Sony released a ten-minute-long trailer for The Last of Us Part 1 on Thursday, where the game’s directors talk through some of the improvements coming in the PlayStation 5 remake of Naughty Dog’s iconic game. The trailer takes plenty of opportunities to show off the improved graphics (which look as nice as they have in the leaked screenshots, but it’s not like the game was ugly on the PS3 or PS4), but the most interesting involve changes to the gameplay — Naughty Dog says that the AI for enemies and companions will be improved, that there will be some extra gameplay modes, and that the game’s cutscenes will have audio descriptions for accessibility.
When it was originally released in 2013, The Last of Us’ AI was nothing special. The remake, however, apparently builds off of The Last of Us Part 2’s more modern system for controlling NPCs, making them better at working together and coming up with tactics more complex than “run straight at the man with the shotgun.” According to Neil Druckmann, creative director of both Last of Us games, this makes for more intense fights. Your companions’ AI has also apparently gotten an upgrade, which should hopefully avoid immersion-breaking experiences where Ellie or Henry run right in front of an enemy who then has to act like they didn’t notice.
In terms of gameplay modes, the remake will apparently include a permadeath mode for those who want to really try their hand at surviving a zombie (er, sorry, “infected”) apocalypse. There’s also a speed run mode, though the trailer offers pretty much no details on that other than that the game will display a timer in the upper right corner.
The trailer includes some other neat details as well — apparently the character animation system has gotten an overhaul, the game will have improved haptics that’ll supposedly make it feel like you’re actually petting a giraffe in that one famous scene, and Naughty Dog details some of the things it’s doing with the adaptive triggers, one of the PS5’s best features. If you’re at all interested in the remake I’d recommend checking it out.
Personally I’m still not sure whether all of this is enough to make me want to replay the game (I’ve already gone through it once on the PS3, and then played the PS4 remaster), but it does seem like it’ll be worth picking up for people who have never experienced it, or who have been looking for an excuse to do another playthrough. The Last Of Us Part 1 is set to release for PlayStation 5 on September 2nd, and for PC at some point in the future.
