Welcome to our review of the ground-up remake of The Last of Us, a typical Naughty Dog game out now on PS5!
Experience the emotional storytelling and unforgettable characters in The Last of Us, winner of over 200 Game of the Year awards. In a ravaged civilization, where infected and hardened survivors run rampant, Joel, a weary protagonist, is hired to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie out of a military quarantine zone. However, what starts as a small job soon transforms into a brutal cross-country journey.
Includes the complete The Last of Us single-player story and celebrated prequel chapter, Left Behind, which explores the events that changed the lives of Ellie and her best friend Riley forever. Rebuilt for the PlayStation 5: Completely rebuilt from the ground up using Naughty Dog’s latest PS5™ engine technology with advanced visual fidelity, fully integrated DualSense™ wireless controller features, and more.
A faithful remake: Experience the emotional storytelling and unforgettable characters of Joel and Ellie in The Last of Us, and explore the events that changed the lives of Ellie and her best friend Riley forever in the critically acclaimed prequel chapter, Left Behind. All-new experience: A total overhaul of the original experience, faithfully reproduced but incorporating modernized gameplay mechanics, improved controls, and expanded accessibility options. Feel immersed in improved environmental storytelling, effects, facial animations, and enhanced exploration and combat.
As much as this is originally a critically acclaimed entry in the game’s world, I had never played the original. I was a devout Nintendo player when this dropped the first time around and well, I will admit this would have been one of few games to make me buy the PlayStation back then. This was long before I joined GamingBoulevard and became a lover of all consoles with a green and red preference, Sony rarely has exclusives that really do it for me.
Now I have played Uncharted recently and while I enjoyed the game, pacing, and atmosphere, I felt like The Last of Us is in a way a sibling of the game, but without the high octane parkour and just more exploring and combat. Not that Uncharted has little combat, no no, TLOU just has a much better approach to this.
What I did find baffling though, there are some really weird design choices that really amused me. When you grab a molotov cocktail, for example, the game will light the bomb, but if you decide to swap to a gun, it just puts a lit Molotov into your pocket. That sounds very dangerous haha, it is not even the only one, just the most baffling one.
Luckily the story has a really strong sense of adventurous storytelling that just makes you stick in front of the TV instead of going to bed at 3 am on a working day, it really is that addictive. I do maybe wish for a little less sluggish movement at times. It just felt like Joel turning was very slow and except for the nearly instant 180, just turning 90 degrees feels like it takes ages.
What I really did enjoy, was how Ellie really helps you out more than you realize. She tends to pick up danger before I did. Kneeling down when enemies are nearby, taking more than decent shots at enemies when she finally gets her own gun, … She is by far my favorite character this year, I love her bad manners when she does not like someone, it reminds me of someone I see every day when I look in the mirror…
Now, let us talk graphics, as I never played the original entry, I have nothing to compare it to but I can say I did enjoy how it looked, underwater was just the right blurry, and walking through the spores was annoying and just so many great details were all top notch. Audio-wise, I often love to listen to music while playing, but not once did I turn on my music, I just let myself immerse into the game.
In conclusion, despite all my love for the game, I do feel like a lot of this game was more a deja vu, the game technically, rather than anything else, same studio and exactly the same gameplay. While the story is great, I just feel they could have done more with how the game performs. Quicker movements, … Just more than a great story. You rebuilt it from the ground up, but it just felt like it could have used some more polish.
