically the kind of title that would have had every right to be released directly on the PS Plus Extra subscription in order to attract new subscribers, but Sony has chosen to sell it at full price.
For these reasons, judging The Last of Us Part I for what it is is complicated. Yes, it’s a huge video game what you should do if you’ve never touched it. This Remake allows you to enter it in the best possible conditions. For others, waiting for a price drop or an arrival in the PS Plus Extra catalog would be more judicious.
What is infuriating is that all doubts dissipate controller in hand. Even knowing the game by heart, you’ll be hooked. TLOU Part I remains an exceptional adventure that deserves praise, a major title that has marked the history of the media and which still marks it. However, we cannot give it the maximum rating (yet deserved) because of its excessive price.
