Skip to main content

The Last of Us Part I is exciting, but not for the reason you think

The Last of Us Part I, Naughty Dog’s from-the-ground-up rebuild of the PS3 classic, might initially sound like one of the most unnecessary remakes ever because a fairly modern remaster of the game is available for PS4 and backward compatible with the PS5. But this remake does have some important merits that go far beyond its noticeable, but not overwhelmingly impressive visual upgrade. Namely, The Last of Us Part 1 is shaping up to be more approachable and accessible to all types of players. 

A PlayStation Blog post that followed the game’s Summer Game Fest debut proclaimed that Naughty Dog “modernized gameplay, improved controls, and expanded accessibility options.” Although the remake might seem unnecessary for a lot of players, those improvements will help ensure that more people than ever can experience an all-time classic for the first time. 

Related Videos

Approachable and accessible 

As the accessibility focused website Can I Play That? pointed out in an editorial when the remake’s existence first leaked, one of the best potential aspects of a The Last of Us remake is that it would make the classic accessible to more people than ever before. 

“But I’m thinking that this could be an incredible opportunity for Naughty Dog to remake the original game while carrying the accessibility features in The Last of Us Part 2 over,” Ben Bayliss wrote. “That way, disabled players who were excluded from enjoying the original game, due to it being inaccessible, will be able to experience it without those concerns of it being unplayable.”

Lots of chatter about The Last of Us Remake today, so we'd like to reshare this article!

"…this could be an incredible opportunity for Naughty Dog to remake the original game while carrying the accessibility features in The Last of Us Part 2 over."https://t.co/B9dPjklSsi

— Can I Play That? (@CanIPlayThat) June 9, 2022

The Last of Us is a truly fantastic experience, and we agree that it’s only a good thing if more people than ever can play and connect with one of the best games of the last decade. The Last of Us Part I can expand upon the great visual, auditory, and gameplay-focused accessibility options from The Last of Us Part IIenabling disabled people to enjoy its predecessor in a way that was simply impossible with the 2013 original. 

For example, a high-contrast display mode renders the game in a way that makes it easier for people with visual impairments to make out what objects are. Traversal and combat audio cues and highly customizable subtitles ensure that Deaf people can still have a clear idea of everything that’s happening in the game. Players could even customize how much damage they take, how aware enemies are during stealth, how scarce or common resources are, and more to make the game as easy or as tough as they needed it to be. 

Giving players the tools to make these tweaks means the whole experience will be easier to digest for players of all skill levels. These changes will redefine The Last of Us’ experience more than any story and narrative changes will. If The Last Us Part I follows through with these changes, then it can show developers that accessibility options are just as, if not even more, important than vast visual changes in remakes of more modern games.

The most important changes

The Last of Us’ story is so well done that the remake doesn’t really need to change or expand upon it much to still be amazing. The visuals were also already great on PS3 and PS4, so the remake’s glow-up isn’t as impressive as something like Final Fantasy VII Remake. Because of that, The Last of Us is an odd game to remake, but will also make it a great case study that shows how adding accessibility options benefits remakes. 

Normally, remasters and remakes are judged on how significant the visual improvements are. But we’re now at the point that PS3 and PS4 games that already looked great are being remade, and visual changes aren’t as awe-inspiring as they once were when leaps in power between console generations were more significant. As such, more focus will be put on their gameplay tweaks.

Ellie and Riley look at each other in The Last of Us Part 1's version of Left Behind.

This isn’t a completely foreign concept for video game remasters and remakes. Many difficult retro games get rewind or save state features when rereleased on modern systems. These are accessibility options that ensure more people can experience the classics. The more in-depth visual, auditory, and difficulty-focused The Last of Us Part II accessibility options that we want to see in The Last of Us Part I are simply a more thorough version of this. 

Many games from the PS3 and PS4 generations lack helpful accessibility options. It’s an extremely beneficial area to improve in, so it’s something developers should be paying attention to as they remake games from those generations.  Accessibility options will always be something that expand the reach of a video game’s audience and enable more people to enjoy fantastic games. As such, The Last of Us Part I provides the game industry with a moment to rethink what remaking games really means.

The Last of Us Part I will be released for PS5 on September 2.

Editors' Recommendations

Don’t start the Resident Evil 4 remake before playing these 5 games
Saddler looms in front of amber in the Resident Evil 4 remake.

Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 remake is just a few days away and the anticipation couldn’t be higher. After a wave of glowing reviews, fans of the GameCube classic are ready to have their heads chainsawed off all over again. That wait will come to an end on Friday, March 24, but impatient players may find themselves looking for a way to kill the time until then.

If you’re in the boat, or simply want to properly prepare yourself for the remake, we’re here to help. Part of the Resident Evil 4 remake’s appeal is the way it engages with not just the original game or the series’ past, but the 20 years’ worth of gaming history that would follow it. With a game as important and influential as Resident Evil 4, you don’t need to go far to see how it impacted the action-adventure genre. The remake shines because it’s seemingly aware of that idea, examining the original through a modern lens.

