The Last Of Us Pt 1 remake review: Higher-fidelity blood, sweat, and tears

Rambie

Ars Scholae Palatinae
923
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>It is the best version yet of an easily recommended PlayStation-exclusive adventure

There's a PC version on the way; so worth holding off if that's your thing.

As a non-console gamer I've never played TLOU so looking forward to this release on PC. I've heard many great things about this game and pt2 from friends so will be nice to get the play part 1 myself *soon*.
 
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Celery Man

Ars Legatus Legionis
10,060
If you’ve never played The Last of Us and have a PS5, get this immediately. Or get the PS4 remaster. It is, hands down, one of the best games of all time. It’s the only game that I finished and immediately re-played because I didn’t want it to end.
That’s me with TLOU Part II. I love that game. And I have a good mind to buy this one. Fantastic games.

I love the second one also, but for slightly different reasons.

(Warning: SPOILERS FOR TLOU2 BELOW)

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.

(Warning: Also I call a game "art" so if that's too pretentious skip past)

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.

TLoU 1 is a nearly perfect game. The total length, the pacing, the narrative, the gameplay, the acting, the music, the setting... it all comes together to make one of the most emotionally draining and fulfilling gaming experiences I've had. And the brutality of the combat is a fantastic commentary on violence in games... even if you're desensitized to it, like most of us are, there's still something uncomfortably grotesque about mashing someone's head in with a brick while Ellie goes "Jesus, Joel..."

TLoU 2, though, is art. The way it focuses on upending player expectations is brilliant. The way it confounds the ideas of "protagonist" and "antagonist". The way it makes it seem like you'll have lots of time with a character, but then kills them off right away. The way it completely shifts the narrative focus halfway through. And the way you are forced to do things you absolutely do not want to do in order to finish the game. The final showdown on the beach is so emotionally brutal... I was yelling at the screen, FFS, just go home, no one wants to do this anymore. And then she does go home... to what? (And on top of that, the gameplay is impeccable - everything the first game was and more. And the facial animations... the systems they used* to capture that level of detail makes the acting so much more powerful.

(... frak, I've got to start a New Game+ on TLoU2, I haven't played it since I finished it)

* I do know how they did it, but I can't go into details for reasons >_> Suffice it to say TLoU2 is only the beginning of a generation of games with very, very realistic facial animations.
 
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one of the few games I barely got into and never finished. When it came out on the PS3, my oldest kid looked just like the daughter in the opening sequence. She was really excited that the character was there, etc, got through the opening and ....

It was very quiet in the room, she got up, head hanging down, walked out. Have yet to try it again. Even got it on PS4 and we talked about it when it came but never had the heart to start it.
 
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D

Deleted member 553147

Guest
If you’ve never played The Last of Us and have a PS5, get this immediately. Or get the PS4 remaster. It is, hands down, one of the best games of all time. It’s the only game that I finished and immediately re-played because I didn’t want it to end.
That’s me with TLOU Part II. I love that game. And I have a good mind to buy this one. Fantastic games.

I love the second one also, but for slightly different reasons.

(Warning: SPOILERS FOR TLOU2 BELOW)

.

.

(Warning: Also I call a game "art" so if that's too pretentious skip past)

.

.

TLoU 1 is a nearly perfect game. The total length, the pacing, the narrative, the gameplay, the acting, the music, the setting... it all comes together to make one of the most emotionally draining and fulfilling gaming experiences I've had. And the brutality of the combat is a fantastic commentary on violence in games... even if you're desensitized to it, like most of us are, there's still something uncomfortably grotesque about mashing someone's head in with a brick while Ellie goes "Jesus, Joel..."

TLoU 2, though, is art. The way it focuses on upending player expectations is brilliant. The way it confounds the ideas of "protagonist" and "antagonist". The way it makes it seem like you'll have lots of time with a character, but then kills them off right away. The way it completely shifts the narrative focus halfway through. And the way you are forced to do things you absolutely do not want to do in order to finish the game. The final showdown on the beach is so emotionally brutal... I was yelling at the screen, FFS, just go home, no one wants to do this anymore. And then she does go home... to what? (And on top of that, the gameplay is impeccable - everything the first game was and more. And the facial animations... the systems they used* to capture that level of detail makes the acting so much more powerful.

