A stunning remake of one of the best stories in gaming, held back only by asking full price for a game most players have already finished.
The Last of Us Part I first hit PS5 back in September 2022, and the PC port that followed in March smoothed over most of the rough edges from that launch, so it's worth revisiting now that the dust has settled on both ends. This is Naughty Dog's ground-up remake of the 2013 original, rebuilt on the Part II engine rather than just upscaled, and the difference in how Joel and Ellie's faces carry a scene is immediately obvious to anyone who played the PS3 version.
The visual jump is real. Facial animation carries entire scenes that used to rely on voice acting alone, environmental storytelling in abandoned houses and overgrown streets rewards actually stopping to look around, and lighting does more emotional work in the quiet moments than the original game's engine was ever capable of. If you've only played this story through the 2014 Remastered version, the difference is closer to a different game than a touched-up one.
“Ellie's face carries scenes the original engine simply couldn't.”
Combat and stealth got a real overhaul too, not just a coat of paint. Enemy AI reacts more like it does in Part II, flanking and calling out your position convincingly, and the expanded accessibility options, dozens of them, covering everything from audio cues to full navigation assistance, are some of the most thorough I've seen in any game. That alone is worth acknowledging even if you never touch a single one of them.
The story is still the reason to play this. Joel and Ellie's journey across a ruined United States remains one of the best-told stories in the medium, carried by Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson performances that hold up next to anything Naughty Dog has done since. If you've never played it, this is unquestionably the version to start with.
If you have played it, there's nothing new here. It's beat for beat the same story as 2013, the same story as the 2014 remaster, with a new permadeath mode and some cut content restored as extras but nothing that changes the shape of the campaign you already know. That's not a flaw in the writing. It's a real question for anyone deciding whether to pay full price for a third trip through the same year.
Seventy dollars is a lot to ask from anyone who already owns this game twice, and Naughty Dog knows exactly who's buying it anyway. That's a fair criticism of the pricing, not the remake itself, but it's worth going in with your eyes open about what you're actually paying for.
New players should start here without hesitation, it's the best-looking, best-playing version of one of gaming's best stories. Returning players should know exactly what they're signing up for: the same journey, dressed up in a way that makes it easy to forget how long ago you first took it.