The Last of Us Part I

The Last of Us Part I is a complete rebuild of the original 2013 game, built on the technology the studio developed for the second installment. Smuggler Joel must escort the girl Ellie across a ravaged United States twenty years after the outbreak of a fungal infection that turned most of the population into aggressive creatures. The journey across the continent, through quarantine zones, overgrown cities and abandoned universities, mainly serves as a framework for the relationship between two people who, at first, want nothing to do with each other.

Gameplay rests on stealth, improvisation and scarcity. You gather resources bit by bit and decide whether to craft a medkit, a molotov cocktail, or a knife for a silent takedown; every encounter is short, brutal, and can turn against you fast. The infected react to sound, human enemies try to flank you, and the listen mode gives just enough information for a plan, not certainty. The remake reworked the AI of both companions and enemies, added a large number of accessibility options, and also includes the Left Behind expansion. Fights can be solved with brute force too, but the game always shows what that cost you, and a lack of ammunition reliably sends the player back into the shadows.

On PlayStation 5, the game runs in high resolution with a choice between quality and performance modes, offers practically instant loading, haptic feedback for shooting and drawing the bow, and reworked character models with far more detailed facial animation. The sound design and Gustavo Santaolalla's score, which gets by on just a few guitar notes, carry entire passages without a single word. Discussion around the game mostly focused on whether the remake was needed so soon and on its price, but the execution itself was received as technically first-rate. Today it's the most complete way to experience a story that shifted how big-budget games handle narrative. Bonus content, including a challenge mode, character models, and developer commentary, adds extra value for those who already know the story well.