(... frak, I've got to start a New Game+ on TLoU2, I haven't played it since I finished it)

* I do know how they did it, but I can't go into details for reasons >_> Suffice it to say TLoU2 is only the beginning of a generation of games with very, very realistic facial animations.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. TLOU II was a fantastic game, fantastic gameplay, fantastic story, fantastic characters, and the emotional impacts and highs and lows throughout were just incredible. And like you said - The way the game throws all the emotions of violence, vengeance, hopelessness, good and bad choices and despair at you and makes you actually feel it was just amazing.
I was so torn between wanting to go through more of the story and not wanting the game to end…
 
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As someone who has never played TLOF but has the original release version(both standard and COLLECTORS edition) NIB for PS3, as well as the Remastered version for PS4, along with whatever version they gave away for free for PS+ peeps I have one question.

Does it matter which version I play thru 1st?

i.e. original release version on PS3 or remastered version on PS4 ?


Or should I wait for the requisite $20 price point for this version on **Black Friday, buy that, and play it?

**edit NVM, I do not have a PS5 and won't for many, many moons.. extensive back catalog as you can tell from this post.. Still have Parasite EVE NIB for psOne, h311 I even have Final Fantasy sealed, NIB for snes that I never got to yet...
 
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PaulWTAMU

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(and it's not a bad way to win some hearts and minds in the PC gaming crowd)

As someone who is unlikely to buy a new console, I love it. Consoles have hit a price point I find unpalatable, but I'm entirely willing to sink an extra 500-700 into a PC over the cost of a basic office box to make it gaming capable (not rational I know, but true).
 
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As someone who has never played TLOF but has the original release version(both standard and COLLECTORS edition) NIB for PS3, as well as the Remastered version for PS4, along with whatever version they gave away for free for PS+ peeps I have one question.

Does it matter which version I play thru 1st?

i.e. original release version on PS3 or remastered version on PS4 ?


Or should I wait for the requisite $20 price point for this version on **Black Friday, buy that, and play it?

**edit NVM, I do not have a PS5 and won't for many, many moons.. extensive back catalog as you can tell from this post.. Still have Parasite EVE NIB for psOne, h311 I even have Final Fantasy sealed, NIB for snes that I never got to yet...

?? They're the same game, you don't need to play both versions, it would be a waste of time
 
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BrangdonJ

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one of the few games I barely got into and never finished. When it came out on the PS3, my oldest kid looked just like the daughter in the opening sequence. She was really excited that the character was there, etc, got through the opening and ....

It was very quiet in the room, she got up, head hanging down, walked out. Have yet to try it again. Even got it on PS4 and we talked about it when it came but never had the heart to start it.
I finished the first game and the addon, and quit part way through the second game. I was put off by the character you play as being such a dick. Not just at the end, but from the start - the ending of the first game was no surprise because it was so clear what a selfish and unthinking person the protagonist was from quite early on. The second game was even worse. At no point relatable, or even sane. Admittedly I eventually stopped playing because it got too hard (too many dogs), but I might have persevered had I been enjoying it more.
 
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1 (2 / -1)

jey9

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Now that I'm playing it, I have no issue with this Remake existing and I disagree with people who think it was too soon. There's certainly room to disagree about the price and value proposition, but gameplay wise this is a big step up.

Remember that the PS4 Remaster didn't really affect gameplay at all. Performance improved (but not as much as this), but gameplay was basically the same as it was in the PS3 version. If you play a lot of shooters, you know how much shooting controls from the 2000s sucked on consoles.

This Remake gives you full granular control over aiming vs looking, vertical vs horizontal, acceleration, deadzones, FoV, full rebindable controls and adaptive triggers. Simply put, in terms of gameplay, this is a massive step up from TLoU Remastered. It's a shame it's not at TLoU 2's level, but still, it's no longer actively detracting from the experience like the old version was.

Not to mention all the goodies in the Accessibility menu. I think every player needs to look through the Accessibility options because there's a lot of stuff that'll improve your experience, even if you don't have any disabilities. It's kind of a shame that it's labeled that way, because a lot of the stuff in there isn't just about accessibility, it's about fun.
 
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influentialish

Smack-Fu Master, in training
1
This costing $70 is still making it a no go for me. Sounds like it would be worth grabbing during the winter sales at $40-50.

This is a Nintendo level of milking a remake, and unlike Skyward Sword there was a perfectly decent way to play this already on current hardware.

Edit: It's obvious that the game itself is great and the remaster pretty excellent. I just don't like the pricing to be clear.
This just about describes the gaming industry these days....

