a beautiful new lens - The Last of Us Part I (PS5) Review

The Last of Us was first released in 2013 for the PS3 and it was an action adventure game with survival horror elements. Set in a post-apocalyptic United States, you play as Joel, an old hardened smuggler who needs to get an immune 14 year old girl, Ellie, across the country to a militia group known as the Fireflies who are developing a vaccine to cure the world from a deadly fungal infection. Along the way, Joel and Ellie resist and develop a father-and-daughter relationship after navigating a year-long road trip and surviving some traumatizing events.

With that said, I did not like The Last of Us when I first played it. Not anything to do with its story, but because of its gameplay. And I understand that might also be me not being able to remove myself from my perspective of how I view and play games today, but there’s also no denying that The Last of Us felt pretty dated to play.

However, I think it’s worth noting that I still understand why this game is so important. On PS3 hardware, the team at Naughty Dog was able to tell such a deep story with complex characters through stellar motion-capture performances and cutscenes that people are still talking about today.

About a month ago, Naughty Dog released The Last of Us Part I for the PS5, making it the third time TLOU has been rereleased. But unlike The Last of Us Remastered for the PS4, Naughty Dog completely rebuilt Part 1 to take advantage of the PS5’s capabilities as opposed to simply improving graphical textures and framerate.

One glaring issue for a lot of consumers is going to be its $70 price tag. I, like many others, was confused why this remake was being made in the first place, let alone costing $70. While I agree it’s a pretty steep asking price, I think it’s silly to act like Naughty Dog is the first to pull off this “full-priced-remake” scenario. That’s not me trying to justify the $70 price tag on a game that’s still pretty accessible for those with a PS4, but it is worth addressing how Naughty Dog has been under fire recently since the controversial reception of The Last of Us Part II.

As someone who was not really into the original Last of Us, I found myself finally seeing why this game and story means so much to people after beating The Last of Us Part I.

“They look SO human”, I kept saying to myself throughout the game.

Whether or not this game is a worthy purchase for you is all up to you, the consumer. As much of a non-answer as that is, it’s all about whether or not you are willing to drop $70 in this economy on a game you may or may not have already played. In my specific case, I was taking a risk on a game I was not originally a fan of and hoping I would be able to enjoy this definitive and up-to-date experience and I was not disappointed.

Upon starting it up, I was fresh off of beating Part II which mechanically and graphically streamlines the experience found in TLOU. And that transition from Part II back to Part I was SO smooth. And to me, the fact that Part I and Part II can be played back-to-back without such a glaring difference between the two of them makes the experience of playing through Part I worthwhile.

For me, the more important mark that this remake needed to check was the gameplay side of things. While The Last of Us Part I remains the same in terms of level design and mechanics, the way it feels to control just feels so much faster and smoother. Naughty Dog adopted certain systems and mechanics from Part II, like upgrading your weapons and the improved combat AI, but everything is relatively designed the same way. And so with the added accessibility features and the streamlined gameplay, I found myself really enjoying my time with TLOU Part I.

When I rolled credits on TLOU Remastered a couple years ago, I had zero intention of revisiting this game because I was pretty confident that it just was not my kind of experience. But after binge-playing Part II and Part I back-to-back, I can confidently say I finally understand this franchise a lot better than I did before and intend to return to these games again.

At this point, it all comes down to personal taste. Some people could not care less about the updated performance capture or improved gameplay. Some people are perfectly fine with how this game runs on PS3 and that is perfectly fine. For me personally, I needed to see this game through an entirely new lens to fully appreciate it and see what The Last of Us means to so many people.