Our last Part I – launching Friday on PlayStation 5 – is a retroactive name change, much like what George Lucas did back in the day with his first Star Wars movie. What is now known as Episode IV – A Newly Released Hope is simply Star Wars in 1977. And just as Lucas did with Episode IV, and its sequels and prequels – repeatedly toying with them for years, before selling his Lucasfilm empire to Disney – Naughty Dog is tinkering with The Last of Us, originally released on PS3 in 2013. It’s not even the first time, as the award-winning post-apocalyptic survival horror title got a remake on PS4 in 2014. But The Last of Us Part 1 is a much more sweeping undertaking, with Naughty Dog calling it a “Rebuilding” from the ground up. It’s basically Lucas on steroids.
And boy, it looks good. The Last of Us Part I now looks, feels and moves like its 2020 sequel, Part II. (The latter still hasn’t had an original PS5 version – it was the last Sony exclusive on PS4, prior to the PS5 launch – but it plays much better on the next-gen console thanks to minor updates.) .) Season 1 on PS5, has more details about faces, textures and everything else around you. And like Part II, The Last of Us Part I now uses DualSenseadds scary and exciting to its undead world.
However, if you’re about to leave Season 2, Season 1 won’t surprise you, so if you’ve played the previous season on PS5. But there is a difference of night and day here, which you can only notice when you put the original and the remake side by side. Like I am multi-faceted. Upload The Last of Us Remastered on a PS4 Pro – I don’t have a PS3 and Our last to really send myself back to 2013 – I discovered that the environments, their lighting, and the shadows seemed rudimentary in comparison. And that’s saying something, considering the PS4 Pro Remastered variant is claimed to offer “high quality shadows” at 4K resolution. I can’t even imagine how much worse The Last of Us would be to look at PS3.
Season 1 of The Last of Us on PS5 makes it seem like the PS3 era was 20 years ago. It’s crazy how much video games have evolved over the past nine years. (To be fair, the PS3 was in its final stages when The Last of Us released in 2013.)
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The biggest improvement, arguably in The Last of Us Part I, is the firing. Dare I say no, it’s a thousand times better. Remember the house on fire from the pre-credits scene, while Joel and Sarah were in Tommy’s car? That scene is haunting now, in a way that even the PS4 Pro 4KCK version of the game can not manage. As they drive into town, Austin comes to life before your eyes, with Sarah witnessing the city being ripped out of the backseat of the car.
Character faces don’t look outdated in cutscenes – there are more wrinkles and they give more expression. And the bodies of both the player and NPC move in a more realistic fashion in The Last of Us Part 1. The enemy AI also behaves in a more believable way. If you approach Infected from behind and try to take it down stealthily, while someone else is looking at you, it will look at you and react as you might expect, compared to what the enemy has already seen. do with The Last of Us (Remastered).
As with the said remaster on PS4 Pro and the recent PS5 remaster of Naughty Dog Not discovered yet The game, The Last of Us Part I offers a choice between two graphics modes: “Reality” targeting 30fps at native 4K resolution and “Performance” targeting 60fps at “dynamic internal resolution” upscaled to 4K. If you have a 120Hz display, you can enable the “Unlocked frame rate” option in the display settings, targeting 120 fps. (Make sure you also flip the Variable Refresh Rate, or VRR, in the PS5 system settings.) I was only able to experience the Fidelity and Performance thanks to the TV I have – and because of the speed. slow of The Last of Us prioritizes stealth over fast-action, I’m happy to compromise on the extra frames, to increase the minimal quality that Fidelity delivers.
It is believed that the fixers are better, which is why I attached the gameplay video from The Last of Us Part 1, shot on PS5 in Fidelity mode. As you can see for yourself, the load times are almost instant.
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Riley and Ellie in The Last of Us Part 1: Left Behind
Image source: Sony / Naughty Dog
As with Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, there’s no 4K 60fps mode or ray tracing here, which the PS5 is supposed to be capable of. The two remakes are also similar in that there’s no multiplayer mode in The Last of Us Part I. So you’ll need to go back to The Last of Us Remastered, which is backwards compatible on PS5. At least that’s still on the store (and part of the PlayStation Plus Collection). What you get with the PS5 remake is all the single player content: the full base story and DLC campaign, Our Last: Left Behind.
