The Last Of Us Part 1 Deep Dive Shows Off New PS5 Features And Improvements

Despite its title, we haven't actually seen the last of "The Last of Us." It's only been nine years since Naughty Dog released the original survival horror drama on the PlayStation 3, and it's only been eight years since the studio remastered it for the PlayStation 4 over one year later. A complete remake of "The Last of Us," designated as a PlayStation 5 exclusive, has been rumored since as early as April 2021. Since then, gamers across social media boards like Reddit have held a series of increasingly intense debates over whether or not Naughty Dog's tale about a man escorting his adoptive daughter through a post-apocalyptic America is deserving of yet another remaster or remake so soon after its original release. Not to mention, "The Last of Us: Remastered" for the PS4 arguably looks better than many new games released for the first time in 2022.

"The Last of Us" and its sequel have sold plenty of copies. The hyper-detailed "The Last of Us: Part 2" has sold over 10 million copies as of June 2022, according to Naughty Dog. For full disclosure, "The Last of Us: Part 2" was developed with such cinema-like production values at the core of its design philosophy that many employees complained of 12-hour workdays (via Kotaku), and it's highly possible that the associated crunch is why the game's release was pushed off several times. However, informed by the knowledge that these games do pay off, Sony and Naughty Dog went full-steam ahead on a remake of the original, and we finally have new details about how this remake will actually play.

Thanks to a recent blog post from Sony, we can now see "The Last of Us: Part 1" in action for ourselves. As many suspected, it is now confirmed to be a PS5 exclusive, but it sounds like it will use every one of the PS5's tricks, including its rapid M.2 SSD storage and its highly tactile DualSense controller, to deliver a cinematic experience more engaging than the original.

Haptic feedback, combined with resistance from the DualSense controller's adaptive triggers, is the standout feature in this announcement. This can very quickly change the way you approach "The Last of Us: Part 1" in certain instances. For example, when using the bow, your trigger finger will receive physical resistance due to the way the adaptive triggers push back on your fingers to simulate an actual bow's tension. This can rapidly increase the difficulty of combat in tense instances when implemented properly, and it sounds like you'll be able to feel certain cues in the environment as well. When paired with the PS5's 3D audio engine, these combined features could add tension to many of the horror-driven moments that pockmark the campaign.

Loading times, AI, and visuals are also getting a huge bump, and it sounds like both enemies and allies will be able to predict the player's movement in a limited capacity, not unlike how they behaved in "The Last of Us: Part 2". "The Last of Us: Part 1" will be available to PS5 owners on September 2, and it's slated to cost approximately $70 at release.