Remake everything, even if it's less than 10 years old...
So, You guys know how 70bucks kinda stings, what with inflation and all? Also, Moores Law of technological progress.. a lot has changed in the last decade, probably more progress made than all the years in gaming since its inception.. .. and game developers also live in our "society", are subject to the same weakened dollar as everyone else.. (just for reference, the dollar has inflated 100 percent since 2001, and most of that in the last 5 years, especially when covid hit and they quadrupled the money supply, gave it to their buddies while everyone was bickering over whose masked up or not..) i mean, if sony is so bad, theres always xboxs 'battl- ahem, i mean, game pass', of course, their trade off is they don't really make, well, games, and if youre not brand new to gaming, you've already played everything anyways.. personally, I think it's ridiculous and insulting that y'all feel entitled to pay the same price that you did for the ps3 version 10 years ago.. you don't need to buy a third copy on day 1 if you think it's too expensive, but you can't accuse naughty dog of a cash grab because their publisher lists all ps5 titles at 70.. wasnt even NDs decision.. never has been.. I haven't pre-ordered or bought a game day one since Cyberpunk, and I still haven't played the remake, but if any studio deserves to sell their games for 70, it's Naughty Dog.. I'd pay 100 for pt3 if it turns out to be a banger.. it's not like another ps4 remaster everyone happily bought again because they loved it so much on ps3.. it's basically tlou2, with a pt1 skin on it, actually better than pt2 in some aspects, at least on par.. should Naughty Dog have to sell the Remake to new buyers for 40, just to make everyone whose already played it happy?.. i can get behind discounts for existing loyal customers, but if its your first purchase of the IP, ND desrves the full list price, whatever that is... let me put it this way.. if you worked at Naughty Dog, would you be okay if after 10 years, they were paying you the same wage? We the customer are in a way, NDs employers, we pay their salaries in exchange for some of the best games of all time.. so many here claiming it's such a great game, one of The Goat, then out the other side of their mouth, ish-talking the developers like they're making a mobile TLOU gatcha game for the Chinese market.. it's just bizarre to me the games biggest fans can turn on the games creators like that, especially since they told us from the beginning the scope of the remake.. I could maybe get on board with the criticism if it was just another remaster, but again, they injected all the tech from part 2, minus prone and dodge, which I'm glad, because that's not how part 1 played, and retains the feeling of true character progression and something to look forward to with the sequels new features.. you dont wish your first time could have been the ReMake version? I'm not sure how I stumbled across this thread, but I'm disappointed in all y'all, not just who I'm replying to.. you know who you are..
I'm still amazed that Sony had the audacity to pull this shit. A full-priced remake of a remake that you can still play on the current system is a really bad look. Especially while Microsoft is banking hard on free upgrades to past generation games. You can tell how complacent current day SIE is getting with their market leader position.
Whoa, xbox is offering free remakes to their top tier exclusive IPs? That's insane!

Not. AI upscaling and frame generation is hardly a free upgrade.. its the same game with post processing applied.. graphics cards do the same ish for PCs.. and you can play all except like a dozen ps4 games on ps5, with developers often deploying patches for ps5 optimization (hey.. free upgrade)

Sony is hardly getting complacent, in fact, I'd say you're worried about the wrong thing.. theyre not resting on their laurels, they're shifting half of their entire companies resources to multi-player live service titles.. That! Is what should be concerning to consumers, and also to xbox, because Sonys live service titles will be exclusive, pulling a significant portion of players out of the greater market and into a closed ecosystem..

Sony isn't perfect, but pretending xbox is better both technically and morally, is so disingenuous.. the series X didn't even have a big flagship launch title (infinite) for a year after everyone bought their console.. xbox doesn't care about games as an artform, they just want you to pay them month after month forever, then convince you infinite for free is so generous and awesome, and its plagued with microtransactions.. their single player first person shooter with a tacked on multiplayer is a video game to them, it's a money machine.. the campaign was the worst yet, but by pretending to innovate by "going open world", tricked people into thinking it would be something new, when really, that decision ruined any chance for a narrative on par with the focused linear design of the original trilogy.. somehow Guerilla Games can go from Killzone corridor shooter to Horizon Zero Dawn and it was one of the best of last gen.. so why can't xboxs best and brightest make it work? now redfall.. xbox just doesn't G.. A.. F..

So I ask, Sony's audacity what now?
 
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