That said, there’s something new here – in terms of the gaming experience. Season 1 of The Last of Us brings an age-old feature and lets you go about it in three different ways. You can choose to reset the whole game when you die, the current action you are doing (expected to take 2-3 hours of game time, Naughty dog talk), or the chapter you’re playing (sends you 30–60 minutes). Of course, as you might expect by enabling permadeath, you can’t manually save the game at any point. And if you’re asked to be anywhere else in your real life, quitting in a “dangerous position” is considered a death sentence.
All of these improvements – permadeath, DualSense, and most of all, the graphics upgrades – come at a significant price. The Last of Us Part I is priced at Rs. 4,999 / $70, on par with a new PS5 release such as Forbidden Horizon in the West or coming soon God of War Ragnarok. That seems ludicrous. For all the updates Naughty Dog is delivering here, it’s still a remake of a nine-year-old game. It is not a new title. What are Sony and PlayStation Studios smoking?
Sure, The Last of Us Part 1 is much better than the PS5 remake for Uncharted 4 and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy – that one costs Rs. 2,999 at launch – but after that, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection also provides an upgrade route. If you own Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, or a combined digital bundle, you can switch to the PS5 version for Rs. 500 / $10 / €10. Heck, even Ghost of Tsushima allows you to upgrade to its PS5 version for Rs. 2,497 – a tall order, I must note – and it also has additional content to offer, including a brand new island to explore.
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The Last of Us Part 1 looks epic on PS5
Image source: Sony / Naughty Dog
As it stands, The Last of Us Part I offers no upgrade strategy, neither for the 2013 original nor for the 2014 Remastered. You have to pay Rs. 4,999 to access it on PS5 – an idea that seems to get even more likes when you consider what Sony’s The biggest competitor has been doing. (For what it’s worth, The Last of Us Part 1 is an expanded upgrade over what Xbox did. Naughty Dog has made the game back in a few ways.)
Since debut Xbox Series WILL and Line XMicrosoft gave us a free 4K 60fps upgrade for those who like Gears 5, Forza Horizon 4and Halo: The Master Chief Collection. These are also included with its supposedly superior subscription Xbox Game Pass. Best of all, Microsoft’s Smart Delivery system means you can enjoy those titles on the go between Xbox and PC. Even if Sony turns its back and offers an upgrade path, our final Part I won’t be included in any new installments. PlayStation Plus steps. Not in a few years anyway. And when Season 1 arrives on PC – “Very soon”, reported – all PS4 and PS5 players will have to pay full price for it, again.
Not only is Sony’s approach particularly concerned with money in its approach to release and distribution, but it’s also why these remakes exist in the first place. While the PS5 release of Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection is timed for Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg to lead the way. Not discovered yet movie, The Last of Us Part I exists in support of an upcoming TV adaptation starring the actors. Game of Thrones’ Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. Originally scheduled for late 2022, the HBO series is now slated for Launched in early 2023.
Tends to be true of (successful) adaptations – both Bridgerton and Queen’s Gambit put their respective books back on bestseller lists – Sony is expected to sell more books of The Last of Us universe when the show premieres. And now, with the launch of this PS5 remake, it’s more of a modern product than an outdated one. In the best case scenario for Sony, the customer will buy both the PS5 and the game. I can already imagine Sony trying to cash in on the PS5 The Last of Us Part 1 bundle in 2023.
With more and more PlayStation games are turned into movies and TV shows, which seems to be the new future for studios whose properties are being tweaked. Naughty Dog’s 2021 and 2022 have been devoted entirely to remodeling. There is a standalone multiplayer part of The Last of Us Part II in the works, but who knows how its development has been influenced by these commercial goals. At the time it came out, Naughty Dog wouldn’t be working on a new entry for years.
Hopefully this will continue. With Sony expanding its mobile lineup, the Last of Us mobile spinoff is more likely than Part III at this stage. And if HBO refresh The Last of Us for a second season, I assume we’ll get to see The Last of Us Part 2 for PS5 and PC. Get ready to shell out Rs. 4,999.
Advantages:
- Looks, sounds, feels great
- On par with Part II, if not further
- Centuries before the PS4 Pro version
- Improve enemy AI behavior
- New Permadeath Feature
Defect:
- Priced like a new PS5 game
- No upgrade option for PS3, PS4 owners
- No 4K at 60fps or ray tracing
- There are not many players
- PC port sold separately
Rating (out of 10): 8
The Last of Us Part I is out Friday, September 2 on PlayStation 5. It will release later on Windows PC. Season 1 of The Last of Us is priced at Rs. 4,999 on PlayStation 5.
