When Naughty Dog revealed The Last of Us Part 1 earlier this year, a complete visual remake of the original The Last of Us from 2013, we were a little surprised. There’s always a debate to be had about the timing of a re-release, and we wondered whether the new version would be different enough from the 2014 PS4 remaster and 2016 PS4 Pro patch to justify a purchase from newcomers to the seasons and series veterans alike. After spending some time with the final release, we have some answers – including comparisons between the new PS5 release and the prior PS3 and PS4 versions, the video modes available and the gameplay changes included.
First, let’s rewind. The Last of Us was the PS3’s swan song, a showpiece title released just months before the arrival of the PS4. The mix of storytelling, survival horror and action resonated with fans, becoming one of Naughty Dog’s most successful games ever. The technical challenge Naughty Dog created for itself was the creation of a world almost entirely devoid of electric lights – The Last of Us relies heavily on indirect lighting which, in 2013, was still very difficult to achieve even when leaning on pre-calculated techniques. Against the odds, Naughty Dog did manage to come up with a suitable solution to this problem – it’s far from perfect, mind you, but the world was convincingly lit and designed. The problem was that on PS3, the performance just didn’t hold up and many larger areas exhibited severe frame-rate issues that detracted from the experience.
This is where PS4 enters the picture. One year later, Naughty Dog released a Remastered version of the game for the new console offering higher resolutions and a smooth frame-rate – effectively overcoming the issues inherent in the original release. Naughty Dog returned to The Last of Us once again with that PS4 Pro update, allowing for up to native 4K rendering at 30fps. That PS4 Pro code also runs great on PS5, so what more could a native PS5 version offer?
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