September 24, 2022
01:15
One could doubt the interest of a new remake of the post-apocalyptic infiltration game. It was without counting on the extraordinary modernity of the game and its subject.
Rare are the titles that will have marked the video game as much as “The Last of Us”. In 2013, the PlayStation 3, an aging machine, makes a last stand of honor and shows the whole world what it is still capable of. “The Last of Us” is a tour de force, an action road movie as much as a bucolic drama that keeps the horror in the watermark. It is also a title that laid the foundations of consumer video games as we have known them for the past ten years.
The introduction of the game, one of the medium’s most dramatic and emotional passages, features Joel, a Texan family man facing the first signs of a zombie apocalypse. Once this prologue is played, we are projected 20 years later. The survivors organized themselves into autocratic and violent societies. Joel is a bruised man. He became a smuggler and smuggled various commodities out of a hypersecure city by a violent militia. He finds himself forced to break Ellie, a teenager, out of the overprotected walls of the city in order to hand her over to the Fireflies, a “terrorist” group in search of a cure for the epidemic which has brought down humanity.
It is in the evolution of the relationship between the two characters that lies the genius of the game. Each interaction is done in fluidity, each dialogue exudes naturalness
two is better
Because if “The Last of Us” is a road trip of infiltration in zombie territory, the greatest danger, in these devastated United States, comes from the other survivors rather than more or less infected monsters.
This remake for PS5 might seem vain, but rediscovering these settings teeming with details is a pleasure at all times and the game remains incredibly modern.
Forced by events to move forward together, the two characters will gradually tame each other until they become accomplices. It is, among other things, in the evolution of the relationship between the two characters that lies the genius of the game. Their rapprochement is felt in the player’s experience. While we play Joel, the latter is almost always accompanied by the young woman who helps him constantly. It signals the presence of enemies that we have not necessarily spotted, we give it the short ladder so that it opens up a passage that was inaccessible until then. Each interaction is done in a fluidity often copied but never equaled. Each dialogue exudes naturalness and rings true. It is therefore not surprising that we are so attached to the two protagonists. And that we vibrate so much when Joel begins to take Ellie under his wing.
©Sony
The game had a sequel, released two years ago on PlayStation 4, which admirably concludes the series by frontally questioning the violence inherent in its post-apocalyptic survival setting. Naughty Dog, the studio behind the saga, also took advantage of the release of the PS4 to release a remaster of the original game with finer production.
Adventure Game Standard Meter
This remake for PS5 might seem pointless. Especially when you consider its price of 80 euros. Suffice to say that when it was announced, we were not sure of the relevance of this new version.
This kind of rich, mature and eye-popping single-player experience has become almost inseparable from the PlayStation brand.
However, it must be recognized that rediscovering these recreated decors, teeming with details, remains a constant pleasure. The game remains incredibly modern. A number of titles released since have been openly inspired by it. We can, for example, cite the excellent “A Plague Tale”, released in 2019, which depicts a young girl who helps her little brother to evolve in a medieval France ravaged by war and the plague.
But it is above all Sony that owes him a good part of his image: over the years, this kind of rich, mature and eye-popping single-player experience has become almost inseparable from the PlayStation brand. Witness the reboot of “God of War”, which gave pride of place to a hero with proven paternity, “Death Stranding” or even “Detroit: Become Human”.
If we missed “The Last of Us” at the time, this remake is a perfect opportunity to understand why its legacy matters so much in the current video game landscape. Still todayit remains the yardstick of what single-player adventure gaming is. A title not to be missed under any circumstances.
The Last of Us Remake – Bande-annonce
Developped by
Naughty Dog
Published by Sony Interactive
80€
Available on Playstation 5 and soon on PC
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