PostedAugust 31, 2022, 5:12 PM
Video game – TestDid “The Last of Us” need to get another makeover?
Nine years after its release on PlayStation 3, the mythical game of Naugthy Dog returns transformed for the PS5. We got back into it.
Joel and Ellie on a journey full of pitfalls that will lead them to Salt Lake City.
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Reworked graphical effects.
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Released in June 2013 on a PlayStation 3 at the end of its life, with the benefit of a patching in July 2014 for the PS4, “The Last of US – Part I” comes out this Friday, September 2, 2022 in a version specially designed for the PS5 ( just before a PC version announced but not yet precisely dated). According to its developers, Naugthy Dog, and publisher, Sony Interactive Entertainment, it’s a top-to-bottom restoration, not a more basic “remaster” like the 2014 version was.
The story is unchanged: the United States is overwhelmed by a pandemic that makes infected people highly contagious and particularly aggressive. Joel, a family man, flees with his daughter Sarah and his brother Tommy and tries to reach a safer area as chaos grips the region. Their escape takes a tragic turn. Sarah loses her life. This inaugural sequence has lost none of its dramatic force and remains to this day one of the most striking openings ever imagined for a narrative video game.
When Joel met Ellie
Twenty years later, Joel survives on a continent where the law of the jungle reigns. Circumstances mean that he will have to cross the country in ruins to bring Ellie, an infected but strangely immune teenager, to a medical center.
Having reached the end of the adventure (and of an extension that fills in a few holes), we have rediscovered a game that combines the exploration of demarcated areas (the world is not open), the management of rare means of survival ( weapons, ammunition, care) and fights against human factions and against the infected, sometimes combining direct confrontation, sometimes infiltration. In our view, “The Last of Us – Part I” remains worthy of a place in the pantheon of this type of game if only by the sheer force of a dramatic construction rarely seen at such a level of quality.
We haven’t been able to persuade ourselves, however, that this remake surpasses the original enough at its heart to necessarily justify a new version, however neat it may be. In short, we are not sure that those who have played or who can still play “The Last of Us” PS4 version (and also on PS5 via backward compatibility) will see their experience fundamentally transformed.
Undeniably more beautiful
The game is undeniably more beautiful. Entirely redone, the bodily expressions, the faces in particular, are striking. The new graphic engine chosen, the same as “The Last of Us – Part II” even introduces, and for the better, significant changes in tone. But the emotions that conveyed the previous versions remained the same, the graphics and animations of the time already managed to restore them in a convincing way. Same for the gameplay which only introduces a novelty (more or less sensitive depending on the difficulty mode chosen): a reworked artificial intelligence. This is not to denigrate the tremendous restoration work done to say that. Just that the original version, already very successful, has remained so today despite the evolution of tools and possibilities. Suddenly, the contrast produced by this titanic work may be obvious, it may seem marginal.
Accessibility options
A point could however convince those who have never reached the end of the adventure, either blocked by an obstacle that they could not overcome, or tired of the repetitiveness of certain imposed sequences of actions, infiltration and of crafting. The new version incorporates certain options that facilitate progression (others, such as infinite ammunition, are unlocked once the game is completed for the first time).
This is why Sony’s decision to position the game as a novelty billed at the price of an unpublished blockbuster is controversial. Personally, our curiosity would have prevailed, but the factors that tip the balance are subjective and will not necessarily be yours.
Signs that gaming is in crisis
Sinking into nostalgia and repetition, victim of a shortage of components which always makes it difficult to access new generation consoles and which slows down the arrival of significant novelties, the video game industry is undeniably going through a crisis. Last factor to date, the very recent announcement by Sony of its inability to maintain the recommended retail price of the PS5 at 399 or 499 francs / euros.
In Europe in particular (but with the notable exception of the United States), it is now some 50 euros more that you have to pay to acquire one of the two precious ones, one without a physical disk drive, the other with. Blame it in part on inflation, says Jim Ryan, head of Sony’s video game division and regular bearer of bad news. This is the first time in the history of this industry that a manufacturer announces a price increase nearly two years after the launch of a new generation.
It goes without saying that the ad remains in the throats of those who have still not managed to get their hands on the lack of models on the stalls.
It should nevertheless be noted that the increase in recommended prices does not seem to concern Switzerland which, absent from the list of territories affected, should continue to display the initial prices… In theory.
In practice, this is far from the case. Our research on the main sales platforms in Switzerland comes up empty. The PS5, when they still appear there, are either reported out of stock and without price, or can be ordered in bundle (with a game or an additional controller) for a price between 750 and more than 1000 francs. Good luck to those who go hunting for a PS5 at the expected price.
To date, Sony’s competitors, particularly Microsoft and Nintendo, have not signaled any intention to follow suit.