Read more
You need to get this oddball Zelda game for free before the 3DS eShop closes
legend of zelda twilight princess nintendo wii grandma grandmother reddit 755 hours

The day of reckoning is fast approaching: The Nintendo 3DS and Wii U eShop isclosing down on March 27. When that happens, you’ll no longer be able to make any digital purchases on those systems. Considering that several games on each platform only ever got digital releases, it’s creating a bit of a preservation nightmare. Hidden gems that never came to another platform, like Affordable Space Adventures, will be totally lost to time.

But it isn’t just obscure indies that are impacted by that change: One of Nintendo’s biggest franchises is about to lose a piece of its storied history. You’ve only got just over a week to grab a certain Legend of Zelda game before it disappears forever -- though it’s probably not one you’re expecting.

Read more
Atlas Fallen unexpectedly gives Forspoken some real competition
Two Atlas Fallen characters stand together in key art.

Atlas Fallen has the potential to surprise a lot of people. Although it's launching in just two months, we haven't seen much about this new game from The Surge developer Deck13 and publisher Focus Entertainment since its reveal at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2022. That's a shame because after going hands-on with an early build of it, I've found that Atlas Fallen has the potential to appeal to people who didn't like one of the year's most divisive titles: Forspoken. 
Atlas Fallen - World Premiere Reveal Trailer | Gamescom Opening Night Live 2022
Square Enix's open-world action RPG featured some neat ideas with its fast-paced magical combat and freeing traversal abilities, but many people couldn't get into it. While more focused on melee combat than magic, Atlas Fallen is a similarly ambitious open-world game that delivers satisfying movement and action that's different from the norm. That makes it a game that might scratch some itches that Forspoken didn't fully reach due to its heavily criticized writing. If it's not on your radar yet, you might want to know what Atlas Fallen has to offer.
Encouraged exploration
Based on my demo, I'm not fully sure what to expect from Atlas Fallen's mysterious story yet. The basic premise is that player was a person from the lowest caste in this world's society who was bonded with an ancient gauntlet. That gauntlet has an amnesic spirit named Nyaal living inside it and is now trying to save the world from gods that have left it in desert-filled ruins. The narrative wasn't a big focus in my preview build, though, and the script is full of jargon that probably will only make sense once I play more of the game.
A talking companion bonded to the player's arm and hand is already an unexpected narrative coincidence between Forspoken and Atlas Fallen. But neither game's story is the appeal of either to me: It's their fun traversal and combat that interest me. The few seconds of Atlas Fallen's sand-surfing and fighting in its Gamescom trailer caught my eye last year, and both lived up to the hype.
 
As I worked my way out of a cave at the start of the demo, I learned how to raise large structures out of the ground, surf across large patches of sand, and dash through the air with the help of my gauntlet. After I entered the game's open world, I could play around with all my movement options and found them to be a treat. Open-ended games with large worlds like Atlas Fallen can live or die on how satisfying they are to explore, and making movement fun is a crucial way developers can make traversal enjoyable.
Forspoken was able to capture some of that magic despite its problems, and it looks like Atlas Fallen has too. Of course, that's only one part of the game, as players will run into many enemy Wraiths and need to fight them. That's where Atlas Fallen's engaging combat system comes into play.
Satisfying combat
Deck13 and Focus Entertainment had yet to go into much detail about Atlas Fallen's combat before now, so I was shocked by how unique it was. The core combat revolves around attacking, dodging, and parrying, with weapons shapeshifting as you use them in different ways. It's faster-paced than I expected from a developer who previously made Souslikes, but it's the Ascension system that really caught my attention.
In between fights, players can equip their character with Essence Stones that buff or add abilities, assigning them to one of three tiers in the process. Once they are in a fight, attacking and defeating enemies causes players to gain momentum, which fills a bar at the bottom left of the screen. As this bar fills, or "ascends," players gradually gain those Essence Stone abilities, getting more powerful the more aggressive they are.
Ascending does come with a catch: The more momentum you build, the more damage you take. Players can counteract this by equipping defensive or health-related Essence Stones or using "Shatter" once an Ascension tier is filled to deal lots of damage and crystalize enemies for a short while. To succeed in Atlas Fallen, I needed to fight aggressively, but fights would quickly turn in the enemy's favor if I missed a crucial parry or dodge when I had lots of momentum.

This system gives each fight a push-and-pull feeling not common in action games. Most of the time, games like to make players feel significantly more powerful or weaker than everything around them; Atlas Fallen does both. This unique system hasn't gotten more attention and promotion, but it ultimately is what makes Atlas Fallen stand out the most at the moment.
There's something exciting about how mysterious this game still is to me, as that means there could be lots of surprises when players finally get to try the whole thing in a couple of months. It's shaping up to be an unexpected, almost accidental alternative to Forspoken. If you're still looking for an action-heavy RPG with innovative movement and combat gameplay ideas, Atlas Fallen should be on your radar.
Atlas Fallen will launch for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on May 16.

Read more